Of Love, Fear and Future: Parenting in the Age of Climate Change

Of Love, Fear and Future: Parenting in the Age of Climate Change

We are nearing—some say we have passed—a tipping point for greenhouse gas emissions. With scientists predicting climate crises as early as 2040, it is likely that children born today will live within ecological realities different from those we are currently experiencing.

Becoming a mother changed the ways I think about climate change, ecology, human justice, and time. The necessity to create healthy, sustainable environments now and into the future feels particularly pressing because my children will inherit a world shaped by systemic actions taken now. This body of work ruminates on my love for my daughters, the sense of connection motherhood has offered me with women across time, and my fears for the not-so-distant future. The pictures are primarily taken in the ordinary spaces my family inhabits: our home in Alabama and places in Ohio where my husband and I were raised. These places haven't yet seen major impacts from climate change, though by the time my children have children, they very well may.

This issue is personal for me. My daughters are a piece of me, and of my ancestors. They are my past, my future, my forever.