Social scientists of reproduction are currently studying how “climate anxiety” — or growing concern about climate change’s harmful effects — may contribute to increasingly low fertility rates in many global locations. These studies of reproductive decision-making processes are, however, largely limited to countries with low Income inequality and low ethnic diversity. The CARE VIP foregrounds the perspectives of young BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) in the Southwestern U.S. to broaden the scope of research on reproductive decision-making and climate change, both methodologically and theoretically.

Foregrounding the voices of those living in the U.S. Southwest, this project asks how young people in the United States, especially BIPOC, think about reproductive futures at a moment of climate crisis. Moreover, it asks what the climate crisis means to young people in the U.S. considering reproduction? How closely are ideas of climate linked to the natural environment, or is the climate in crisis also perceived as economic, social, and political environments? How do young adults living in the U.S. Southwest, particularly those who are racialized and minoritized, understand and anticipate the future at a moment of potential ecological, institutional, and everyday crises?