Building Sustainable Earth Community

72% of American adults have children. 60% of American children say they're more afraid of global warming than of terrorism, car crashes, or cancer. Between 2000 and 2050, the U.S. will add 114 million kids to its population. Africa will add 1.2 billion -- But their respective CO2 emissions will be the same. One American child generates as much CO2 as 106 Haitian Kids. Zahara Jolie-Pitt will produce 45,000 lbs of CO2 yearly, compared with 221 lbs if she still lived in Ethiopia. A Typical baby goes through 3,800 disposable diapers in his or her first 2.5 years. 96% of American babies wear disposable diapers. In China only 6% do. In India, 2%. For $20, British parents can have 7 trees planted to offset the 1,430 lbs. of greenhouse gases generated by their child's first 2.5 years of nappies. In 2007, a Hungarian couple had 300 trees planted to offset their newborn's lifetime carbon footprint. China claims its one-child policy has prevented 400 million births -- saving 1.5 billion tons of CO2 in 2004 alone. Twin births in the U.S. have risen 70% since 1980. In 2004, 3.2% of newborns were twins. Civil conflict is twice as likely to occur in countries where young adults make up more than 40% of the population. Uganda (50% children) has been at war for most of the last 30 years. Monaco (13%) has not been at war since 1815. Reprint from Mother Jones May/June 2008 issue.