Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign has hired a new climate director who has frequently argued that the effects of climate change are one of the reasons she is not having children.
Camilla Thorndike, who previously managed Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vermont) climate change portfolio in the Senate, has been offered the role of climate change engagement director for the Harris presidential campaign in September 2024, according to her LinkedIn page.
Before joining the Harris campaign, Thorndike had repeatedly said that he would consider climate change when deciding whether to have children.
“I was 15 years old when I first saw the climate 'hockey stick' graph, and I realized that the arrow of temperature spikes was going to happen in my lifetime. All of the major milestones in my life that I was looking forward to were going to happen during this major global crisis. It led to questions about whether I would have children, which is still a big question for me today; where would I settle? What would I do with my family?” Thorndike said in 2018, when she was D.C. campaign director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
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Camilla Thorndike is among those starting to factor climate change into their decision to have children, pictured here on November 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Jahi Chikwendiu)
Back in November 2019, Thorndike described it as “the ethical issue that keeps me up at night.”
“I've always loved children and loved the idea of having a family, and that's why I've been so conflicted about this, because my logic and the reality of what our future holds don't support the life I want for my children,” she told Yahoo News at the time.
Resurfaced 2023 video shows Kamala Harris claiming young people are suffering from 'climate anxiety'
In August 2022, while appearing on the My Climate Journey podcast, hosted by Jason Jacobs and Cody Sims for people who want to better understand climate change, Thorndike again spoke about her decision to have children and how it relates to what the future holds as climate change progresses.
“I looked at my own life in that context and realised that this crisis was going to start to intensify around my 30s, especially when I started thinking about having children. And that's when I realised that adults weren't going to come to save us, and that my generation was going to have to fight to take the helm.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Feature Articles Washington Post article When asked whether people shouldn't have children because of climate change, the new Harris campaign official said she was worried that future children would “suffer” from climate-related issues.
“Part of this comes from the love I have for my hypothetical children,” she said, “I want to protect them from suffering. Not that life will never be free of suffering, but what joy and peace and goodness will I have in 20, 30, 40 years' time that will make me happiest to be alive?”
Harris acknowledged the idea during a discussion at the “Fight for Freedom” event in September 2023.
“I've heard young leaders talk to me about this term they coined, 'climate anxiety,' which is anxiety about the future, anxiety about the unknown of whether it even makes sense to think about having a child, whether it even makes sense to think about buying a home,” Harris said in a video that resurfaced after becoming a potential 2024 Democratic candidate.
A video of the comments, shared by Donald Trump Jr. in July, drew backlash from Harris' critics.
Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio and former President Trump's running mate, wrote in a Twitter post, “These people don't seem to want young people to have families or anything like that. Really weird.”
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“Shamala is an exterminationist. The natural progression of her philosophy would be a virtual holocaust against all of humanity!” billionaire and X owner Elon Musk wrote on his platform.
