My son is 7 years old, and since he was six months old, people have been asking us, “When are you having another?” first, I’d answer “we’ll see,” because at the time, we were undecided not financially stable, and just learning how to be parents. Over time we decided that one is good for us. “Poor baby he’s going to be so lonely!” I have grown accustomed to these remarks.

But this week, I read a post that made my head spin. Jean Leo, a blogger at The Stir, said, “Parents who choose to have one child are just being selfish.” He says, “I understand some people are unable to have more than one kid due to medical or financial circumstances. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about the couple who decide it’s a lot of work and they like having their freedom, so they stop at one.”

I absolutely disagree. First, it is a very hard job to raise a child. Even in a two-income-earning household, the stress of having a child is huge just to meet a child’s basic needs. Let’s not get into all the extras that start piling on as they grow older. Second, and just as equally important, is time. Carving out time for just yourself is hard enough, but when you have a family, you want to be there for everything. If you are a working parent, it’s hard balancing act between career, play, kids, and also spending time with your partner. For me, wouldn’t be able to do half the things if I had more children. There are some parents that do this well, and I high five them. But that is not me.

Whether it be one child or twenty, this parenting business is no joke and not everyone can handle what comes in the job description. I believe recognizing that you only have the strength to raise one child, and raise that child to the best of your ability is actually something to be admired.

How would you like an easy way to earn $2,500? All you have to do is to sit around and wait for your meals. There’s a catch, however. You have to stay in a chicken cage with a stranger for a whole week. There are no books or television or radio for a whole week. There are no books or television or radio for amusement. You can’t leave until the week is up. And a camera will be recording your every move.

Two people actually took the job. The idea came from Rob Thompson, a video artist. He wanted to make film about the way animals are treated. His goal was to raise people’s awareness of the living conditions of animals that are raised for food. He decided to pay $5,000 out of his own savings to two people who were willing to live like chickens for a week.

To Rob’s surprise, quite a few people answered his advertisement. He had interviews and selected Eric, a 24-year-old restaurant worker, and Pam, a 27-year-old chemist. The plan was for them to spend seven days together in a chicken cage that was six feet long and three feet wide. A camera would record their experience, which would take place in an art museum.

The week was long and difficult. They slept on hard wooden floor. They couldn’t stand up without banging their heads. They ate mash (a kind of food for animals) and drink water from a garden pipe. Their only privacy was a toilet surrounded by a curtain, which was the most unbearable. There were no sinks, mirrors or toothbrushes in the cage. Visitors who came here were warned, “Do not feed the humans.”

Finally, it was over, and Pam and Eric came out of the cage. They had survived the week and they each had a $2,500 check in their hands. When Rob Thompson opened the cage, Eric came out, changed into clean clothes, and ate a chocolate bar right away. “It’s great for me to be able to stand up.” he said. Pam just changed her clothes and left. After a week of visitors and reporters watching her, she didn’t want to talk to anyone.

In recent years some extreme weather events have arisen from global warming because of human activities, with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future. Scientists were certain that global warming is being caused mostly by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and other human activities.

Its effects include warming global temperature rising sea levels and expansion of deserts in the subtropics (亚热带). Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic, with the continuing loss of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall with floods, heavy snow-fall and species extinction due to great change of temperature. Bad effects on humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the loss of populated (住人的) areas because of rising sea levels.

Possible responses to global warming are reduction of emissions (排放), adaptation to its effects, building systems resilient to its effects, and possible future climate engineering Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), whose objective is to prevent dangerous climate change. It has adopted a range of policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas and to assist in adaptation to global warming. It is agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0℃ (3.6°F) relative to the pre-industrial level.

On 12 November 2019, NASA scientists reported that human-made carbon dioxide continues to increase above levels that have not been seen in hundreds of thousands of years: currently, about half of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere and is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans.

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her, she did not know she was going to make it and want to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a cook, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and in the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them on a plate. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a glass. Turning to her he asked, “Darling, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee.” she replied

He brought her closer and asked her to the carrots, she did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. She smiled, as she tasted it.

“What does it mean, Father?” she asked. He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity—boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong and hard. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it’s softened and weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior (内部), but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique; however, after they were in the boiling water, they changed the water.

“Which are you?” he asked his daughter. When adversity knocks on your door in your life, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?