Growing Reluctance To Have Kids In A Collapsing Climate Enough To Get Morgan Stanley's Attention

[hatrack]

A growing number of people are reluctant to bring a child into a world that’s set to be ravaged by climate change in the coming decades.

This week, the United Nations issued a “code red for humanity” as the world’s leading climate scientists delivered their starkest warning yet about the deepening climate emergency. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report on Monday said global temperatures are likely to rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next two decades, exceeding a key target of the Paris Agreement — a landmark accord considered critically important to reduce the risk of a climate catastrophe.

Scientists’ increasingly bleak outlook for the future of the planet is putting more and more people off having children. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note to investors last month that the “movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline.” To support their argument, they pointed to surveys, academic research and Google data that shows climate change is directly and indirectly accelerating the decline in fertility rates. UCLA researchers showed that the number of births in the U.S. fell in the nine months after an extreme heat event while a study of 18,000 couples in China last year showed that climate change, and particulate pollution in particular, was associated with a 20% increased likelihood of infertility.

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Some of those who already have children are also worried. Thom James, 39, a managing partner at advertising and public relations firm Havas U.K., told CNBC: “I had a major depressive episode last year based on existential angst over the world my children would be growing up in.” James has two girls aged three and six. “Worrying about their future is a frequent trigger for me,” he said. “I’m constantly thinking about when it’s going to be appropriate to dissuade them from having children of their own, as I think we’re really past the point of no return.”

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https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/12/climate-change-is-making-people-think-twice-about-having-children.html

[CrispyQ]

1. Wow. I knew having kids impacted your footprint, but I had no idea it was this severe.

“Having a child is 7-times worse for the climate in CO2 emissions annually than the next 10 most discussed mitigants that individuals can do,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said.

[hunter]

5. It depends a lot on how affluent they are.

A child of a wealthy person has a huge environmental footprint, the children of struggling farm workers, not so much.

What sort of environmental footprint children will have when they grow up isn't set in stone.

Personally, I think we should be paying people to experiment with lifestyles that have a very small environmental footprint.

That would, of course, include realistic sex education, the economic empowerment of women, and free access to birth control.

If most families are having 0, 1, 2, or 3 children that would lead to a stable or declining population, which would be a very good thing. Especially if those children decide to disengage themselves from the worst excesses of our world's high energy industrial consumer economy.

The awful truth about our world is that most of us suffer work that is not making the world a better place.

What we now call "economic productivity" is a direct measure of the damage we are doing to our planet's natural environment and our own human spirit.

[2naSalit]

2. In order for our species to suvive...

A number of things need to take place, one of them being capitalism. This idea that endless growth is a good thing is also what is killing the elements of the biosphere that makes it possible for us to exist and is pure bullshit which needs to be done away with for the sake of life sustaining elements of nature.

The fact that people are choosing not to reproduce is a good thing, decades late and may not be a repairable situation anyway. We should have advocated for and guided culture to encourage reduced population expansion a long time ago. At least people are starting to think about it.

[modrepub]

3. Having Kids Is A Huge Life-Changing Decision

Just to show up at the hospital and have a "normal" child birth is going to cost you $6k even with insurance. You also get to play the lottery on the possibility of something going wrong. Having a complicated pregnancy is taxing on you sanity and budget, let alone having a child with special needs for the rest of their and your life.

The resources you need to rear children is another factor. Child care is expensive and today's consumer economy in much of the developed world necessitates that both parents (if there are 2 folks) work. Anyone who's done this or seen other people do this knows how physically and mentally exhausting this is. Who could blame you if you don't want to spend a decade in constant sleep deprived mode?

Maybe some country's governments or business sector will figure out that resources need to be directed to support parents. But for the most part that's not happening. If anything, government and to some extent businesses seem to be sociopathic and hell bent on punishing folks (for having sex and getting pregnant).

Hats off to people who have the forethought before having kids. Damn our society for not addressing all the hurdles we've placed in front of folks who are considering having kids.

[Sherman A1]

4. Not a surprise

I once heard that the decision to have children represents hope in the future, apparently that is something less and less a commodity anymore.

Kids are expensive and with gloomy economic and environmental prospects ahead why would anyone think about having children.

[hunter]

7. My wife and I chose to have children.

They are grown now and I believe they are making the world a better place.

The altruistic traditions of our family, religious and humanist (and maybe genetics) seem to be fiercely strong.

There ain't no saints among us but even the most hardened religiously insane "conservatives" don't reject the queer kids or criticize anyone who chooses to be a bleeding heart liberal in their career choices.

[Random Boomer]

6. I can't claim the moral high ground

I chose not to have children based purely on personal reasons, not out of fears of overpopulation or climate change. If I had decided differently, by this time in my life I would probably have grandchildren, too.

Given the current situation, however, I can breathe a sigh of relief that I didn't bring a succession of yet more people into this world. That guilt burden is avoided and I don't have the intensely personal fear of wondering what will happen to my grandchildren as this century progresses.

This decision also provides some comfort as I head into old age without family support. I've recognized for a while now that not having children has increased the chances of an unpleasant end-of-life scenario for me. I'm okay with that, knowing it's serving a purpose that is greater than I am.

[NickB79]

8. We had one

My wife wanted a second, but I could barely handle the guilt of bringing one child into the world, knowing what's whating for her in a couple decades.