Anxiety over global warming is leading some young Americans to say they don’t want children

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/anxiety-over-global-warming-leading-130135428.html

by yahoonews

20 comments

  1. **From The Associated Press:**

    Younger generations of Americans are increasingly citing climate change as making them reticent to have children, according to several studies.

    They are worried about bringing children into a world with increasing and more intense extreme weather events, a result of climate change, which is caused by the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide when oil, gas coal are burned. And they are concerned about the impact their offspring will have on the planet.

    Read more: [https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/anxiety-over-global-warming-leading-130135428.html](https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/anxiety-over-global-warming-leading-130135428.html)

  3. How is this news? It’s olds at best, it was already 10 years ago like that

  4. Sensible, rationale decisions like this makes for a better environment.

  5. We should refuse to replace the working population of the world until our governments can guarantee a livable future, straight up. 

  6. That’s a very logical decision, tbh. The fact that it’s news shows how out of touch many people are.

  7. This was my reason (well one of many reasons) for a vasectomy

  12. I don’t want kids regardless. No one is obligated to have them regardless of the birth rates. People who want them should be adopting anyway, you know, the ones who already *exist* and are desperate for your help. Not adding more.

  13. Less children is potentially good for the environment, assuming that trend is true of every nation. Not sure it would stop me. The chaos of global warming will probably feature a lot of migration, but chaos has often been the norm of human existence, not the exception, and even what seems like chaos often moves pretty gradually. Can’t say I agree with the claims here that it is unethical to have kids. The presence of struggle means don’t have kids? Eh. 

  14. I made that decision on the 1990’s. Saw the writing on the wall and said “nope”!!

  15. I’m a climate scientist who is a parent, and many of my colleagues have children. When I talk to colleagues about having kids, there are indeed quite a few who are hesitant, but mostly because they question whether it’s right for them personally. The people who know the most about what’s in store for the future don’t really consider this to be the main factor when deciding to have children.

    I think what’s going on is that the prospect of having kids is both scary and inconvenient because it entails giving up so much of the leisure opportunities that the modern world can provide. It’s not fun getting up three times a night to feed your newborn. It’s not as much fun staying home to monitor your toddler. It’s not as much fun to limit all your free time activities to stuff that’s toddler-friendly. Meanwhile, my childless colleagues get to play a lot of video games, or go on cool vacations, or engage in many other activities that our great grandparents mostly could not.

    Separately, people have become much more anxious and distracted since the rise of smartphones. That doesn’t make people eager to take the leap and have a child, and frankly it makes it hard for single people to connect with a potential spouse.

    But a lot of people are afraid to actually say that they’re avoiding children out of a desire to engage in leisure or out of pure personal fear. So they’ll make up stories about how it would be cruel to bring a child into this world, to save face with themselves and their peers. I’m not here to tell people that their decision is wrong. I just wish people would be more honest with themselves about their own decisions.

  16. My reason now is because I don’t want to bring a child into a dictatorship.

  17. They should be more concerned over the rising fascist regime, that’s going to kill a lot of us a lot faster than climate change.

    I already didn’t want kids just because I don’t want kids, but if I had been considering them, I wouldn’t be anymore.

  18. This has been happening for at least the last two decades (source- myself)

  19. I’m 39 and got snipped at 30 due to the direction the world is heading. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m sure as hell not bringing kids into this hell hole of a society.

  20. One of the best things you can do for climate destruction is not have kids.

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