Third kid vs the planet

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

I have loads of couples around me planning/pregnant with their third or fourth child. I’d absolutely love a third but I worry so much about the planet, and watching the news today it’s all just so bloody bleak. Not many other people seem to worry about the planet though when having babies so why should I?

Don’t want to get my deathbed and wish I’d just done what everyone else did and have however many kids I want.

I won’t be able to sit back and say ‘I did my best not to contribute to global warming’ anyway - I have 2 kids, I drive etc - so what is one more?

But I can’t put the global warming aspect out of my mind, everywhere I look I see that the best thing you can do for the planet is have fewer kids.

So WWYD - do what’s best for the greater good (me having a third is just a drop in the ocean, but if everyone felt that way...?) or stop being a self righteous martyr and just have the third kid? 🤯

(Then there’s all the other elements of course eg financial, do I actually want the hustle and bustle and stress of 3, etc 😄)

Well I’ve got 1 and we can’t have anymore so I’ll balance out your 3rd 😄

You can have 3 DC and still do your bit for the environment.

I bet there are some larger families who have a lower carbon footprint because they make efforts to reduce their impact on the environment - compared with families with say 2 children who don't do anything.

I think it's the wrong question. I worry less about the impact of my child on the planet as the impact of planetary changes on my child's future. It looks like things are going to get very bleak indeed. I decided to have one, pile them up with as much financial resources as possible and hope they make it comfortably in a world that's in crisis, with more mouths to feed, depleted natural resources and fewer jobs.

Some calculations, posted without comment:

'"We recommend four widely applicable high-impact (i.e. low emissions) actions with the potential to contribute to systemic change and substantially reduce annual personal emissions: having one fewer child (an average for developed countries of 58.6 tonnes CO2-equivalent (tCO2e) emission reductions per year), living car-free (2.4 tCO2e saved per year), avoiding airplane travel (1.6 tCO2e saved per roundtrip transatlantic flight) and eating a plant-based diet (0.8 tCO2e saved per year)."

Wynes, S. and K. A. Nicholas (2017) 'The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions' Environmental Research Letters 12(7): 074024

Your choice, but I think you owe it to your two existing children not to have a third.

www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/its-okay-to-have-children?fbclid=IwAR3WY1EGfOND8JU3Gz4uUuR2Lia8Y4D63Whx65or8L9x3RPozolpgRNpf3s

@ Raheem

We stopped at 2. Couldn’t deal with the guilt. What others do is irrelevant. Then”others are doing it too mummy” is too lame an argument even for most kids.

Well if you have had children anyway then your logic is a bit flawed to say the least. Besides, what if your third child turns out to be a genius who develops pollutant free high yield energy production methods?

I think The meg has already taken a side swipe at Kate

One of the best things you can do for the planet is stick to two children.

Oh god already what if the third child is a genius who saves the planet back in the real world...

Geez..i think u r really over thinking this.
Do people really think all this stuff through b4 trying to get pregnant??
Is this a generation thing? Have i missed it?
Do what makes you happy. Thats what we did in my day...and guess what? ...... Im happy!!!

It’s so much more complex than how many children you have. Do you fly regularly / annually? Drive short, walkable distances? Reduce your plastic waste? Use a tumble drier all year round?

Unless there is a significant number of people that are only going to
Have 2 children it won’t have the impact will it? Crack on have that third kid and make env conscious decisions.

Widowodiw, what possible “env conscious decisions” can OP make that will even remotely begin to offset the 58 tons a year extra carbon footprint of her 3rd child?
She would have to live entirely on vegetables, off grid in a mud hut, and never travel anywhere, to get anywhere near it.
OP, not having a third is the single best thing you can do for the planet.

I do think having a third has a massive environmental impact. We have one and may have another but certainly no more. You also need to be educating your children on global warming and how they can save the planet they live on

Having children is the most destructive thing a person can to do to the environment. Having one fewer child per family can save an average of 58.6 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions per year.

I’m not having any children although my reasons aren’t solely environmental.

Surely the person I know with one child who flies business class with child, husband, mother and MIL to their holiday home in Florida 4x a year is worse for the planet than someone with 3 children that never flies?

I'm not having children partly for environmental reasons.

I hate this do what makes you happy mentality.

We are a cancer to this planet. No way would I bring another child in. We are already being affected by climate change and it's going to get worse- your children will face worse in their lifetime.

Climate change/global warming is all crap.

🙄

No wonder our planet is going to shit with so many idiots on it. I think we deserve to go into extinction

If having one less child saves the environment to that degree, why is two ok? Shouldn't we all have one?

Went it Eden project this week. If each person plants two trees that love to maturity they can offset most of their carbon.

I'd happily pay to plant trees and reforest and area to do this. Maybe many of us would?

I’m sticking at two. Many reasons- impact on the environment is one. Replacement level is 2.2/2.3 so a birth rate higher than that causes population growth which inevitably means more resources. Food, water, energy. Even if you ignore the climatic impact- the addition of people on the planet does mean more of the tiny land area available to grow glorious is being stretched.
Stable populations= fine. Growing= not so great. Even if you follow Boserup’s principles that necessity is the mother of invention, this planet has a limit.