If you don’t have kids, do you care about climate change?

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I’m genuinely interested

YABU - I still care about climate change even though I don’t / can’t have children

YANBU - It doesn’t affect me - I don’t really care

I know the vote will polarise but also interested in comments. I can’t have children (long struggle, finally come to terms). I do try and act in the interests of the planet but frankly I am sick of the “think of your children and grandchildren” prevailing rationale - what does that mean for those of us who can’t have that?

@SturminsterNewton

When I see oblique aerial views of London and how low it is, it makes me sad to think two thousands of years of history and culture underwater and lost. And that's just one city in one country.

And having to move the centre of government, finance, transport and hundreds of thousands of people out somewhere else, how would that even be done?

It already has been done. Most civil servants who were working in Westminster are only in the office 1-2 times a week now. Many of the big banks have gone almost completely remote working.

Like others - climate change is one of the reasons I don't have children. I still care, because I care about nature and don't want to think about it destroyed or damaged. That said, whenever I read a prediction about an upcoming doom (eg within 50 years all the whatsits will be gone) I do a quick check and if I think I'll be dead and gone by then, I feel relieved.

Whilst I want things to last long after I'm gone, I particularly want them to last until then.

I don't have children, I don't eat meat, I don't fly, I drive less than 5k miles a year and I am very rarely wasteful. I grew up in a household without central heating, a car or the money for international holidays.

I try to look for ways to reduce my carbon footprint. I don't think my individual actions are making a difference to climate change but I am sending a clear message that I understand humans need to make significant changes to the way we live and I'm prepared for the inconvenience those changes may bring.

I'm pretty fed up of being told to think of the children by people who have four of them, tumble dry everything, go on a couple of foreign holidays a year, buy fast fashion and have a half a dozen tech devices in every room of their overheated homes. Live your life the way you want but don't bend my ear about how useless the government are on climate change and what that means for your children when you are still driving your teenagers less than half a mile to the bus stop everyday. FFS

I care deeply about climate change. Definitely one of the reasons that I don't have kids.

Are you asking because you are wondering whether childfree people are less inclined to care because they don't have children or grandchildren to worry about? If so, it's definitely not the case my end!

@FOJN

I don't have children, I don't eat meat, I don't fly, I drive less than 5k miles a year and I am very rarely wasteful. I grew up in a household without central heating, a car or the money for international holidays.

I try to look for ways to reduce my carbon footprint. I don't think my individual actions are making a difference to climate change but I am sending a clear message that I understand humans need to make significant changes to the way we live and I'm prepared for the inconvenience those changes may bring.

I'm pretty fed up of being told to think of the children by people who have four of them, tumble dry everything, go on a couple of foreign holidays a year, buy fast fashion and have a half a dozen tech devices in every room of their overheated homes. Live your life the way you want but don't bend my ear about how useless the government are on climate change and what that means for your children when you are still driving your teenagers less than half a mile to the bus stop everyday. FFS

Quite.

There just seems to be so much emphasis on ‘future generations’

Future generations doesn't mean 'your own specific children/grandchildren'. If you can't summon up any feeling about the fate of children (or adults) who aren't related to you, or for animals, then I don’t know what to say really...

I agree with a lot of what Gerbil writes. I make an effort, but most of what I put in my recycling bin goes to landfill. All my tiny efforts are pointless because huge corporations do little, and no one addresses the big factors such as oil and gas companies.

Do young people care. Clearly not, not Greta, if the rubbish and mess at Reading festival, lots of young people, was anything to go by, disgusting.

I don’t have children because of climate change and environmental impacts.

@Catflapkitkat

I have kids but later in in life. I do my bit. I haven't eaten meat since the age of 12, I don't personally drive (but DH does) I recycle and grow my own veg but I can't get that fussed about climate change. It has become hysterical of late.

The 80s were full of stories about disappearing ozone layer. I stopped using spray deodorant and hairspray because of CFCs. Now the ozone layer is healing. In 1957 The Thames was declared biologically dead - a stinking drain and unable to support life. In 2021 there are 125 different fish varieties and a thriving seal population. When I think back to my 70s childhood, the pavements were covered in ring pulls from cans, cigarette butts and dog poo. It's much better nowadays. It's not perfect but just small examples of how things can change.
A good many people are working hard behind the scenes to make a change. My trust is in them.

I'd echo this. Acid rain was going to completely strip the world's forests bare. And also, when you see photos of large buildings in cities maybe 40 - 50 years ago, they were all black with pollution because back then everything was heated by coal. People seem to have short memories.

Personally, I think the best thing we can do for the environment is produce fewer people.

I can't really take the current popular "we"re all doomed" narrative being pushed each time I turn on my TV or radio seriously, as my local city council has declared a "climate emergency" in the city, yet is pleased that there will be 107 cruise ship visits to the city, and thanks to our former mayor, all available green space in the city cente is being developed - huge multi storey towers for mixed use, all of which requiring tons of concrete, all needing aircon running all day etc. The former 1980s garden festival site is being developed into a housing estate with planning for 1500 homes on what was originally the city dump. The ex (disgraced) mayor deemed the green parkland and open space in the city suburbs a "barren wasteland" because he was desperate for another brown envelope legacy. Interestingly, local air quality readings were available online until about 10 years ago. I used to look at them regularly. Readings from various parts of the city all of which were always in the acceptable range. My ex can remember the shoreline of the river being coated in thick black stinking oily stuff, now it's clean, people are always down there fishing, and porpoises were spotted there earlier this year.

Another thing I can't understand here. I work in a building that's about 10-15 years old. Floor to ceiling windows. Plenty of natural light, all day every day, yet when people are in the office and moving about, the lights are on constantly and there's no switch to turn them off. Massive waste of energy (It's like Blackpool Illuminations 😁) but apparently its a "green' building. 🤔

of course people who don't have children care about things

my eyes have rolled so far back in my head, OP.

Places were meant to be under water years ago.
Its like the boy who cried wolf effect to me.
"If we don't do this we will die" has been around for a very very very long time.

I definitely don't think it matters whether you have kids or not to care.

That doesn't mean the things they suggest aren't beneficial for the planet, so I don't disregard them just because I think its like the boy who cried wolf.

I do have kids and I care about climate change as a much wider issue, about society in general.

Tbh your post sounds much more about your own issues about not having children (which I'm sorry for) - it sounds like a why should I give a f**k. But this is about you as a member of society nit just as an individual.

@Forgetaboutme

I can't lie. I have kids but still don't give climate change a single thought or worry about it in the slightest

Me too. I'm aware of it and I do my recycling and we don't have the heating on too much and wotnot but I don't lie awake worrying about it.

There was a thread a while ago where the OP was astounded that not all women were regularly checking their breasts. That's a bit similar for me. I know I'm meant to and it's not like I have any objection to it or don't believe the science about both breast cancer and image change it's just that both fall off my mental radar very quickly. So even since that thread I have not remembered once to check my breasts and despite all the news I don't really think about the climate that often. I probably should think about both!

It could be argued that the child free care more about climate change as having children is the single most damaging thing we do to the planet.

Yabu - climate change is happening right now. It's not something that will only happen to future generations.

I don't think the average person recycling their yoghurt pots has any effect whatsoever on climate. We need massive far reaching worldwide cooperation, we need giant cocks to stop firing giant cocks into space and we need to stop building over every bit of green space. We have plenty of empty houses, use those first.

It all seems very very pointless to tell individuals they're not doing enough until the bigger things are addressed.

@TheChip

Places were meant to be under water years ago. Its like the boy who cried wolf effect to me. "If we don't do this we will die" has been around for a very very very long time.

I definitely don't think it matters whether you have kids or not to care.

That doesn't mean the things they suggest aren't beneficial for the planet, so I don't disregard them just because I think its like the boy who cried wolf.

Where was meant to be under water tears ago?

You're right in that this has been talked about for years, but this is because people were aware of the possibility of it coming. Its here now and its going to get a lot worse.

I don't have any children, in part due to climate change. Children being born into this world now are very frightened of what lays ahead for them.

It could be argued that the child free care more about climate change as having children is the single most damaging thing we do to the planet.

That could only be argued if that's the reason they're not having children. Otherwise it's got literally nothing to do with caring about the issue.

I imagine people without children have the space to care about climate change. It takes a fair amount of cognitive dissonance to have children while knowing that within their lifetime their planet will be fucked AND the act of having them will make it worse

(I don’t have kids and yes I really really care about the world my nieces and nephews will live in)

Young people’s climate anxiety revealed in landmark survey
Children worldwide worry about the future and feel let down by governments, a huge study on attitudes towards climate change has found.
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8

I’m not spending my time worrying about something out of my control! I do what I can but won’t be going to extreme lengths! I eat meat but also have meat free days, my husband and I have cars, we want to fly away once a year on holiday, we also recycle are mindful of what we buy and have created wildlife sanctuaries in our front and back gardens (ponds, hibernaculums etc). Until the super rich change their ways flying in private jets, powerful cars, mansions with multiple rooms that require heating and lighting, swimming pools (er and Bezos superpollluting by playing with space rockets) start to show some consideration and the mega polluting countries like China, India and Brazil show more consideration then why should I make further sacrifices!!

Is there an option for those who do have kids but don't give a damn about climate change? As I know lots of people like this.

Quite sad to read this today

www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/scotlands-sphinx-could-melt-before-the-week-is-out/

I've finally identified what annoys me most about the OP. And it is this: when we ask men not to catcall (for eg) often the argument is "what if it were your daughter/wife/mother/sister" and it reduces women to being only of any worth if they are somehow related to a man.

This is the same. It's as though the only way anyone can relate to the planet or future generations is if there is some direct bloodline that we might have to it.

To PP who said "places were already supposed to be underwater" maybe not the Houses of Parliament, but some Pacific islands are already in deep trouble and places like The Netherlands are taking rising sea levels very seriously.

I wouldn't. I figure humanity is just getting whats coming to it.

Unfortunately I figured this out AFTER I had two humans I deeply care about.

So I am obliged to care and to TRY.