Would you have children in the next 5 years, thinking about climate change?

[Howbigaretherisks]

I have fertility issues so it would not be easy anyway but sometimes I get so broody and start dreaming of having a child - always thought I would have them one day. I love kids and always saw them in my future.

But I'm also concerned about what the world will be like over the next 100 years, with crop failures and access to clean water making things harder, even for high income countries. Populations in rich countries will likely be insulated from the worst of it for a good long time, many decades hopefully. But things are incredibly bad for a large percentage of the global population already. It is only going to get worse.

Would you have more children, or start having them if you haven't already, at this point?

Yes of course I would.

The world has always been a dangerous and precarious place to be born.

Fifteen per cent of babies born in the uk in the 1840s died before their first birthday.

Education and technology are improving all of the time and pretty soon all of those babies weaned on tablets and screens will be in charge and technology will accelerate massively.

I understand that global weather catastrophe is a different category of dangerous altogether and something we cannot necessarily combat, but we need young people so they can at least try and come up with some solutions.

They’ll still get jobs in healthcare … which will be desperately needed to cope with our aging population that will now likely live to over 100. Many more years will be lived incapable of caring for oneself.

The risk is not that all our children are going to die because of climate change.

The risk is that their life is going to become very, very hard. That they will start life enjoying many privileges that they will see removed from them soon, in a very abrupt way. That they will have to compete for basic resources with some people who have grown up in extreme poverty and will hence be much more adept at fighting for the same resources. That they are going to comfront loss of habitable land, overpopulation focused on small areas, loss of choice, loss of wellbeing and loss of freedom in a massive scale never experienced before in History.

Yes, I do believe I will see the beginning of this process at 47, and that every child born in the last 20 years will experience it in full.

So if your only concern is quality of life and climate change... my advice would be a massive NO, don't you have children, please.

Both mine were unplanned. Whilst I have been broody I have never really wanted children - not because of climate change but because it is difficult. However this isn’t the case for absolutely everyone, everywhere in the world. You can live a decent life based on where you live, income etc. The West is becoming less and less attractive and I know people moving to other countries and building a life out there whilst taking advantage of some of the possibilities that many Western counties have probably exploited.

Our schools now have climate change and solutions being taught in real time - everything is happening right now and we need to bring up the next generation to have an interest in the jobs and new economies that will better the planet. Yes we have a long way to go, but I am hoping that over the years more people that make the right choices are in higher positions.

I would always have had my children regardless of climate change. I won’t be told what to do by those who carry on doing whatever they want. It’s not a good idea for self sustaining people to limit their family size while those who don’t give it a second thought just carry on as normal.

Even if it wasnt climate change, it would be something. Everything has a cycle, suns, planets, all life.

Would you never exist, never be born because at some point life ends? Whether that be your lifespan or the planets?

If thats the case then there is no point in anything as there is always a cycle of birth and death since the dawn of time, even the dinosaurs.

A comet might kill us all before climate change does.

I dont particularly see any point in history where there is no suffering of some sort. Famine, drought, plagues, wars.

Since the invention of contraception and women able to control their fertility the birth rate of the planet has dropped - and when an agrarian economy industrialises and everyone moves to small flats in the cities there is no room for children.
In some countries this is really extreme.
The birthrate in China has dropped by 70% since 2017 the fastest drop ever recorded by humanity.
Germany in particular and most European countries have extreme drops in childbirth (except France).

If your main concern is that resources will be scarce then this is not a concern as the world population is going to decline in the next 100 years.

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My darling Dad died just over 18 years ago, and during our last conversation he told me to "arm yourself because things are going to get bad". So I had two DCs. My tribe.

I do worry about it, and I would never have more than two kids because of the environmental impact. Currently trying for no1 so let's see! The best we can do is do what we can to reduce our impact on the planet, and teach kids to do the same. I do think the next generation are more conscious of it

@preggegg i work in healthcare and it is a very real problem now and is only going to get worse. I sincerely hope euthanasia is an option when I get there I’m not living the last years of my life with dementia or being kept alive with no quality of life

Yes. I find this kind of defeatist environmental posturing hysterical and infuriating.

Yes, climate change is a disaster. No, we are not beyond hope or salvation.

People throwing up their arms and saying ‘There is nothing we can do, the planet is doomed already, let’s just accept the inevitability of societal collapse, my children will never know joy’ are playing directly into the hands of unclean energy industries which rely on the public’s apathy towards their continued existence.

Instead of moralistic hand wringing about how hopeless it all is and how terrible it would be to bring a child into this world, get angry, because we have every opportunity to turn this ship around if people are passionate enough and committed enough.

(And before you come for me I am an environmentalist. I’m an active member of the Green Party, don’t fly, don’t eat meat or fish, barely drive, go on marches, lobby my MP and MSP, sign petitions, pick up litter etc ad nauseam).

People are always expected to justify not having them though. It’s always “why don’t you want them” not “why do you want them”.

This is literally the safest time to be alive in all history. Infant mortality is tiny, medical care and sanitation mean much healthier lives, life expectancy has doubled in the last 250 years. Natural distasters kill a fraction of what they did historically.

Stop worrying about the bullshit the watermelon eco-loons keep pumping out and get on with enjoying your life.

I do too and ditto about euthanasia!

I support assisted dying precisely because modern health-care is very good and coupled with sanitation/water improvements, we all live a lot lot longer, and that's frightening as well as amazing.

In a way I wished I never had kids. The economic situation in the UK is shit with very poor social mobility and the rise of populist politics and right wing media. I think the UK is somewhat coming out if the other side of it and will hopefully not be ruled by thick, crazy walkers by the end if the year, but the damage has been done already and Europe and the rest of the world seem to be heading into this and not seeing the state of the UK as a warning.

Yes climate change us also an issue, but I think the global economy, a system where very wealthy people dominate the world and can change laws to suit their agendas and the rise of AI is more of a threat. Climate change ties into it as they don't want to acknowledge it as they are the biggest contributors to it.

My son has complex needs and the hate that is spouted by some crazy bitches on here simply because he has a brain disorder and can't work as a normal person in the economy really puts me off having children (lucky i dont want more children anyway). They are so fooled by divisive media. Even the government are at it too. I can't get my kid in a special school and I would be lucky if he even has an IQ of 50, but apparently its my son's fault for needing the place, not government neglect. That's how shit it is right now. I wouldn't want to risk having a child with special needs and having to fight such an appallingly inadequate system that we have now.

This thread shows that having children is very very selfish. The future looks very bleak indeed with climate change, rising sea levels, lack of food etc.

The UK is falling apart. The NHS is on its knees. Schools struggling with lack of funds and less and less people wanting to teach. The cost of housing. Overcrowding.

To bring children into the world as it is and knowing it will get much much worse is utterly selfish. Again the I WANT SO I SHALL HAVE mindset of most parents.

Allfur · Yesterday 21:38

I'd rather be alive now than the middle ages, there's a lot of great things about life in the 21st century”

This. Every century has faced its challenges. (Including climate changes)

No I wouldn't. I fear for what we've let our kids in for with climate change.

I agree it's better now than it was in the Middle Ages, but we have contraception and they didn't.

I agree that it is bleak, but to expect one generation to be ok to have kids but then expecting another not to have kids because the previous generations massively fucked up by ignoring problems and voting for people who ignore these problems is a selfish statement in itself. These kids may well be paying tax into the system so you can have your pension. If we all stopped having kids the many things may not function, similar to the effect of climate change.

Bonkers. Just stop worrying about this bull and think whether you can afford to have kids, and how many not to take a toll on your health. From the day we are born we are dying, so what can happen worse than death, which is unavoidable. This is the best time to be alive in the West. Life without some toil is fanciful idea. People had kids during Black Death and during the second world war. I sometimes despair as I find these 21st century "worries" infuriating.

No, I wouldn't but it wouldn't be because of climate change. It would be because of war, poverty, greed... that sort of thing.

It's a really tough one. I regularly browse the r/collapse subreddit to keep myself informed and the way things are going with the global sea temperature anomaly and the knock on of extreme weather on crops it's a bit bleak. Not to mention that we're unable to do a study on the impact of microplastics on the body because scientists couldn't form a control group.

Despite being conflicted I have decided to start a family in the hopes that being forewarned is forearmed. There's very little I as an individual can do to make a significant change but I'm hopeful that the climate-aware youth of today will grow up to make real significant changes on the current profit driven policies.

The economic and housing situation where I am is pretty buggered but I have a long term plan for putting savings aside in the hope that my child will be able to achieve what I haven't and eventually own a house.

I didn't factor it in. Not because I don't believe in it, but because I don't see the rich and powerful changing their behaviour because of climate fears. They have their large families, multiple homes, fleets of cars, long haul holidays and private jets with a carbon footprint many times larger than mine: I make many sacrifices even though I know they'll have little impact, but the size of my family wasn't something I was willing to compromise on.

I do worry about their future though just as my parents worried about the impact of the hole in the ozone on my future and their parents worried about how the Cold War would impact theirs.

Peakygold, arm yourself? what use are guns!