to think you can't understand climate science and want kids

[sensiblefootwear]

Hoping that people will (gently, with good evidence) tell me I'm BU.

I love children and have always wanted them. But for the past few years and especially this year I'm finding the science on climate change and the tangible effects of it (houses on fire in nearby towns, schools so hot people's children have been sent home after fainting, looming food and water shortages, etc etc) increasingly difficult to ignore and I can't help but thinking it's an incredibly unwise decision to choose to bring another life into this world.

To be clear, I'm not talking about choosing not to have children because I think it will somehow have any impact on the climate, because of course it won't. I'm talking about choosing not to have them to spare them the horror of what's to come in the next few decades.

Am I being unreasonable to feel this way? I'd really love to hear from people who genuinely understand climate science and know where things are heading, but are still staying firm in their decision to have children in the future.

I like it that I've had the chance to be alive. The alternative would be to never come into existence. That's why I don't think it's bad to bring a couple of people to the world.
(Some people would rather they were never born. For these people, having kids will probably feel the opposite)

In the context of human history, for the UK at least, it was far, far safer than most other times in our history. Every era has wars and tragedies though…and tk say we’re in the cusp of a calamity that will eclipse all the wars, disease and famines in history is catastrophising bullshit, and i suggest anyone who believes this should actually read some history!

I agree 100% with you except for I think now is safer than the end of Cold War to 2008. Especially since I lost friends during the Troubles, here in the UK. We don’t have car bombs going off, or people being executed in their homes. We don’t have immediate credible threats of nuclear attacks by rogue agents who have stolen USSR nukes.

Definitely too much catastrophising going on about climate change.

The devil is in the detail. The methodology of the study you reference looks at territorial rather than consumption based emissions ( the latter being the true per capita footprint). On the standard analysis accounting for consumption based emissions the PCE are higher today than in 1860.

Im not coming at it from the 'my one special child' angle. The research shows that 20% of jobs in future will be direct green jobs and a further 20% will be indirect green jobs.

Hey, you never know, maybe one these ill-considered kids might grown up and solve this shit show. I doubt it, but you never know.

We’re fucked. There is no solution. There’s no desire, willingness, or intention to solve it. We’re witnessing the end of our civilisation. The ostriches will scoff and fair enough, ignorance is bliss.

I have a kid. It wasn’t a logical decision, and I do fear for her future. Human civilisation has long since jumped the shark.

its anazing how many posters refer to something like “we really wanted another child”. There’s a fascinating psychological question around people wanting more children and, fundamentally, what their children would actually have chosen.