A fifth of female climate scientists who responded to Guardian survey said they had opted to have no or fewer children

A fifth of female climate scientists who responded to Guardian survey said they had opted to have no or fewer children

Ihad the hormonal urges,” said Prof Camille Parmesan, a leading climate scientist based in France. “Oh my gosh, it was very strong. But it was: ‘Do I really want to bring a child into this world that we’re creating?’ Even 30 years ago, it was very clear the world was going to hell in a handbasket. I’m 62 now and I’m actually really glad I did not have children.”

Parmesan is not alone. An exclusive Guardian survey has found that almost a fifth of the female climate experts who responded have chosen to have no children, or fewer children, due to the environmental crises afflicting the world.

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An Indian scientist who chose to be anonymous decided to adopt rather than have children of her own. “There are too many children in India who do not get a fair chance and we can offer that to someone who is already born,” she said. “We are not so special that our genes need to be transmitted: values matter more.”

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    01·
    6 months ago

    Even 30 years ago, it was very clear the world was going to hell in a handbasket.

    And 30 years before that. And 30 years before that.

    I mean, if you don’t want to have kids more power to you. I get it.

    But what I’m reading is far more a consequence of a social stigma against having kids without sufficient economic independence. And extraordinary rates of inflation in housing, food, health care, and education make kids utterly unaffordable even if the climate situation looks great.

    “We are not so special that our genes need to be transmitted: values matter more.”

    I think that’s true up until a point. When I see the genocide in Gaza or forced sterilization policies aimed at black and Hispanic women in police custody in the US or caste violence in India or Myanmar or the Bill Gates Foundation’s effort to quash population size in West Africa…

    What values are we transmitting when we’ve got a policy of eugenics? What does it say about the western impulse to homogenize and euthanize everything it comes into contact with?

    I can very easily see a world in which the impulse towards mass extermination gets us before the heat pushes us all into the upper reaches of Canada and Russia. And I’m loathe to see anti-natalism harnessed as one more tool in the bigot’s bag of tricks, to justify why a population with high birth rates is an efficient target for population rightsizing.