Kiersten Little considered her husband to be ideal father material. She said that they were always under the belief that when they got married, they would have kids. It was expected.
The couple took an eight-month road trip after Ms. Little got her master's degree in public health.
Ms. Little said that when they were out west, the forest was dead and trees were knocked over. Entire towns were leveled in southern Louisiana, which was hit by two hurricanes last year.
Ms. Little said that she felt the burden of knowledge after two years of marriage. Climate change reports and forums are frightening to the couple. There is anxiety about having children.
She said she thought she had to make a decision over the last year. I don't know how to change my mind. There are going to be more reasons to not want to have a kid, not the other way around.
Fears are not always justified. Every human has a carbon footprint.
Morgan Stanley analysts concluded in a note to investors this past summer that the movement to not have children due to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline.
The idea that having fewer children is the best way to address the problem is debated. Climate scientist and co-author of a study of the most effective lifestyle changes to reduce climate impact, said in an interview with Vox that population reduction is not the answer.
Ms. Nicholas said that more people will cause more greenhouse gas emissions. We have this decade to cut emissions in half and that is not the relevant time frame for stabilizing the climate.
The concern seems to be gaining traction. One in four childless adults in the United States cited climate change as a reason for not having children, according to a survey by Morning Consult.
According to a poll by Morning Consult for The New York Times, 33 percent of young adults in the United States who said they had or expected to have fewer children than the number they considered ideal listed climate change and population growth as a concern.
The high cost of child care was cited by 64 percent of those who said economic concerns were paramount. Some people think that the issues are rolled together. The birthrate in the United States declined for the sixth year in a row in 2020 and is thought to have been accelerated by the Pandemic.
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Credit...Sophi Miyoko.
The trauma from coronaviruses has given some prospective parents pause. Marguerite Middaugh, a 41-year-old lawyer in San Diego, Calif., was forced to hold off on fertility treatments for a first child because of the Pandemic and Climate-related devastation. She said that seeing people not getting vaccinations and not taking care of their community was a problem. That made me think about whether I want to have a child.
The procreation calculus is affected by a number of factors, including housing costs, college-debt burdens, and the sex recession for young people.
There has been a rise in political extremism. More than five million people have been killed by the Pandemic. The floods wiped out towns in Western Europe. Each summer, West coast wildfires grow in scale. Some prospective parents wonder if bringing a child into this environment would be harmful.
A potter who lives near Fredericton in New Brunswick, Canada, she decided to remain childless because of the threat of climate change. She said that she uses the love she has for her unborn child to comfort her in sparing them an inhospitable future. My choice feels like an act of love.
Climate change is often painted as a partisan issue in the political arena, so views like this do not always travel across lines of geography, politics or social class. The people who cited climate change as a reason to have fewer children were more likely to be college-educated and Democrats.
Recent restrictions on abortion in Texas complicate the procreation calculus because of the economic means to choose either lifestyle course, although educated professionals have greater access to abortion and birth control.
The hippie-era "ecology" movement of 1968, when "The Population Bomb" was the best seller, was a time when such questions are creeping into the cultural dialogue.
In recent years, Senator and Representative both broached the question, with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez asserting that the lives of children are going to be very difficult.
The issue has also been raised by celebrities. Two years ago, Cyrus told the magazine that she wouldn't bring in another person to deal with her child's issues until she felt like they would live on an earth with fish in the water.
In an interview with Howard Stern in May, the actor and comedian discussed his decision with his wife to remain childless by choice. We need more people. Who looks at the planet and thinks, "You know what we need right now?"
Paul Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times, and Katha Pollitt, a poet and essayist, have chimed in recently.
Does the world need more people? Ms. Pollitt wrote in The Nation in June. Not if you ask the glaciers, the rain forests, the air, or the more than 37,400 species on the verge of extinction because of the relentless expansion of human beings into every corner and cranny of our overheated planet.
The worsening crisis of climate change has forced the issue for many prospective parents, according to Josephine Ferorelli, founder of Conceivable Future, an organization that hosts house parties for prospective parents to discuss how climate fears are shaping their reproductive lives.
Ms. Ferorelli said something happened this summer. Three months ago, our inbox was empty. We have been hearing from people all over the country who are upset and distraught.
Some people who put off having children to pursue careers or other interests now wonder if the best thing for their unborn child is to keep them that way.
Myka McLaughlin, 40, who runs a company that helps women build profitable businesses, said she can't go to a dinner party without the collapse of a civilization being mentioned. Arable land is decreasing. We might not have enough to eat. The ocean has lost 80 percent of its biomass in the last century.
Ms. McLaughlin has been concerned about humankind's path since college. She said that she decided to have children and get married at 27. Her first marriage ended without children. She said that he wanted to live in the mountains. I wanted to travel and read The New Yorker.
She had doubts about bringing children into a troubled world when she was in a serious relationship in her late 30s. Ms. McLaughlin said that his point was that we really need children who are well raised and well loved who can be leaders in our future for what is to come. She is struggling to justify bringing a child into a world she fears may be on the verge. The couple separated this summer.
Ms. McLaughlin said that when she sees a young baby, her heart is completely melted. It might take a major life change for her to change her mind.
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Myka McLaughlin, a business owner from Boulder, Colo., has doubts about having children.
Political unrest both domestically and abroad is a factor for some.
Hannah Evans, 33, a senior analyst for Population Connection, said that if Trump were re-elected, they would not have children because of the climate.
Ms. Middaugh, the lawyer in San Diego, put off having children through her 20s and 30s as she built her career and battled with student loans. She decided it was time to act when she was 36.
When she was 39, she and her husband began fertility treatments because they had a hard time getting pregnant. Then came the lock down. The fertility clinic was closed for a while. She had time to think about her child.
She was horrified by the lack of a unified response to coronaviruses, and on a trip home to Alaska, she visited beaches that she remembered teeming with starfish, otter, and fat, briny mussels.
It was too much. Her husband is still pushing, so she postponed her plans. She wondered if she would be sad or regret not having a baby. I don't want to force myself into making a choice because I don't know.
Heterosexual women in monogamous relationships are not the only ones who have such questions. People of all genders have the choice to procreate or not, as well as single women, husbands, gay couples, and people found on any point of the gender spectrum.
Having a child is like rolling dice with the child's life in an uncertain world, said Michael Ellsberg, a writer in Berkeley, Calif. We could figure out how to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius. We could figure out how to prevent future Pandemics. We may be able to limit the risks of nuclear war and terrorism. We might not.
Mr. Ellsberg had a vasectomy after two break ups in which his desire to not have children was a major factor.
Some people choose the child-free lifestyle because of their fears.
LiLi Roquelin, a married, French-born singer-songwriter who lives in Queens, said that she was raised in a family that didn't try to make her a girl-mommy-to-be. She is a proud member of the so-called childfree by choice movement and recently posted a self-penned anthem of sorts called "Childfree."
She said that women who choose not to reproduce face intense social pressure from family, friends and even medical professionals. She said she has been criticized as unloving over the years. My gynecologist told me in my 30s that my hormones would run out.
She doesn't think that pushback is a price you pay. Ms. Roquelin said she enjoys a rich and fulfilling life without children and is studying for a master's degree in business administration to maximize her music career. She said that she has many more things to explore on her journey that don't involve raising other suffering human beings on an out-of-supplies planet.
