Climate change instilling fear in people, deterring them from birth to children

Ongoing climate crisis in the world which is bound to get worse in the future is instilling fear in people and holding them back from giving birth to children as they will have to go through extreme climate change in the future, says a study published in the journal Climate Change.

The study was conducted on 600 people aged from 27 to 45 who said they are considering climate concerns as a factor into their reproductive choices. The survey was anonymously carried out so that people do not hold back their honest opinions.

Among 96 per cent of the people expressed, they were worried of the consequences of bringing up children in a world where the climate is getting worse day after day. The research also revealed that some parents are already feeling guilty for having children. The study sheds light on how immensely the impact of climate change is moulding the perspective of people and their everyday life.

"Fear about the lives of existing or potential children were really deep and emotional. It was often heartbreaking to pore through the responses- a lot of people really poured their hearts out" said Mathew Schneider-Mayerson of Yale-NUS College Singapore who led the study.

Younger respondents in the study were comparatively more concerned about the climatic affects their expected or hypothetical children would experience. However, no significant statistical difference between the opinions of men and women were to be found in the study.

Having more children could also mean more carbon emissions that will contribute further to climate change, but only 60 per cent among the surveyed people were actually concerned about the carbon footprint issue. Adoption of children according to many is the better alternative to having biological children.

Eco-reproductive concerns have been creeping into the public mentality for quite some years and are not something new. In 2019 scores of women had held a strike in UK saying they were to begin a 'birth strike' until the climate crisis was resolved.