Don’t blame climate anxiety for declining birth rate

Re the recent letters lamenting how young people would be having children if not for worries about the climate (Low birth rate linked to fear about the future, 23 May; On the climate crisis, we can’t afford to look the other way, 26 May) as someone under 30, it makes me laugh that they can’t comprehend that young people might not be having children for the simple reason of … not wanting children.

I may have problems with my generation’s tendency towards extreme individualism, where any negative impact on them personally is the ultimate arbiter of good, but the fact that it’s the first generation that isn’t ridden by this guilt-tripping “breed for the good of the species” perspective is refreshing.

Far from disastrous for society, this steady decline of population is in fact the resumption of the historical norm compared with the era of an abnormal population explosion. The global population has rocketed since the 1950s, which, coupled with the demand that everyone should have a high standard of living, has led us to the doorstep of societal collapse as a result of the climate change and ecological destruction that the letter writers are so worried about in the first place.
Michael Daniell
Newton Abbot, Devon

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