Yahoo News Grim forecast on the climate crisis is putting people off having children, financial analysts warn
More and more people are unwilling to have children because they fear for the future of the planet, according to a leading financial services firm.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley warned in a note to investors last month that the “movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline”, reports CNBC.
On Monday the world’s leading authority on climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published its most detailed assessment yet of how humans are driving unprecedented change to our fast-warming world.
Analysts say the climate crisis is, directly and indirectly, accelerating the decline in fertility rates. The financial firm cited research that showed the number of births in the US fell in the nine months after an extreme heat event and a study of 18,000 couples in China last year that showed particulate pollution and other climate factors were linked with a 20 per cent increased likelihood of infertility.
And some people are choosing not to have children because they fear that doing so will amplify the global heating crisis.
“Having a child is 7-times worse for the climate in CO2 emissions annually than the next 10 most discussed mitigants that individuals can do,” the analysts noted.
A recent study found that an overwhelming number of people are deciding not to have children over fears about how they would struggle in the future.
The survey of 600 people aged 27 to 45 found that 96 per cent were very or extremely concerned about the wellbeing of their future children in a world ravaged by the climate crisis.
It also revealed deeply pessimistic views of the future, with 92.3 per cent of 400 respondents holding a negative vision of the future and only 0.6 per cent saying they were positive about it.
A 2017 study analysing peer-reviewed research, government papers and other programs found that having fewer children can make a significant difference in reducing an individual’s carbon footprint. A child born into the developed world has a 58.6 metric tonne carbon footprint annually.
The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, recommended having one fewer child, living car-free, avoiding air travel and eating a plant-based diet.
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