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.

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.

  • @otp
    link
    English
    01 month ago

    Lmao…

    Your two ideas are…

    1. “Someone’s child will solve the problem”
    2. Well there’s nothing we can do

    ?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      0
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      No my ideas are that I’ll live my life and be the best person I can.

      It was a joke when I said his kid could fix it. That guy’s obviously an idiot and his kids would be too

      How do you people not know sarcasm? So I need to dumb it down for you with the /s like back in the day on Reddit? I thought we moved past that

      • @otp
        link
        English
        01 month ago

        Yes, it’s obvious that you were joking about the other commenter’s kid fixing the problem.

        The issue is that it embodies the sentiment that it’s “not our problem” and it’s for the future generation to figure out…and then when that was called out, the first alternative you brought up was defeatism, as if that’s the only alternative to someone in the future fixing the problem, lol

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          0
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          The defeatism was obviously sarcasm too though. So stop making all these assumptions about me.

          I obviously want the issues fixed and have hope that they will be since I said that I have my own children. I do my fair share as well.

          Also you talk about “defeatism” and that’s all I see in this thread. People give up on the chance to have kids not because they don’t want them but because some rich assholes have started to destroy the environment, things cost too much, the pay isn’t right, etc… that’s defeatism. The rich assholes are still having plenty of kids and they will be the ones to inherit the world.