A fifth of female climate scientists who responded to Guardian survey said they had opted to have no or fewer children

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.

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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.”

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    humans are selfish, and most of us are not willing to make major sacrifices to avert disaster

    I am sick and tired of this cynical bullshit argument. It’s wrong in two ways (and neither are the way you think):

    1. It assumes that we have to reduce our standard of living in order to reduce our fossil fuels consumption, instead of innovating
    2. It presumes that the lifestyle changes that we do have to make (e.g. higher density zoning and walkablity) represent some kind of deprivation, rather than the improvement they would actually be.