Scott Adams talked a bit about this on Periscope. Essentially, if you believe the world is truly about to be brought to its knees with climate change, is it immoral to have children?
That's just the exact same question as posed in the article.
Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
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Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not so sure that it does. I would say the expected cost of climate change to the lives of children born today is still far far less then the expected cost in the past due to disease, war, famine (etc). So the poster above is noting that if people were, or we would have, been okay with having kids in the past, then we still should today.
The question is phrased ambiguously, but the article makes it clearer that what is meant is: "Is it still OK _for the planet_ to have kids...", not "Is it still OK _for the kids_ to have kids..." EDIT: actually, I'm not sure which one of those the representative was getting at.
Thanks for clarifying.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#33I’ve always believed that if you’re a smart, educated, motivated person (if your reading this than I’m assuming you are one) that probably the best thing you can do for the world is to have kids. Those kids will likely contribute to the world in all sorts of ways that we can’t imagine.
Are you implying kids of "smart, educated, motivated person" will contribute more than kids of people who don't fall into your arbitrary definition?
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#34Imagine you were somehow able to choose:
1. Either never exist at all, or
2. Exist as a human in the world of 50 years from now
To me, the clear choice is #2. If the moral question is whether human life is worth it to continue in the future, it's obviously worth it.
If the moral question is whether our own domination of the planet harms too many wildlife animals, and is therefore immoral, that feels like a more reasonable tradeoff. However it feels odd to me to that the same people advocating stopping having children continue to eat meat.
I will advocate for continued human growth regardless. I feel like there are few "long, slow" problems we cannot overcome.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#35The environment is in crisis. We have to save the Earth!
Save it for what?
Our kids.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#36I’ve always believed that if you’re a smart, educated, motivated person (if your reading this than I’m assuming you are one) that probably the best thing you can do for the world is to have kids. Those kids will likely contribute to the world in all sorts of ways that we can’t imagine.
> the best thing you can do for the world is to have kids
...yet what is the best thing for the kids? That's a harder thing to know - you can't really compare "not existing" with "living in a world that has a ton of issues". You can debate how bad the issues will be, but that really dodges the inability to make that comparison.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#37I have a 4 month old daughter and looking a the history I‘m pretty glad she is born today and not 50 or 100 years ago.
what makes you so sure about that? We are only at the beginning of what could be a plastics apocalypse (among many other issues.) [0]
50 years ago was the golden age to be born in the West imo.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#38Yes, let's die out! Let's not even let any kid get born that may invent the key to nuclear fusion. Sure, let's just choose some non-sentient animals and plants over ourselves killing any chance of betterment right here and now. Let's not even try to spread out over the stars, let's make sure that any life on our current planet dies as soon as this planet dies instead of taking it with us across the barren ocean that is the milky way.
If we take this seriously we don't even deserve to exist as a species.
You die out Alexandria, let your bloodline end. I for one want to my genome to explore the galaxy, to have it help preserve earth in the future. To boldly go where no (wo)man has gone before! And if you only point at my right to procreate I will defend it with everything I have!
How cynical do you have to be to only see humans as sources of CO2? And to completely neglect their potential. Honestly, if this piece is for real (and I'm not lacking any context) then I think this woman is dangerous.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, that sentiment entirely misses the point of all of this!
I'm not so sure that it does. I would say the expected cost of climate change to the lives of children born today is still far far less then the expected cost in the past due to disease, war, famine (etc). So the poster above is noting that if people were, or we would have, been okay with having kids in the past, then we still should today.
>> I would say the expected cost of climate change to the lives of children born today is still far far less then the expected cost in the past due to disease, war, famine (etc).
This is exactly why it misses the point. Having kids is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, and therefore climate change.
Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?
#40I thought this was an interesting point from the Gates' annual letter, the specific context is Africa but it's true globally.
> As more children survive to adulthood, women are having fewer kids than ever before. The result is a global population that’s creeping slowly toward middle age.
So people are _already_ having fewer children. Assuming we want to maintain the human species, _someone_ needs to be having children. For diversity everyone should be having _some_ amount of children.
Then of course, it depends on your climate change mindset.
If you think humanity is doomed and there's no way out of this: Don't have children because you think they'll die suffer through the apocalypse.
If you think humanity needs to continue and we will solve this problem: have children because we can avoid the apocalypse.
If you're unsure? Have children. Someone's bound to survive the apocalypse. Maybe it'll be your genetic material.
Personally I think we'll make it through. Life will be different, but we've got a better chance of surviving than humanity has ever had in the past. I think it's more likely that we'll get wiped out by a cosmic event that we don't even see coming.