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Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

theatlantic.com

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Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#51

Post by mgh2 »

gruez wrote: post #48
mgh2 wrote: post #47

The best lies contain some element of truth, for they need to be believable Instagram...Today's tech industry & social media has exacerbated corporations' ability to brainwash the masses We don't know if this is another marketing stunt/scam like recycling, sugar vs. fat, diamonds, bottled water, milk, etc. Climate change might be true, but it is those who use it for personal gain that twist truths to their advantage.…

Who's benefiting from less kids?

We don't know for sure, but the article seems to have some clues.

> Green: But are there shared characteristics along lines of education? Do people share a certain progressive political outlook?

> Kallman: They tend to be at least college-educated. And they tend to be, certainly, pro-choice. For the most part, they’re on the left of the political spectrum. They’re certainly, on the whole, younger. Our house parties have been not exclusively white, but they’re pretty white.

Maybe a pro-choice political propaganda. Wild guess: Planned Parenthood? With marketing, everything is on sale.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#52

Post by Dracophoenix »

horns4lyfe wrote: post #7

If you live in a place like the US, in the context of world history there’s never been a safer time to have a child. These people need to turn off the news and take a walk.

There's never been a more expensive time to have one either.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#53

Post by simonsarris »

I can't knock some individual's decision, it is theirs alone to make, but the decision-making process strikes me as so extremely odd that it is hard to relate, and it's very difficult to believe that this is really about climate.

It is almost in some sense insulting to one's ancestors, who traveled over glacial passes in search of the next 8,000lb mammal to eat. What would they think of these environmental setbacks as a reason to lay down your future? I am reminded of W.H. Auden's poem, Ode to the Medieval Poets, which opens:

    Chaucer, Langland, Douglas, Dunbar, with all your
    brother Anons, how on earth did you ever manage,
       without anaesthetics or plumbing,
       in daily peril from witches, warlocks,
 
    lepers, The Holy Office, foreign mercenaries
    burning as they came, to write so cheerfully,
       with no grimaces of self-pathos...
Something just seems deeply off about the modern pessimism, and it definitely did not start with climate. Climate seems like a salient thing for people to point to, but something that is merely salient in this rhetorical way. Even the people in this thread saying that this resonates with them mention that climate is just one of an array of reasons for them. It's not like, after all, birth rates plummeting below replacement for many populations had anything to do with climate reasons until very, very recently. I think we need to look a little deeper than that.

(full text of that poem: https://simonsarris.com/ode-to-the-Medieval-Poets)

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#54

Post by rank0 »

chaorace wrote: post #32

This resonates with me. I'm a Millenial(?[1]) and I've chosen not to have children on the basis of climate change. Talk all you want about how climate change is not a personal issue -- the decision to have children ( and how many ) is the singlemost environmentally impactful decision you will ever have direct, personal agency in making. For me, it's practicing what I preach, because I view climate change as the most…

If your marginal, insignificant impact on the climate is enough to prevent you from having kids, then you probably never really wanted them anyways. It scares me that people seriously suggest giving up children “for the greater good.”

Raising a child is the most meaningful experience in most people’s lives. Why should anybody give up kids but keep their iPhones, AC, avocados, and software engineering jobs?

You might feel differently when you’re older.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#55

Post by josephcsible »

Cycl0ps wrote: post #31
vibrato2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I added a source but hacker news isn’t fond of analysis or thinking in regards to political issues; it was flagged.

Really? Let me try https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-vaers-deaths/fact-...

That's not the link that GP tried to post.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#56

Post by throwacherry »

simonsarris wrote: post #53

I can't knock some individual's decision, it is theirs alone to make, but the decision-making process strikes me as so extremely odd that it is hard to relate, and it's very difficult to believe that this is really about climate. It is almost in some sense insulting to one's ancestors, who traveled over glacial passes in search of the next 8,000lb mammal to eat. What would they think of these environmental setbacks a…

Hard to relate to you, but you can try to understand.

Insulting to our ancestors? Is it really, if one's making this decision for the love of all life on Earth, wishing to reduce harm and suffering caused by our unsustainable way of life?

Pessimism. Optimism. About the climate. Not about the climate. Deeply off or deeply on. We can do psychoanalysis all day, but reasons for declining birth rates are well-researched. The world is not running out of humans anytime soon, while nature and other living beings could use our help (or lack of harmful actions) now. So let's do that.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#57

Post by cameronh90 »

nyokodo wrote: post #46
cameronh90 wrote: post #25

I'm not having kids because it's too expensive. Nursery costs near me in London are approximately £18k/year per child. Basically it comes down to choosing between buying a house and having a kid.

> Basically it comes down to choosing between buying a house and having a kid. If you already had a kid but everything else in your life was the same, what would you do?

I don't know. It's not something I've ever given too much thought to because it's too expensive to realistically consider.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#58

Post by cameronh90 »

sealeck wrote: post #49
cameronh90 wrote: post #25

I'm not having kids because it's too expensive. Nursery costs near me in London are approximately £18k/year per child. Basically it comes down to choosing between buying a house and having a kid.

What??? You could send them to a private secondary school for that.

Indeed. It's almost cheaper to buy a slightly larger house and get an au pair.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#59

Post by NortySpock »

vibrato2 wrote: post #17
NortySpock wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." -- Hitchens's razor

Now apply that to long term vaccine safety. Ooh hitchens is fun when his logic goes against theistic religion. Not so enjoyed when it works against the modern religion of scientism.

Compare long term vaccine safety to long-lasting after-effects of covid-19.

Re: Millennials Not Having Babies Because of Climate Change

#60

Post by throwacherry »

rank0 wrote: post #54
chaorace wrote: post #32

This resonates with me. I'm a Millenial(?[1]) and I've chosen not to have children on the basis of climate change. Talk all you want about how climate change is not a personal issue -- the decision to have children ( and how many ) is the singlemost environmentally impactful decision you will ever have direct, personal agency in making. For me, it's practicing what I preach, because I view climate change as the most…

If your marginal, insignificant impact on the climate is enough to prevent you from having kids, then you probably never really wanted them anyways. It scares me that people seriously suggest giving up children “for the greater good.” Raising a child is the most meaningful experience in most people’s lives. Why should anybody give up kids but keep their iPhones, AC, avocados, and software engineering jobs? You might…

A drop of rain is small indeed, but many drops can fill oceans.

It is scary indeed, to think we can't help raise children unless we give birth to them ourselves, while ignoring millions of struggling kids today. Why can't we love them as our own? Ultimately, we all come from the same source [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

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