The decision to have children is not always an easy one (though it is, as the vast majority of parents will confirm, one of the most rewarding choices a couple can make).
Young married adults worry about the finances of child-rearing; urban-dwelling couples worry about whether they’ll have enough space; dual-income households worry about whether there will be consequences for taking a step away from their careers. There are health concerns for many women, time-related concerns for men who want to be hands-on, and a general anxiety about what it means to be responsible for the well-being and development of another human being.
But what no well-adjusted, sane person should ever worry about is whether having children is bad for the environment.
The New York Times’s Ezra Klein seems to think otherwise. In fact, he claimed in
a recent op-ed
that the No. 1 question he is asked is: “Should I have kids, given the climate crisis they will face?” And “should I have kids, knowing they will contribute to the climate crisis the world faces?”
He also cites a 2020 Morning Consult poll that found 25% of adults without children said the climate crisis factored into their decision not to have families.
There are three possible explanations for these findings: The first is that the Morning Consult poll is completely inaccurate. Or the Morning Consult pollsters just happened to be frequenting the same New York City dinner parties and events with the same affluent, privileged elites as Klein. Or, lastly, leftists and their allies in the media have succeeded at drumming up such a hysteria about the supposed doom facing humanity that an alarming number of adults actually do feel this way.
Klein, to his credit, argues that these respondents’ concerns are ill-founded, largely because the world as we know it today is a better place to have children than it ever was before.
He’s right, of course. No matter what you think about environmentalism or the impending crisis that experts have inaccurately predicted for years, it is undeniable that our quality of life in the modern era is the best it’s ever been.
Surely, that fact alone should be enough to sway hesitant adults who are worried not just about climate change, but about the economics and logistics of having children as well. We are wealthier and more accomplished than our parents were when they were our age, with access to technological and medical resources that they never had. So, if now is not the right time to have children — when is?
