Less people having children due to climate change fears

A new study is reporting fewer people are having children in Britain due to their fears over climate change

Researchers at Stanford University tracked births in Western nations and said people are no longer willing to have babies due to global warming warnings.

The study was led by Dr Britt Wray, a human and planetary health fellow, who described it as ‘fear of a degraded future due to climate change’.

She told the Daily Mail that she believed it was ‘playing a roll’ in declining birth rates in many countries across the globe.

The study revealed that four in ten young people feared bringing children into the world because of climate concerns. It was published in The Lancet in September 2021’s edition based on a poll of 10,000 16 to 25-year-olds.

Dr Wray said: “Recent research on the psychological impacts of climate change suggests that people’s anxieties about global warming may be part of the story.

“Last year a survey of 2,000 Americans found 78 percent Generation Z arent’s planning – or don’t want – to have children due to climate change.”

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there were 614, 000 live births in 2020, a decrease of 4.1 percent from 2019.

It is the fifth year in a row that live births have fallen, and it is the lowest birth rate since 2002.

The fertility rate currently stands at 1.58 children per woman in 2020 – the lowest since records began in 1938.

Did climate change play a part in your decision to have children? Does it concern you? We’d love to hear your thoughts, email mystory@ivfbabble.com.