"I Don't Want to Have Children on a Climate-Changing Earth"
Climate Change and Declining Birth Rates: 4 out of 10 Young People Say They Are Afraid to Have Children
[Asia Economy Senior Reporter Jinsoo Lee] There is a claim that concerns about global climate change play a significant role in the declining birth rates in Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
Experts like Dr. Britt Ray, who is researching human and planetary health at Stanford University in the U.S., pointed out that adults in Western countries are reluctant to have children because of catastrophic global warming.
In a pre-publication paper published last month in the medical journal The Lancet, Dr. Ray described this as a "fear of a future ruined by climate change." Fear of climate change is causing birth rates to drop in many countries.
The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) stated in a report released on the 14th (local time) that the decline in birth rates is due to various reasons such as improved contraception methods, women delaying pregnancy and childbirth, and family planning. However, Dr. Ray and co-authors of the paper pointed out that climate change is also a major culprit in the decline in birth rates.
According to the paper based on a survey of 10,000 men and women aged 16 to 25, 4 out of 10 young people said they are afraid to have children because of fears surrounding climate change.
About 6 out of 10 said they are "very or extremely" concerned about climate change. Those who said they are "somewhat" worried about climate change exceeded 8 out of 10.
Last year, a survey of 2,000 Generation Z individuals (born 1997?2010) in the U.S. found that 78% said they do not plan to have or do not want children because of climate change.
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Global investment bank Morgan Stanley also cited climate change as the main cause of the sharp decline in birth rates in a report published in July. Young people’s fear of climate change is making them reluctant to have children, causing birth rates to plummet faster than expected.
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