Climate change and having a family

Climate change is now becoming a factor in family planning – but why? Drawing on the latest research and insights from neuroscience and psychology, this episode investigates how the environment might be impacting our thoughts about having children – and we hear from two people who have reached quite different conclusions. 

More info on mindbrainplanet.com

Chapters

• 2:04 Vicky: I have no issue with never having children
• 5:25 Loz: just wrong, unethical, inhumane perhaps
• 10:19 The brain and thinking about the future
• 11:25 Does parenting make us more environmental?
• 16:12 Thoughts of mortality and our desire to have children

Transcript

Climate Change and Having a Family - transcript

I’ve just dropped  off my youngest to take his last A-level – and that feels quite a milestone – after almost 30 years of raising 5 kids! Back in the nineties and noughties when I was thinking about having a family, I can’t honestly say the environment was very much part of that thinking. But I wonder…..would that be different if I was considering  whether to have a family now? 

Over the last half century, more of us have been choosing to remain child free – particularly in the Northern hemisphere. There are a range of reasons for this – better  rights of women, but also a desire to be freer from responsibility. Financial worries also rear their head when deciding whether we want to become a parent – especially, according to the research, amongst men (Fahlen, 2018).

But now a new issue is cropping up in peoples’  thoughts around family planning – climate change. In one recent global survey, for example, more than 39% of young people reported climate change made them feel hesitant about having children of their own (Hickman). And this echoes similar reports for adults in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe……those more worried about climate change say they’re less inclined to have children. But why?

To try to untangle the link between concerns over climate and this very personal decision to have a child, we are of - course - going to be looking at recent research from the sciences of mind and brain, but we’ll also be hearing from two women who’ve reached quite different decisions, and I’m going to start off by talking with Vicky …

1.52 (23) So I am Vicky. I'm 38 years old and I work within the NHS Mental health services in Bristol.

You can call me Vicky…

(But) the more that I read and see into the climate crisis and everything that's potentially coming into the future, it leaves me with personally quite a oblique outlook. If I'm really honest. I don't really see that there's a very positive ending to our situation. I don't feel like enough is really being taken on board. I feel like a lot of the warnings and information that's been put out there is very, it's inconvenient. So it's glossed over and it's only gonna be when we are really in the thick of it, that it's gonna be acknowledged that maybe we've missed the mark and we are gonna start having too many different impacts that will all, which will affect everything that we know.

Speaker 2 (03:28):

And that lack of stability. You know, humans tend to have this trajectory over history where we get a bit big for our boots. I think we feel that we can always play God. We inter we we get, we expend too much and we collapse. And it's happened with so many societies and yet we never learn. We seem to have this I call most destructive undertone. And I feel that bring a child into world at this point is maybe it's more for your own sort of feeling of satisfaction or this sort of like historical thing where we've always been taught that we need to leave a legacy. We are here as a purpose to leave the next generation, but I genuinely feel that the next generation are gonna be heavily impacted by our actions up to this point. And if you truly have a child, which is meant to be the thing that you love the most in the world, you care so much for them.

Speaker 2 (04:17):

How can you have something that knowing that within 30, 40, 50, 60 years, it's gonna be absolute chaos. They're gonna be living in such awful conditions. It's gonna have a massive impact on their long-term futures. I just don't see it as something that I could actually put anything I care through, through. So I'd much rather take my care, my energy, my capacity, and just put it into looking after other people that I can directly affect and that I can do the best by. But I have zero guilt having no children. I have no issue with never having children. I feel actually a sense of peace knowing that that will never be my outcome. And I'm comfortable with that. I see it as there's 8 million people that roam this planet. It really doesn't matter if I don't have a child. It's for me, I'll sleep better knowing that I'll never do that. So yeah, it's quite a strong stance.

There is a psychological theory called risk homeostasis - that really just proposes that we constantly try to regulate the among of jeopardy in our lives to keep it at some acceptable overall level. Vicky may feel she has little control over whether the world wakes up to climate change and acts in time, but she can reduce the overall jeopardy that she’s experiencing by choosing not to have children – and eliminate the risk of seeing her children suffer. This kind of makes sense - if the future is already becoming more risky, why add to that risk by starting a family? And this reasoning would help explain the decline of birth rates before and during the Great Depression of the 1930s and, more recently, the energy crisis of the 1970s (Sobotka,Skirbekk, and Philipov 2011). 

And now I’d like you to meet my friend and colleague Loz for whom, a few years ago, climate change had also been a significant factor in her decision not to have children….

Speaker 2 (01:38):

Up. And I just remember that when we started working together and we were working on climate change education, weren't we? That you were telling me that you might not have children. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> because of the state of the planet and, well, I mean, you tell me what, what, what was going through your mind then?

Speaker 1 (01:52):

Yes. That's really interesting that you remember that. I wouldn't have known that we would've had that conversation, but that is certainly how I was feeling at that time. Certainly in 2019 when I was at the height of my involvement really with various climate activist groups, particularly extinction rebellion and really quite in the depths of despair with the state of the world as I think quite a lot of people were. It, you know, there was a big moment of reckoning, I think. I think that 2018 IPCC report had really kind of brought some things home to people. And I just couldn't imagine at that time bringing a child into the world.

Like Vicky, Loz hadn’t felt attracted to having a family in a future that was being made so uncertain by our deteriorating environment…….

It just felt, I suppose just wrong, unethical, inhumane perhaps. Because I was that sort of despondent and, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't really see things getting better. Which is interesting 'cause I don't think things have got better yet. Somehow here I am. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (03:02):

Here you are. <Laugh> I mean, just, just to explain there's a slight background sound every now and then when laws moves. 'cause She's sitting on a huge purple ball which I think is more comfortable for you because when, when's the due date?

Speaker 1 (03:16):

Three weeks away. Three

Speaker 2 (03:18):

Weeks away. <Laugh>

Speaker 1 (03:19):

Baby number one.

Another factor when thinking about climate change and having children is that, inevitably perhaps, the children will end up contributing to the emissions driving the crisis.

If you care about the impact of your personal emissions, there are, of course, lots of lifestyle changes you can make to reduce them – other not having family - some of the best things you can do are to go vegetarian, give up your car and avoid plane travel. That would save 4.6 tonnes of CO2 a year. But, if you decided to have one less child – that would save over 58 tonnes or more of CO2 a year – that’s well over 10 times more than doing all those other things put together  - (Wynes & Nicholas, 2017). That’s a huge amount – it’s been said that having one less child is - the lifestyle change that someone in a developed country can best make to reduce greenhouse gas emission (Murtaugh and Schlax, 2009; Wynes and Nicholas, 2017).

But this increase in emissions didn’t seem to be the major issue for Vicky and Loz. And the research tends to confirm that its more about the child’s experience rather than their impact on the environment, that is causing some of us to hesitate about having children in the time of climate change.  In recent research in Hungary, for example, women discussed their decision-making more in terms of the future of any prospective children rather than their potential carbon footprint (Szalma, 2024).

Of course, there are some reasons why climate change might make us more inclined to have children. If those who care about the enviornment stop having families, then presumably they’ll be less pro-environmental child-rearing – and fewer green-thinking citizens to protect our planet in the future. I suggested this to Vicky, who pointed out that being environmentally aware might also add to a child’s anxieties in a future where the environment was becoming depleted:

Speaker 1 (11:19):

But you, you would be a parent who would be caring about the environment and who would tell their children about the environment, but I just, and that child might grow up.

Speaker 2 (11:28):

No, I'd see it as that. That for me is almost going, I'm super aware that you are gonna have a really difficult time and that's gonna be your burden. I've lived through a good, calm, mostly peaceful environment with this not being a concern. I recognize it's a concern. I re it's probably gonna be an issue. It's on your shoulders. Good luck with that. I see it still as incredibly self-serving in a way that I'm not doing the best by my child by only making them more anxious and stressed and aware and hypervigilant like I am of what potentially is coming. But it's that they have to grow up and try and find purpose within that extra awareness and stress around what their future might hold. So no, I, I see it as more responsible still by avoiding, you know, having a child, knowing what I know.

Thinking about children does make us think about the future – and when we do that some interesting things happen in the brain. 

Thinking about the future activates a region of the brain called the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex  or VMPFC for short. It was in this brain region that scientists in Geneva observed increased activation when they asked people to view a series of imaginary events, all of which showed the potential consequences of climate change that we may experience in this century (around 2080). The VMPFC is an important region of the brain for affective foresight – our ability to imagine how we might feel in the future. It’s been shown that activation here in this lower region towards the front of the brain better predicts whether we’ll do something than whether we just say we will. It’s as if thinking about how we’ll feel after we have or haven’t carried out an action is the key to forming an authentic intention to actually do it.

Well….if children make us think more about the future, you might expect that becoming a parent leads to a greater awareness of climate change and more environmental behaviour. A Swedish survey or more 3500 people showed parents did worry more than non-parents about climate change, and they also felt more guilty when doing things they thought might damage the environment (Ekholm, 2020; Ekholm and Olofsson, 2017). Perhaps this is because having children encourages you to think more about the future? But hang on….– this may not be the effect of parenting – it could, instead, be what psychologists call a self-selection effect. You see, when we think about having children, the dominant value system seems to be about others rather than our-selves Bernardi (2003). And we know that concern for environment is also linked to self-transcendence – that is our ability to get over ourselves. Indeed, in that brain study I mentioned in Geneva, it was the individuals with high self-transcendence who activated their VMPFC more when they thought about the year 2080.

 – so it may be that adults who are already pro-environmental may be more likely to have children, rather than having a family bringing about any change in attitudes. This appears to be the case in NZ, where researchers found parenting increased beliefs in the reality of climate change but not other environmental attitudes Milfont (2020) A similar study in the UK showed only those parents with an already high environmental concern improved their green intentions further after their first child Thomas (2018): (UK). And, of course, intentions are one thing – but when you have your first child, as many of us know, there’s a lot of stuff to think about other than the environment. Indeed, it’s been found that the pressures of being a new parent can lead to greater emissions through falling back on convenience food and using the car more. Nordstrom 2020

Basically - it’s really difficult to make rearing children a netzero process. 

I asked Loz what changed her mind…

. I think for me personally things did change with the pandemic I think in 2020. I don't know, there was just a bit of a shift of perspective, I suppose in terms of what felt important, which isn't to say that the climate crisis felt less important, not at all. But I think perhaps maybe I'd throw myself so into climate activism in 2019 that I kind of lost some focus on other things that really do matter. Like, you know, family and friends and the sort of like immediate relationships and activities around you. I think the kind of big existential threat was sort of dominating everything for a while. And actually 2020 forced me to kinda, I suppose, I suppose everyone's will just got smaller, didn't it?

Speaker 1 (05:41):

Everyone's everyone's experiences in lockdown became a lot more about the things that are right around you and sort of, I suppose value and connection to the people in your lives in a different way and having, having to reconnect and find different, different ways of connecting. Which to, to be honest, you know, if I think about 2019, I think my involvement in environmental activism at that time, it was detrimental to some of my relationships. You know, I, I probably didn't prioritize some of the people around me because the sort of taking part in actions felt like the most important thing. 'cause It really did, you know, it felt like this is life or death. Whereas then in 2020 when you're sort of, well, you're faced with life or death in a different sense, you know, people sort of that, god, it's, it's hard to remember now, but the the sort of, you know, the death count essentially every day that you just get used to just kind of, yeah, it kind of re I dunno, it reconfigured things a little bit in terms of what's really important on the, on the day-to-day basis.

Speaker 1 (07:01):

Because I suppose the climate crisis is, is still this huge looming thing, but it's not as immediate as people around you potentially being ill. And yeah, somehow I think that did shift my, my way of thinking to, to more of a local focus and more, you know, I think the the rise of mutual aid through the pandemic and that sort of focus on, okay, how can I, how can I care for the people around me now rather than the sort of what are we gonna do to protect the future generations? That was a big shift in thinking and that's something that, that I've sort of carried forward. And does this, does this bring me back to having babies <laugh>, I suppose? Yeah, I suppose the point is it was just a whole reevaluation of priorities.

Now you might think that the mortality figures announced daily during the pandemic would have added to Loz’s uncertainty about the future and made it less likely that she’d think about having a child. That’s what researchers in Poland would have thought before they analysed their data on climate change attitudes (Bielawska-Batorowicz, Zagaj, & Kossakowska, 2022). They’d been drawing on something called “terror management theory” – to reason that those with a greater fear of death would want to have children less, in order to avoid their suffering due to global warming – this sounds a bit like a more extreme version of risk homeostasis that we came across earlier – focusing on mortality – rather than just risk to health. But those with a greater fear of death wanted to have children more in the face of climate change. The researchers concluded people saw having children as a remedy for their existential fear, with future children as a type of legacy that would make it more likely some aspect of their lives would endure. And actually, when experiencing an environment that’s as uncertain and insecure as a conflict zone – where there is a daily life and death struggle to survive, fertility rates can sometimes increase – due to a range of reasons but including this type of psychological factor.

I visited Loz a few weeks later – to meet a new arrival and find out how mother and child were getting on …

Speaker 2 (00:10):

Well, yeah, I guess I have, well, to be honest, I've been thinking a lot about bringing children into the world. Not so much in the context of climate change, but more in the context of sort of society and what, what we need for a, a healthy functioning society, which is all, I suppose it's all related to climate change. But, you know, I, I suppose looking at the, sort of the discourse around migration and immigration in this country, especially around, you know, the Reform party and this sort of anti-Iran, anti-immigrant rhetoric. I just feel like there's this whole other argument missing, which is that people in this country are not having enough babies to, you know, our population is declining and we're, we're gonna have a smaller, older population and no one. Yeah. Isn't that a problem, Zach? No one to do, to look after the, the older generations and do the jobs that need to be done.

Speaker 2 (01:11):

Like, for example, baby rooms in a nursery. It's, it is so hard to find a place. The baby room in the nursery and the corner from us has been closed for a year because they just cannot find any staff. No one wants to do that job. So I suppose all of this makes me think we sort of need to be, we need to be having babies. 'cause Otherwise we're gonna have a huge hole really, you know, in our job market. Yeah

So just a quick fact check here - the UK population – which is predicted to continue ageing - has actually been growing albeit slowly – by about 1% last year  - although this is largely due to migration rather than birth rate. Indeed, as Loz suggests, birth rates have been dropping and, unless migration to the UK continues, the UK population is expected to start shrinking in the 2030’s. In many respects the UK resembles other developed countries with their slowly growing or even declining populations. And yet….it’s the high consumption in these developed countries that is principally driving the human contribution to climate change. In other words, consumerism rather than population growth might be a more suitable target for our concerns over climate  – with the faster-growing populations in less developed countries contributing a much smaller fraction to global emissions. 

At this point Zak took a bite out of the microphone, but luckily enough of it survived for me to record Loz’s final reflection:

Speaker 1 (05:22):

<Laugh>, it was bad to happen. That was bad. <Laugh>.

Speaker 2 (05:27):

That's the time. It kind of is though. Really. It kind of is a time. <Laugh>. You can't chew on it though. You can't chew on it. <Laugh>, I surpris that. You know it, to be honest. Yeah, I suppose there is also something about having a baby that it, it really gives me this sense of being, being a link in a chain. You know, you kind of like see this line of mothers going back before you and stretching ahead of you and you are just this one, one little link. Think of all the women that have had to go through childbirth so that you can be here and then you know the line that will carry on from you. Well, potentially. And it just, I don't know, it kind of gives you that sense of the world isn't ours, you know, we are just, we are just here for a short time. Isn't that true? So is that sense of, you know, taking care of sort of steward sort guardians or don't really like those terms, but you know, it's, we are just, we are just so temporary on this planet that yeah, you kind of really gain that perspective, I think, when having a child and we've got to protect it for the future generations and not leave it all up to them to clear above mess. Isn't that true?

Researching this podcast has filled me with great respect for those who, for environmental reasons, have decided to have smaller families or no children at all– and certainly I don’t believe anyone should feel guilty when they make such a personal decision, whatever they decide. What I’ve learnt hasn’t made me feel more uncomfortable about my own decision to have kids. Having children does feel like an act of faith in the future – but perhaps one that should make us think more about the environment on which that future will depend. 

END