Is It Wise to Bring a Child Into Our Warming World?

For several decades now, parents have been choosing to have fewer children. But in recent years, an issue that was previously low on the list of priorities has been contributing to this trend.

“In times of heightened uncertainty, people are less likely to bring children into the world,” writes Joe Pinsker, who covers families and relationships for The Atlantic. But a new reason why extends beyond uncertainty about finances or the ever-increasing cost of raising a child. For some, it’s not about money or personal factors at all, but a growing, all-encompassing environmental concern.

Climate change has more choosing to have a smaller family or rethinking childbearing altogether. When I was conducting research for my new book, Just One: The New Science, Secrets & Joy of Parenting an Only Child, one worry about having a child or more children kept cropping up: Would sufficient natural resources be available for our population in the future?

Climate Anxiety

Not surprisingly, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) Healthy Minds Report notes that 40 percent of adults are experiencing climate anxiety. Those of childbearing age even more so. “Parents are consistently more attuned to these concerns than nonparents. Whether it’s grief after a natural disaster or expressed anxiety due to the threat of climate change…these impacts are real,” points out APA President Theresa Miskimen Rivera, M.D.

Hannah Nearney, a clinical psychiatrist and U.K. Medical Director at Flow Neuroscience, explains, “Eco-anxiety can influence childbearing decisions in a number of ways. For some younger adults, it’s definitely a source of hesitation about starting a family, not due to personal readiness, but due to fears about the future their child would inherit.” She notes, “It’s a chronic, real-world stressor that touches different points of the parenting journey.”

With wildfires, hurricanes, and other climate-related disasters becoming more common, you may wonder if it’s wise to start a family or add to it. In a survey of 20- to 45-year-olds, a third “cited climate change as a reason they had or expected to have fewer children than they considered ideal.”

I asked Ryan, 44, an only child, if he thought the pandemic would influence the number of children people had going forward. He ignored the “pandemic” part of my question completely, answering, “The biggest influence is climate and the environment. Resources are limited, and children take up a lot of them. As people become more sensitized, climate will be a deterrent to having more children.”

For Celeste, global warming influenced her one-child decision. “My husband worries about the impact on the planet if we have a second child. Before we had our baby 15 months ago, we wondered if it was a good time to even have a child. I think about the climate problems a lot now that I have my son.”

A study, “The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Government Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions,” supports parents and future parents’ climate fears and tentativeness about having one child or more. After studying carbon emissions, the Swedish scientists came up with recommendations to stem the problem and listed “have one fewer child” as the most effective action people can take.

“Climate Change, Mental Health, and Reproductive Decision-Making,” a review of research evaluating the impact of climate change on reproductive decision-making, found that “climate change concerns were typically associated with less positive attitudes towards reproduction and a desire and/or intent for fewer children or none at all.”

Typically, a single reason is not the family size decider. But even as maternal age, finances, and the impact on a woman’s job or career remain part of the baby decision equation, climate change has moved up the list as a key element being deliberated.

Copyright @2025 by Susan Newman, Ph.D.