The choice of whether to have children or not is one of the most deeply personal decisions that can be made, taking into account various financial, career, medical and religious aspects.
However, with the ever-increasing weather events occurring around the world as a result of climate change, many people are now choosing to have fewer or no children due to concerns about the future state of the planet.
Proponents of movements such as BirthStrike and Conceivable Future say they don't want to bring children into a world that the UN believes is on the brink of climate disaster. They emphasize that their decisions are not aimed at criticizing those who really want to have children, but to get political leaders around the world to take more action to reduce carbon emissions and give the next generation a chance for a brighter future.
A 2017 study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden found that the biggest health impact in developed countries could be having one less child, which would reduce their emissions by more than 58 tons of carbon dioxide per year. But since many Western countries already have lower reproduction and population growth rates than developing countries, scientists are skeptical that child-freeing is the only effective solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Still, proponents say the lack of prompt and effective policy responses to the climate emergency is keeping them childless.