Extreme Temperature Diary Thursday October 1st, 2020/ Main Topic: Deciding Not To Have Children Because Of Climate Change

Thursday October 1st… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉

Main Topic: Deciding Not To Have Children Because Of Climate Change

Dear Diary. Welcome to October everyone. A new poll indicates that a good percentage of parents have recently decided not to have children just because of the climate crisis. Parents for the last few generations have had the opportunity to limit the size of their families through education and birth control. In this day and age of CIVID-19, economic stress, racial unrest, and many other physical and psychological stressors, it is no wonder that parents are not wanting to subject more souls to a world of hurt. Still, limiting the size of families goes against some religious views.

I do salute parents who are deciding to have no kids, or who are having no more than two children. I’m also glad to be gay, not wanting to have kids at any point in my life, but loving and enjoying to be around children from my straight counterpart friends. Of course, I do realize that we need to have loving parents willing to have kids to perpetuate our species, though. As a species we need to limit our population around the planet to around one billion people. This means that through slow attrition the population needs to be reduced by about eight billion. I definitely do not want this to occur because of horrific wars. Rather, during this century worldwide we need to develop social safety nets for a slow decline lasting until the next century, providing for decent long lives for people who are here.

I’ve previously written about a dystopian world in which people live short, brutish lives due to overpopulation. In my view, once a child comes into this world, it must be given a fantastic childhood and have the opportunity to live as a happy, prosperous adult. Just look to countries like India to see what happens when we rub elbow to elbow with our fellow man. Only in the last couple of decades India is beginning to grapple with overpopulation such that quality of life has risen in cities like Bangalore.

Now, due to climate change, which was not a big factor or stressor during the 20th century, parents have one more reason to limit the size of families, considering what their children maybe subjected to via wildfires, droughts, floods and sea level rise. Here are the findings from that survey:

CLIMATE CHANGE

1 in 4 Childless Adults Say Climate Change Has Factored Into Their Reproductive Decisions

Hispanics, young people are especially likely to cite climate crisis among reasons they haven’t had children

Getty Images / Morning Consult illustration by Samantha Elbouez)

BY LISA MARTINE JENKINS September 28, 2020 at 6:00 am ET

  • 11% of childless adults say climate change is a “major reason” they don’t currently have children, while 15% say it is a “minor reason.”
  • Childless Hispanic adults are especially likely to say climate change has factored into their reproductive decisions, at 41%.

A new series from Morning Consult takes a deeper look at how the coronavirus could permanently alter millennials’ behavior and how, in turn, that could impact the economy at large. The data is drawn from a poll of 4,400 adults, including 1,287 millennials.

For some childless adults, climate change looms large when they consider whether or not to reproduce. According to recent Morning Consult data, 11 percent of that group say climate change is a “major reason” they do not currently have children, and 15 percent say it plays a minor role.

While climate change was among the least-cited reasons for those who do not currently have children (behind financial, political and career concerns, among others), the fact that it comes to mind for a quarter of respondents underscores the fact that its impacts are becoming increasingly visible to the public.

Childless Hispanic respondents were especially likely to say their concern for climate change has impacted their plans, with 41 percent saying it is a major or minor reason they don’t have children. Thirty percent of Black respondents and 23 percent of whites said the same.  

This demographic breakdown largely mirrors responses to another poll asking respondents how much of a role climate change has played in recent natural disasters; Black and Hispanic respondents to that survey were especially likely to say climate change contributed substantially to events like the ongoing wildfires scorching the West Coast.   

And regionally, 33 percent of those in the West said climate change plays a part in their reproductive decision-making. Adults (both with and without children) in the region were also more likely than their counterparts in other parts of the country to say they were considering moving due to natural disasters.

The Sept. 8-10 poll surveyed 4,400 U.S. adults. The overall poll has a margin of error of 1 percentage point, and the childless group (2,201 adults) has a margin of error of 2 points. The margin of error is 2 points for white adults and 6 points for both Hispanic and Black adults.


Baby boomers were less likely (16 percent) than members of other generations to cite climate change as a reason for not having children, perhaps unsurprisingly: for most, the phenomenon was not part of the popular conversation when they made decisions about whether or not to have children. However, for both Gen Zers and millennials, the issue seems more salient, with 37 percent and 34 percent, respectively, saying it is a major or minor reason they do not have children. 

About a quarter of both men and women expressed concern about climate change as a factor in their reproductive decisions.

These results come two years after a 2018 Morning Consult survey for The New York Times, which found that 33 percent of 20- to 45-year-old adults cited climate change as a reason they had or expected to have fewer children than they considered ideal.

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Today I will be listing items from California’s dire fire and Heatwave Desdemona situation below. The most recent items, which I will be updating frequently, will be at the top of this list:

Here are some hot “ET’s” recorded from Thursday due to Heatwave Desdemona:

Here are some profound “ET’s” from South America:

Here is more climate and weather news from Thursday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)

Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:

(If you like these posts and my work please contribute via the PayPal widget, which has recently been added to this site. Thanks in advance for any support.) 

Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”

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