A growing number of individuals are hesitant to bring children into a world that is expected to face severe impacts from climate change in the coming decades.

The recent “code red for humanity” warning from the United Nations, as highlighted by the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stating that global temperatures are projected to rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next two decades, has heightened concerns. Scientists’ increasingly grim predictions about the future of the planet are causing some individuals to choose not to have children due to fears of exacerbating global warming.

For instance, analysts at Morgan Stanley have stated that having a child contributes 7 times more to annual CO2 emissions than the next 10 most discussed individual mitigating actions.