When I just came to the US in 1993, I remember a crazy-looking substitute teacher walking into our 6th grade class and deciding to share his peak oil anxiety wi

When I just came to the US in 1993, I remember a crazy-looking substitute teacher walking into our 6th grade class and deciding to share his peak oil anxiety with us and the logical conclusion that people shouldn't have kids because of it. I am convinced that now that "peak oil" is no longer a popular concern, exactly 0 people said "oops, I guess I should have had kids" - they just pivoted to using climate as their retroactive justification for their decision. So you're right to observe that the kinds of people who become parents are less likely to be paralyzed by climate anxiety but I suspect there is a very strong self-selection bias in either group, and if climate was "solved" tomorrow, people with existential anxiety would find something else to justify their anxiety with. The fact is there was always "a reason" to be existentially anxious: plagues, poverty, communism, nuclear, terrorism, etc. And yet people who "ignored" those problems and went on to have kids were right to do so.