[unsupp0rted]

What's selfish about not having children? To whom or to what do I owe bringing a child into the world?

It's more likely the opposite: a lot of people would agree that their parents' decision to have children, particularly at a time when they couldn't afford them or lacked the mental strength to care for them and raise them in psychological safety, was selfish.

[effingwewt]

Accidents happen, and now with Roe V Wade repeal even more will.

Not everyone gets to make the conscious choice.

Sounds more like you've given up and are using it as the moral high ground.

To turn your earlier phrase- 'Sorry, I don't take advice from people who are removed from the human race.'

Sounds stupid, because it is.

You do what you can, I will do what I can. But don't think for a second you are better than anyone else over a single choice you made.

[unsupp0rted]

You have misunderstood: I'm not suggesting childfree people are better than people who have children.

I'm suggesting childfree people have a negligible impact on climate change compared to people who have children.

You can bring "moral high ground" into it wherever it seems applicable, but I have not done that. I've said only that it's hypocritical to criticize a person for their climate impact while simultaneously making a thousand or a million times more of a climate impact.

[effingwewt]

I get where you are coming from, I read all your comments here.

You are making an assumption that children just are a net negative.

As others have mentioned the carbon footprint of a child is miniscule compared to an adult,

They are not driving, flying, owning homes, etc for a while, and many never will.

One of those children could very well be the solution to that, and many other problems.

As for moral high ground you insist that you are better for having made the choice not to have children, as you see their opinions as less than and not worth listening to, as they have had children.

[allendoerfer]

> What's selfish about not having children? To whom or to what do I owe bringing a child into the world?

Since life can just be given to the next generation and you have already gotten yours, it would be logical to return the favor to the next person and give a new life.

I did not say, that it actually is selfish. Maybe it is not. It just came off a bit like that to me, as I read your comments.

> It's more likely the opposite: a lot of people would agree that their parents' decision to have children, particularly at a time when they couldn't afford them or lacked the mental strength to care for them and raise them in psychological safety, was selfish.

Sure. Although most people would surely still choose to live.

[nazgul17]

To my children, who will labour to sustain you, too, in your late life.

[unsupp0rted]

I don't owe having children to your children, or to you.

You can have children if you want, but I'm not requiring that of you.

If your children take care of me late in life, it's because they're exchanging their work for money. And the reason they're obligated to exchange their work for money is because that's the economic system into which their parents decided to bring them.

[allendoerfer]

You do not owe anything to anyone here. You just cannot construct a moral high ground based on your childlessness.

It is not moral to not have children. Paraphrasing Kant: An action is moral, if the state improves when everyone does it.

You cannot recommend everyone to not have children, since you depend on them. So why bring it up as an argument in a thread about climate change in the first place?

The argument is hypocritical. It just does not make much sense.

Do you see it as an optimization problem, where others have exactly enough children to care for you at old age, but so few that the climate suffers as little as possible? If so, you are still relying on the children and do not gain any more imaginary rights to pollute than those parents.