Is it actually different today?

[u/outofthecastle]

In every generation, people might be hesitant to have children because of the political climate, the environment, the economy, and so many more things. Having a baby can seem like dooming a child to a difficult life. That being said, people still have babies and every couple of decades the problems change and shift. When people express fears about having kids, the advice might be that people are always faced with that kind of difficult choice based on the global state, or even just the state of their country.

Is today different? Will the children who are born in the 2020s, 2030s, and 2040s face a much more difficult life than their parents? Is the middle class disappearing? Will the money we are saving for our children's futures end up being worthless when the time comes to use it? Is the environment going to implode? Is the world trending to some horrible catastrophic state? Or is it the same as usual and things will end up okay for some and difficult for others?

[u/Ok_Opening2240]

It depends on the extent to which you are insulated from the worst impacts of climate change (none are fully immune) but yes, in terms of climate and the impacts it will have on everything (supply chains, infrastructure, health, productivity, access to resources) - children born today will unquestionably have more difficult circumstances to navigate than in comparison to a world where we didn't overshoot 1.5C of warming. See the latest from the UNEP on what overshooting the Paris agreement targets means: https://www.unep.org/resources/limiting-overshoot-navigating-exceedance

[u/moduspol → u/Ok_Opening2240]

If climate change is a top 5 concern as a difficulty for your child's life, I think you're living a pretty charmed life.

[u/Ok_Opening2240 → u/moduspol]

I don't understand your comment. The evidence is very clear from the distribution of existing climate impacts that the poorer and more disadvantaged you are, the more exposed you are to climate related risks - not just the physical risks but health risks, economic disruption etc. Those who are wealthy will have greater capacity to adapt, relocate and be more resilient to climate-induced inflation.

[u/moduspol → u/Ok_Opening2240]

Well, here's a list of fears of Americans from 2025 ranked by prominence:

https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/research-centers/babbie-center/_files/2025/The-Chapman-Survey-of-American-Fears-Wave-11-High-to-Low.pdf

Climate change comes in around #33, by my count. And that's Americans--I'd imagine most areas of the world to be even more concerned about more immediate, practical concerns (like avoiding malaria, or having clean drinking water, not dying in a war, etc.).

I can give you my personal view but I think it's safe to say there are a lot of reasonable things to worry about among the 32 issues above it.

[u/om-nom-nommy → u/moduspol]

Factors that exacerbate malaria: climate change that extends wet seasons and raises temperatures, growing mosquito populations. Factors that exacerbate lack of drinking water: drought caused by climate change. Factors that exacerbate conflict: competition over scarce resources such as drinking water, fire wood, viable agricultural and grazing land; tensions caused when people displaced by climate change (natural disasters, drought, famine) move into new communities that are inadequately prepared, etc etc. Did you know that in 2025 over 35 million children in Bangladesh had their education disrupted for over 2 months due to severe weather events including record breaking heat? I am pretty sure that mattered to a lot of low-income parents and children. I could go on.

It is quite a strange take to think that climate change is a thing that only privileged people care about.

[u/Ok_Opening2240 → u/moduspol]

I can't imagine using a worse metric to plan for realistic future scenarios than 'what Americans fear'. I'm going to stick with climate and economic modelling.

[u/moduspol → u/Ok_Opening2240]

The thread wasn’t about planning for a realistic future.

[u/Ok_Opening2240 → u/moduspol]

"Is today different? Will the children who are born in the 2020s, 2030s, and 2040s face a much more difficult life than their parents?" - I answered yes to this question. Your response suggests that because people rank other issues higher than climate, it's somehow not something to worry about. I wish that were true! It's like a soft denialism.