Copyright Watts Up With That
Essay by Eric Worrall “… 40% of Australian women without kids say they are hesitant to have children because of climate change …” Forty per cent of Australian women without kids hesitant to have children because of climate change, survey finds More than a third of Coalition voters believe temperatures will not rise at all, poll shows Donna Lu Mon 10 Nov 2025 01.00 AEDT About 40% of Australian women without kids say they are hesitant to have children because of climate change, a new survey suggests. The survey, on attitudes about the impacts of global heating, also found that half of Australians were very or extremely concerned about climate change and two in five believed the climate would be “much hotter” in 2050. … The survey – which involved a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people – found Labor, Greens and independent voters were three times more likely to express high levels of concern about climate change compared with conservative voters. Concern about climate change was also much more strongly correlated with education level than with age. … Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/10/climate-change-women-hesitant-to-have-children-australia The climate attitudes survey is available here. The survey was organised by Professor Clive Hamilton of Charles Sturt University. The survey notes a correlation between level of tertiary education vs concern about climate change. One possible explanation, advanced by Professor Hamilton, is this might be because people with more advanced educations better understand the dangers we face from climate change. Or it could be participation or response bias. It is pretty risky these days for anyone interested in an Australian academia related career to be outed as a climate skeptic. Look what happened to Professor Peter Ridd. On a serious note I worry for people who really want to have kids but have been caught up in the climate hysteria. Having a kid can be scary, especially your first. It doesn’t take much additional fear to turn hesitation into delay. There was a childless couple who used to live next to my grandparents house, they were always nice to me when I visited as a young kid, always ready with a plate of cookies. But there was unhappiness in their eyes which I noticed even as a kid. At Christmas time my grandparents’ house was full of joy and happiness and lots of wrapping paper, but the neighbours never wanted to see anyone at Christmas. No family ever visited. One day, they just weren’t there anymore. My grandpa never explained what happened, he just said they moved away, but he looked troubled when he told me. I was only 9 years old at the time, but I knew better than to ask questions. My grandpa told me they never had kids because they were worried about nuclear war. Many years later my wife and I felt a touch of that despair, but we were fortunate, and things worked out in the end. Let’s hope those who actually want kids, those who aren’t using climate hysteria as a convenient cover story for not wanting kids, lets hope they see through the falsehoods before it is too late.
