Can you call yourself an environmentalist and keep having kids? A recently released study by statisticians at Oregon State University concluded that in the United States, the carbon legacy and greenhouse gas impact of an extra child is almost 20 times more significant than some of the other environmental practices people might employ during their lives – things like driving an electric car, recycling, or using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs.
However, all carbon-producing kids are not created equally. The report, Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals, found that the potential carbon footprints of children vary dramatically from country to country. The average long-term carbon impact of a child born in the U.S. – along with all of its descendants – is more than 160 times the impact of a child born in Bangladesh.
“In discussions about climate change, we tend to focus on the carbon emissions of an individual over his or her lifetime,” explained Paul Murtaugh, an Oregon State University professor of statistics and co-author of the report. “But an added challenge facing us is continuing population growth and increasing global consumption of resources.”
Very little attention has been given to the overwhelming importance of reproductive choice, Murtaugh explained. When an individual produces a child – and that child potentially produces more descendants in the future – the effect on the environment can be many times the impact produced by the original parent during their lifetime.
The study found that under current living conditions in the U.S.A each child ultimately will add about 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average parent – about 5.7 times (1,657mt) the lifetime emissions for which, on average, a person is responsible.
“Many people are unaware of the power of exponential population growth,” Murtaugh said. “Future growth amplifies the consequences of people’s reproductive choices today, the same way that compound interest amplifies a bank balance.”
Shorter life spans and less consumption, mean that developing nations, even with higher populations and rates of growth, have lower overall environmental impact than children born in the USA. The long-term impact of a child born to a family in China is less than one fifth the impact of a child born in the U.S., the study found.
Read the full report here.
Source: Oregon State University
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