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Scientists are finally moving away from the UN-backed climate doomerism that scared a generation off having babies

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Almost every day now, there is another headline warning about the collapsing birth rate across the developed world, and along with it, another think piece attempting to diagnose why younger generations seem increasingly reluctant to build families.

This week, new figures out of England and Wales showed that the number of babies being born has fallen to the lowest level since 1977, with couples delaying parenthood until their thirties or deciding against children altogether. The total fertility rate dropped to 1.39 children per woman, the lowest level ever recorded.

The explanations offered for this phenomenon tend to revolve around economics, and certainly there is truth to them. Housing costs have exploded, and traditional childcare routes are expensive. Due to the ever-shifting nature of our economy, many young adults feel professionally unstable and financially precarious. 

Writing earlier this month in The New York Times, Anna Louie Sussman argued that declining fertility is tied not merely to finances, but to a broader sense of existential instability permeating modern life. As she put it: “Many of the forces our economy is built on — AI, immigration, global trade — feel distressingly volatile; disruption, once a byword for a disturbance or problem, is the governing ethos of a terrifyingly powerful sector of our economy. The rise of prediction markets has turned the world into one large casino. The climate crisis is spiraling, as are the costs of everything that could enable parenthood, whether that’s a roof over one’s head or child care.”

There’s no question that younger generations feel anxious about the future; but........

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