The Guardian’s article, “Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children” by Guardian environment editor, Damian Carrington cites a new study, published in Environmental Research Letters that yields a dramatic conclusion that the biggest impact on climate change people can have is to bear one less child. The authors of the study are almost certainly right, but here at ClimateYou, we have serious reservations about their methodology, and question the arbitrary concreteness of their results. To say that an American can reduce his or her CO2 footprint by 58.6 metric tons per year by having one less kid, makes for a splashy headline, but such a bald statement is based on several assumptions and doesn’t adequately account for various variables. More people on the Earth do surely mean more climate change, and slowing the human population growth rate is essential to ensuring a sustainably habitable planet, but to assign one number for what all Americans can do to most contribute to lowering their climate impact introduces a spurious accuracy to a very complex calculation
