For the third year in a row, the UK birth rate hit a record low, but progressives see no cause for alarm. Fewer citizens means less weight on the earth, reduced carbon emissions, fewer mouths to feed — what's not to like?
However there is a danger that the liberal left is going to literally breed itself out of power!
Left wingers have fewer babies!
In the United States, studies show that left-of-centre people now have considerably less children than their right-wing counterparts — a pattern replicated across much of Europe.
While progressives may take comfort in the fact that reduced numbers help combat global warming, the effect on carbon emissions is slight. A recent US study showed that falling fertility will have little influence in curbing global temperature rise. Real environmental progress is what Americans are spurred by technology advancement and green policy, not by falling population.
The Politics of Parenthood
In short: while the right is propagating, the left is making excuses. The irony is sickening...the same people most committed to social justice, equality, and action on climate change are drifting further away from instilling those values into the next generation — and handing the future over to the most unlikely to respect them.
If progressives want to catch a glimpse of a greener, fairer, more compassionate future, they'll need to invest in the people who will build it — literally, by raising them. A child is not just a carbon emitter, of course. They're also a developing innovator, campaigner, policymaker.
Final Thoughts
This is not about politicizing procreation, though Burn-Murdoch's example makes it hard not to think about the population consequences. As the birth rate falls and society ages, political conservatism naturally gains an advantage. Progressives, he suggests, need to "accept the challenge of raising the people who create the technologies or choose the governments that get us net zero."