Why I don’t want children (and why I think it’s selfish that so many still do)

I’ve thought it often and never said it softly: in a world teetering on the edge of collapse, having a child doesn’t feel like a miracle to me, but like a risk and honestly, a form of selfishness.

We have already crossed every line: the limits of our climate, the carrying capacity of forests, rivers, oceans. There is no ‘leftover space’ where a new human doesn’t drink more water, emit more CO₂, claim more land. The numbers are clear: no ‘green’ lifestyle outweighs simply not having a child. Yet people still choose another baby. For their own happiness. For the ‘complete family’. As if the planet, the animals and the generations after us can afford yet another sacrifice.

And then the child itself. What are you giving?
A world literally on fire? Hurricanes, heatwaves, failed harvests, conflict over water? It sounds dramatic, but whoever dares to look honestly sees this is no dystopia; this is the road we’re already on.
I find it bitter: a child gets no choice. No say in ‘do you even want to be born into a time when summer makes forests smoulder and winter knows no snow?’ It’s a decision someone else makes, often with the best intentions, but rooted in a deep need to feel ‘complete’.
Is that love? Or self-affirmation?

I don’t say this to judge those who do have children, but I can’t stay silent about the side that’s so often kept quiet.
I’m here to be honest: I don’t want children. Not because I don’t love people (I don’t like western people), but because I feel how fragile everything is. I want to give my love, time and energy to protecting what can still be protected: trees, rivers, the little silence that’s left.
And to dogs, who never chose this world but embody innocence far more than we ever will.

My heart beats for life, but not for more people.
I know many think this sounds selfish: “Do you think you’re saving the world by not having kids?” No. But at least I won’t place an extra burden on her shoulders, or extra fear on the head of a child who never asked for it.

This is my selfless choice.

Because it’s the truth.