Poll: Majority of Democrats Say Having Fewer Children Is ‘Positive’ for Environment

Having fewer children is good for the planet, more than half of Democrat voters believe.

A majority (55 percent) of Democrats say the trend of people having fewer children has a “positive impact” on the environment, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 5,073 U.S. adults conducted between April 10-16 and published in September. Only 28 percent of Republicans hold that same view, as do 41 percent of adults overall. Forty-seven percent of respondents say having fewer children has neither a positive nor negative impact on the environment.

The finding comes after Pew Research polled U.S. adults this year on climate change, revealing that 78 percent of Democrats view “global climate change as a major threat to the country.”

“By contrast, about one-in-four Republicans (23 percent) consider climate change a major threat, a share that’s almost identical to 10 years ago,” according to Pew Research Center, which found that 54 percent of U.S. adults view climate change as a threat.

Democrats’ embrace of climate change alarmism and the majority belief that fewer children are good for the environment is likely rooted in the idea of “overpopulation” and exceeding the earth’s “carrying capacity,” which means to exceed the supposed maximum number of individuals that an environment can sustain over time without destroying or degrading the environment.

Climate scientists claim that climate change is just one symptom of overpopulation, “along with disruptions to our plant’s nutrient cycles and excessive waste buildup,” according to an August Newsweek report titled “Humans Face Major Population ‘Correction’ This Century, Scientist Warns.” These claims are likely in accordance with the belief that humans contribute to climate change and that a greater population exacerbates these contributions.

“Humanity has already exceeded the long-term human carrying capacity of the earth,” population ecologist William Rees said.

In November 2022, the global population hit eight billion, according to estimates by the United Nations Population Division. The U.N. projects the number will balloon to 9.7 billion in the middle of the century, leaving figures like U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry to despair supposedly “unsustainable” population growth.

Overall, and for a variety of reasons, birth rates in the United States have been falling for the past five decades. Scientific American, a left-leaning science magazine, argued in May of this year that “lower fertility rates also typically signal an increase in gender equality.”

“Better-educated women tend to have fewer children, later in life. This slows population growth and helps reduce carbon emissions,” the report states. “And when women are in leadership roles, they’re more likely than men to advance initiatives to fight climate change and protect nature. These outcomes are side effects of policies that are necessary regardless of their impact on population.”

Similarly, the Pew Research survey found that 53 percent of Democrats believe having fewer children has a positive impact on “women’s careers or job opportunities.”