Is Having Fewer Kids Good For Environment? Here’s What Elon Musk, Father of 7, Thinks

Giving an example of Japan, Musk said the dwindling birth rate in the East Asian country has posed a challenge to the civilisation.

Washington/New Delhi: Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is never afraid to speak his mind. This time, his two words of wisdom have come on the topic of growing population and its impact on environment. As the debate around “Is having fewer kids good for the environment” goes on, Musk terms this as “total nonsense”. He argues that having kids is important to save the civilisation and the environment would be fine even if the number of humans on the planet is doubled.

“Some people think that having fewer kids is better for the environment. It’s total nonsense. The environment is going to be fine even if we doubled the number of humans,” Musk said while addressing All-In Summit. Giving an example of Japan, Musk said the dwindling birth rate in the East Asian country has posed a challenge to the civilisation. Japan has negative population growth. Japan’s population declined by 600,000 last year.

Musk said Japan could cease to exist because of its dwindling birth rate. He recounted how some modern-day parents argue against having kids. “I have heard many times. ‘How can I bring a child into this terrible world? I’m like ‘have you read history? Because let me tell you, it was way worse back then,” Musk, father of seven, said.

Theory suggests having one less child per family can help save Earth

However, Elon Musk did not provide evidence to back up his claims. But it comes after a previous theory gained traction by suggesting that “having one fewer child per family could save approximately 58.6 metric tons of carbon each year in developed countries”. CNBC reported that having a child is seven times worse for the climate in CO2 emissions annually than the next 10 most discussed mitigants that individuals can do.

However, as per a separate report, change in lifestyle and a compounding change in pro-climate policies could have a greater impact on the environment than simply not having children.

(With inputs from ANI)