Thanks for this explanation, but intuitively, this calculation method seems ridiculous. Not only the emissions of the whole lifetime of your kid, but also all of their kid and so on? And there are so many uncertainties here: how big is your lifespan? How big is the lifespan of your kid and his kids, how many kids will they have, how big will their emissions in 50 years be?
Even considering all this, if an average European adult uses 10 tons of CO2, how can a kid rack up 58 tons? It’s all smells of presenting the data to prove a point that you should have no kids.
And then, I’d really like to know how big is a cost of offsetting 1 ton of CO2. All I find are laughably small rates:
A 2016 study conducted by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace reported that the average price of a carbon offset is about $3.30 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent
If that was the case, then becoming vegan would have an annual effect of $5, not driving a car $10, and the total CO2 footprint of one person would be worth $30. If these were the true costs, then the global price of offsetting the carbon emissions would be negligible.
So if an airline brags, that they offset the carbon footprint of your long distance flight, it means that they paid $10 for an offset on your $1000 ticket.
I would be careful with finding darwinian explanations to phenomenons that can be simply be explained away by culture and education. Having children today is a conscious choice made by thinking beings, not the result of our genes. We are indeed programmed to desire sex like all animals but I not so sure about the desire to have children… It was never necessary to have this desire as sex is enough.
Having many children is mostly a social construct, sometimes through tradition, religion or family pressure. It is more a viral meme than a genetic question at this point.
Like practically all human behaviour it is determined by both genes and culture. It’s hard to estimate how much each determines but once I read a book (about children psychology) by neurologist that said it’s probably half-half for most behaviours. Short term culture has bigger impact, long term genes determine more. It was proven by studies of twins adopted by different families. “Blank State” by Steven Pinker is a good summary of these studies.
Who does it make feel good? Not me. I thought that CO2 “offsetting” actually means that you pay money, and they will pump out 1 ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Either by planting trees, or by some other measures. But by looking at these websites and what they offer, it’s more like some charity programs that are supposed to heal your guilty conscience.
Anyway, let’s not discuss this here further, or I will have to engage in the tedious work of splitting this thread.
So drastic before I get to chip in?
I can’t wait to see the first brave soul calculate the effects of the current Covid19 crisis on greenhouse gas emissions and how it did exactly nothing to change the climate.
Financially is a challenge --> we went from 6k expenses to 10k (kitas are crazy expensive…, I know that are cheaper alternatives, but no one that fits our needs / wishes)
Freedom depends what you really enjoy in life. We love to travel so we ensure that we keep at least a monthly travel (not last month )
What I struggle more (specially after the second), find time for myself to do whatever I want.
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