Was AOC right? Poll says a third of Americans agree folks should consider threat of climate change before having kids

Freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) made waves last week when she suggested many young people are questioning whether or not to have kids because of the threats presented by climate change.

After the news hit, Business Insider conducted an online poll and found nearly 30 percent of Americans do, indeed, believe people "should consider the negative and potentially life-threatening effects of climate change" before bringing a child into this world.

What are the details?

Speaking on Instagram-live to her followers while chopping food in her kitchen Feb. 24, Ocasio-Cortez said, "Our planet is going to hit disaster if we don't turn this ship around, and so it's basically like, there's a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult."

She went on to suggest, "it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, should, 'Is it OK to still have children?'"

Business Insider's poll "found that nearly 30 percent of Americans either strongly agree, agree, or somewhat agree that a couple should consider the negative and potentially life-threatening effects of climate change when deciding whether or not to have children."

Among respondents ages 18 to 29, the rate was even higher, with nearly 38 percent agreeing that climate change is a legitimate concern when mulling whether or not to have kids.

Anything else?

A group in the U.K. called BirthStrike has vowed not to procreate — declaring themselves "on strike" from having children — until the earth "no longer faces global extinction," according to the Times of London.

BirthStrike founder Blythe Pepino explained her reasoning behind not having children in an interview with the BBC, saying, "Our planet is in a kind of collapse. The natural world is collapsing around us, and that's actually happening right now."

"And I'm so disappointed by the response by authorities to this crisis, and so freaked out by everything that I've read that I've — I've basically last year I came to the decision that I couldn't bring a child into that," Pepino continued. "And I was asking around people I know, put it up a little bit on Facebook and realize actually quite a lot of other people are making this decision. Yeah, and so, we realized it was really, really important to tell the public that there are people out there are so scared about this that they feel they can't actually have a family."