Abstract: Environmentalist discourse has long relied on various reproductive futurisms, ranging from the now almost clichéd appeals to our ethical responsibilities to future generations to more radical demands to end human dominance over the planet by ending humanity itself. Such antinatalist stances are burdened by the legacies of Malthusianism, colonialism, classicism, and racism, and tend to pit current humans against future ones. This article explores the intersection of climate change discourse and antinatalist ideas in contemporary British public discourse and cultural expressions by considering some recent examples which highlight tensions between the individual and collective spheres. These include much publicised calls to reduce the human population for environmental reasons, spectacularised poverty and its associations with uncontrolled reproduction, as well as controversial contradictions between the public stances of prominent figures on overpopulation and their personal reproductive choices. This is followed by a reading of the satirical take on antinatalist environmental policies presented in the recent dystopian novel ‘The Offset’ (2021), published under the pen name Calder Szewczak. The novel, set in a future Britain ravaged by climate change, troubles the ethics of environmentalist antinatalism by showing how easily environmentalist measures morph into ecofascism. Finally, the quandary of imagining an ahuman future is briefly discussed. While all imaginaries of the future necessarily entail considerations of reproduction, art allows for an insightful probing of nonreproductive futurisms.

Keywords: antinatalism, environmentalism, population, cultural representation, satire