Understanding Elon’s 12: Has Musk switched allegiances from climate to the fertility crisis for good?

We might be a few months too late but we congratulate Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the birth of his 12th child; our felicitations extend to Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis as well. It is no doubt a happy occasion for the parents, but when a person with as much street cred as Musk has his third child with one of his employees through IVF, we can hardly let the event slide without so much as wondering why the tech mogul keeps having children.

Now, we do not want to go into the details of Mr Musk’s personal life or discuss his relationships with all the mothers of his children so far — Justine Wilson, Grimes and Zilis (we have a separate story for that). But we can’t help but be interested in what is driving the owner of X (formerly Twitter) to expand his family at this rate given how committed he seemed to support climate action.

Before you come at us with pitchforks for being child-haters, we’re merely stating what studies have already shown: having kids is possibly among the greatest contributors to a person’s carbon footprint. Though the extent of impact has been debated in the scientific community, no one can deny that there is a substantial burden on the planet’s finite resources as the population spikes further.

Mr Musk has fathered a dozen children already. And there’s no telling when baby No. 13 would make an appearance. But we do suspect that the entrepreneur thinks his heart is in the right place. If Musk’s plethora of controversy-evoking tweets and speeches are anything to go by, it seems like the billionaire believes that he’s actually doing humanity a favour by having kids.
What he thinks of the fertility crisis
The global birth rate is dropping, nearing the point where populations stagnate or decline. This could lead to economic and social problems in the long run. Mr Musk feels very, very strongly about this, and the majority of his children were conceived through IVF.

“If people don’t have more children, civilisation is going to crumble,” he said at an event. “Mark my words.”

Not only does he encourage people to have bigger families, but he’s allegedly said that he wants more ‘smart people’ to have kids (that explains it). He has also joked about doing his best to help the underpopulation crisis around the time news broke that he had secretly welcomed twins with Zilis in 2021. But was he really joking?
And when he welcomed his third child with Grimes a month later, Musk tweeted about it again. This time, he lamented that population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilisation than global warming.
We’re almost certain he fully meant what he said too, given how unserious he has seemed in his intent of curbing the climate crisis in recent times. And climate activists allege that all the baby-making is probably just another smidge of uncredible-ness to his already dwindling imagery as a climate champion.
Does Elon Musk care about climate change or not?
At this point, nobody can tell for sure. His brave choices to start Tesla have undoubtedly revolutionised the electric vehicle industry, offering a path towards cleaner transportation. On multiple occasions in the distant past, he has said that climate change is the biggest crisis facing humanity and he aims to address it through his work.

Elon Musk has even proposed carbon taxes to incentivise a shift away from fossil fuels. However, his own lavish lifestyle paints a different picture.

Musk's frequent private jet trips generate enormous carbon emissions, directly contradicting the environmental objectives of Tesla. Not to mention, since his acquisition of X, the platform has witnessed a rise in climate denialism, many climate scientists have left the platform frustrated, accusing it of becoming a breeding ground for misinformation.

This directly undermines Musk's image as a champion for a clean energy future. Further muddying the waters are Musk's political leanings. His support for Republican politicians who downplay climate change raises questions about his own convictions.

Clearly, this is hardly the first time we have reason to question Mr Musk’s motives for the planet through the lens of climate change. But if the SpaceX founder has changed his allegiances from the climate crisis to the fertility crisis, the world's richest man is putting his money (and genes) where his mouth is.

Whether Elon Musk is having all these children due to the convoluted notion of saving human civilisation or simply because he adores kids or a little bit of both, is something only he — and probably the mothers of his children — know for sure. But this could just be the right time to ponder further about how individual choices can impact global discourse and vice versa.