Is climate change going to ruins my childrens lives?

[CrissCrosser]

I honestly sometimes worry that I shouldn't of bought kids into this world. I'm petrified that shit will really hit the fan and my children will really suffer from climate change and it's impacts.

I think humankind will carry on as it is until we kill ourselves off, we just won't change. As sad as that is. I guess even this thought is selfish but I just want my kids to live a normal happy life and not suffer, and be killed by climate change.

Or is it just too late? Are we the last generation to not be heavily affected?

I guess where does it end. I desperately want my children to be ok. But then their future children. And their children's future children.

It all just makes me so sad. Why won't we just change.

Yes it is shit BUT I think the only way not to go completely mad is first to live YOUR best life and second to contingency-plan. You have now had your kids so it's too late to worry about that decision. Think of what you can do individually so that you and your kids are living with as small an environmental footprint as possible (given the constraints of being in a first world country and not wanting to live in a mud hut!). So Be the change you want to see and all that stuff...
But also maybe do a bit of prepping, to the extent that you can. This sounds bonkers I know but having a store full of dried food, lots of water containers/filters, spare clothes, fire-making stuff/ basic meds/a bit of a plan... What would you do in the case of x y or z scenario....learning useful stuff too...growing food/basic plumbing...
If anyone I actually knew in RL had any idea I think this way they'd be flabbergasted, but it helps me to feel a bit less helpless in the face of what is the existential crisis of our time. It's also quite good fun and takes your mind off stuff: plan boring day to day survival instead of thinking of the horror - and also some of the prepping websites are kind of funny so it can lighten the load a bit. Anyway, just a thought! Good luck.

@CrissCrosser

Shouldn't of posted this. Don't think I can deal with the answer that I knew was coming. I feel so guilty for their future lives, mental health. It truly breaks my heart.

There is proven research that taking positive action on issues you care about improves your mental health and reduces feelings of despair and hopelessness. So my advice is stop thinking and start doing, you will inspire your children and give them hope.

I agree it is depressing. Especially at the moment with everything going on and the waste from disposable PPE etc.

We just have to try our best to do our bit, and teach our children how to do their bit too. I know that the main problems are the big companies rather than the little people but like someone said upthread we need to at least show our children we tried.
Stay hopeful and positive as much as you can!!

IMO I don’t think humans are going to carry on.

Did you know that if life on earth was like a 24-hour clock humans have only been here 6 seconds?! And look at the wreckage we’ve caused already!

We’ve only been here between 2 and 4 millions years. There are already far too many of us.

The dinosaurs lasted 65 million years and they didn’t make it in the end either.

I don’t have kids and when people trot out the “carrying on the human race” line, I feel that has no real merit tbh.

My heart does go out to you OP and your worries for your children’s future though

Even if we COULD solve climate change there are natural changes the earth has gone through many times before such as a other ice age. We can’t stop that.

Plus there just aren’t enough resources for our over-populated planet even if we could solve climate change.

YY to having less children. The single biggest thing we can do for climate change is actively reduce the population to sustainable levels. But very few people talk about this openly, and it gets hardly any positive press attention. I am surprised that Prince William doesn't get more flak for having three children, especially as their consumation of resources will be much larger than the average person.

You always get someone who brings up China's one child policy, or someone else who says 'where are the next generation of taxpayers coming from'. I'm not advocating for zero or quotas (because both are unworkable), but surely it's obvious that if there is an unsustainable number of people on the planet now then even direct replacement is too much. Yet I know a number of people who are planning two or more children despite this. I don't understand the mentality at all. FWIW we aren't having any, in large part due to a combination of climate change and the kind of awful world they will have to be adults in and to somehow balance out one of my relatives who wants a fucking football team despite flashing all his eco credentials at every opportunity.

"I don’t have kids and when people trot out the “carrying on the human race” line"

Is that a line? Do people really think the human race will die out without you having a kid? Wow.

I'm surprised at Prince William too. All this planning a 4th child stuff...just why?!

As a UK resident - I don't think my children are doomed. I think some of the mitigation policies could be quite tough and they will have lifestyles different to ours but not necessarily in a bad way. I think we'll reorganise around climate mitigation and I hope reassess what a good life looks like. But pp are right - it's scary when things feel so far out of control and it can get overwhelming. So look at some of the community groups that are doing really positive things to organise and make a difference. You'll be with other people who also care and you won't be alone and panicking.

@DavidsSchitt

"I don’t have kids and when people trot out the “carrying on the human race” line"

Is that a line? Do people really think the human race will die out without you having a kid? Wow.

I'm surprised at Prince William too. All this planning a 4th child stuff...just why?!

Yes it’s on the bingo card to say to people who don’t have children. Some people honestly think they are doing a noble thing and “carrying on the human race”

It IS depressing, worrying and to a large extent irreversible at least in our lifetimes.
I take more of an optimistic outlook (it won’t be as bad as all that) but my dh feels like you do. In fact he had a bit of a breakdown about it two years ago.
After some short term therapy he has become involved in a climate action group. Basically lobbying the local council which is one of the largest in the UK. He’s met a group of good people who have become good friends and he feels like he’s making small progress with quite a big beast. His mental health had improved enormously.

Is that a line? Do people really think the human race will die out without you having a kid?

@DavidsSchitt Yes, that's been said to me. Tbh, it's an emotive subject as having children is a binary decision and I find a lot of parents get (understandably) quite defensive in a discussion about climate change if overpopulation comes up (nb - I don't go around haranguing parents, sometimes it genuinely comes up!). The other things that are usually said are, 'We try our best to reduce our footprint and educate our children' (Great, but you will have no control over what they do as adults, nor over what your descendants do) or, 'What if they cure cancer / fix climate change etc.' (That would be amazing, but unlikely - it's statistically more likely to help if you have fewer / no children).

I've never understood the mentality of we must have a younger population to pay taxes and look after the oldies. It's like the pandemic with exponential growth, when those youngsters are old you need more youngsters and on it goes.
I do think that we have the ability to change things, but so many people don't really care because it isn't affecting them personally at this moment in time. Just look at the increased bookings for foreign holidays within days of announcing lockdown lifting. People think that a bit of recycling will do it, when the reality is our whole way of living needs to change, and most people aren't prepared to do that.
I do think our future generations are in for a tough ride.

This does keeps me up at night sometimes with worry. I feel so helpless, we can all individually only do so much and beyond that we need governments to grow some balls and take firm action, and certain industries and big businesses need curtailing massively.
It seems such an awful legacy to leave for our children when we’ve had the luxury of being able to grow up without this shadow cast over us

OP there's really no excuse for wallowing in this.

1. Go and work in the sustainability wing of pretty much any major industry. As an ignored previous poster said, the bad industries are way ahead of us pearl-clutchers on this stuff

1. go and work for ecover/a wind energy company

1. join extinction rebellion if that is your politics. Join your local climate action group if it isn't and keep that Overton window shifted

1. switch energy supplier. but don't get sucked into the "acts of micro-consumerist bullshit" where all the energy gets dissipated into complaining about plastic straws or getting annoyed if someone prints out meeting minutes (this is the biggest barrier to running a successful climate action group - everyone's "pet" compliance activity).

5 Don't fly (easy right now!)

If your children were in any other dangerous situation you wouldn't sit and wallow, you'd crack on and do something about it. So do that.
4.

Life will be different, but I don’t think it’s going to be ‘worse’ than life for many of our forebears.

Teach them the skills they need to understand and connect with nature, to defend themselves if necessary, and advise them to take careers offering flexibility.

Bit like what we should do anyway.

I agree op, I do everything I can to lessen our impact.

The emergence of covid has direct links to our treatment of nature, wildlife,.destruction of nature and the planet. If we do not change our ways, from the top, downwards, we can expect many, many more pandemics and a fate worse than we can imagine.

It is a worry, OP, and one not shared by enough people so I understand the depressed feeling. But I also think your children are here now and they need to see your example as being an agent of change. Many things we can do on a personal level but the biggest agent for change are governments, so get campaigning and lobbying. I think we all know instinctively that our own small efforts are a drop in the ocean, don’t even know if our recycling is actually recycled etc, but if you join a group or consistently lobby for political change, then that has wide ranging benefits and you will feel empowered where you see it happen. Even organisations like Avaaz, you can add your voice with one click and make occasional donations where it can help.

AdventureIsWaiting
You're right. Population size really is the elephant in the room (and I also have relatives who float around barefoot wearing Indian cottons and getting very excited by their two enormous cars being replaced by hybrids and all the other 'eco' stuff they do Drives me nuts. )
UltimateBlends
Absolutely. The idea that we'll somehow 'beat' pandemics if we all just complied more is like fiddling while Rome burns. We need total structural change. But that's not something most want to hear I don't think!

I feel the same way OP. I live in Australia and despite the country already being severely effected by climate change, our current pm is a climate change denier who once brought a lump of coal to parliament to say how great it is. (I have attached the picture of this in case you want to laugh/cry). So I see how hopeless it all is.

In regards to having children, yes I do feel bad. The only thing I can say is that risk has always applied to everyone, no child at any time in history is guaranteed a happy easy life. The best I can hope is that they have a good few years, then they will have to take their chances like all of us.

I don't have children. I never had a massive drive to and it just didn't happen - so I cannot claim that climate change was a factor. It does make me glad that I don't have any children now though. I am always amazed by people happily having more and more children without any seeming concern about what their future may be like. I am one of life's worriers though and tend to catastrophise.

I can really recommend a podcast called 'A Little Piece of Mind' by Emma Bird. It is not about climate change. It is about anxiety and a new way to approach fears like this. It has massively helped me.

We have known that this was going to happen for 35 years.

Someone has to be the generation who are here at the very end.

So your kids, or their kids etc.

I would rather be here for the last chapter than not at all.

You can something.

If not too late, two kids max.
No new cars
Limit your flying
Eat seasonally
Limit the stuff you buy. Replace things when worn out or outgrown, not because you fancy a new one.
Zero food waste. Serve less , if kids have cleaned plate they can have more if it is available. Batch cook to save fuel. No pouches, no bottled water, obvious saves like that.
Jumpers on before heating on.
Minimise driving and engine running. Especially outside the school.

You can DO something, even...

Has anyone on here actually done any research on what the U.K. will be like as climate change progresses ? I have done some reading because threads like this were giving me the absolute fear. In this country the affects will not be as severe as in other parts of the world and life as we know it will not be over in our children’s lifetimes .

Cupcake
You're right in a sense. And it's always good to try to keep some perspective. But it's not about only the effect of rising overall temperatures. So I don't think anyone would argue for example that the UK would become unliveable-y hot. Parts of it will probably get a lot colder because we are currently only this temperate due to the North Atlantic Drift. The gulf stream is affected by climate and is predicted to get weaker.
The far greater issues are global ones which affect everyone in a globalised world. So food and water security, low-lying areas being flooded out; a greater preponderance of extreme weather events making life a lot harder in some places; the effects of this on poverty and mass migration and therefore wars etc etc.
But yes we should all keep a bit of perspective and just be bloody glad we live in a first world country which may be able to mitigate some of the problems.