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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To let my DD go on strike on Friday? (Youth Strike for Climate Change protest)

93 replies

PuppyMonkey · 22/05/2019 13:59

She’s very passionate about the environment and has even been suffering from anxiety worrying about the future of the planet. I think it’ll be good for her to attend the local protest march on Friday.

She’s written a brilliant letter to her form teacher expressing her reasons for wanting to go. The teacher said “thanks for this, it’s great.” I’ve also emailed the head informing him she intends to strike, no response yet.

Am I going to get a massive fine?Confused

I think she has a basic right to peaceful protest. Am I wrong?

She’s in Year Seven.

OP posts:
Porpoises · 23/05/2019 17:34

It's climate change that is more likely to put us back in the dark ages. Climate breakdown may well cause the collapse of our civilization.

Don't just take my word for it, watch the recent David Attenborough documentary.

Pk37 · 23/05/2019 17:36

As long as she isn’t going to be one of those ones on the news sobbing and hugging each other

SmileEachDay · 23/05/2019 18:32

You’re wrong about nuclear energy. It’s not a particularly good solution. France has committed widely to nuclear power and has emissions four times higher than needed to reach internationally agreed climate change objectives.

What is needed is a change in behaviour-using less energy (domestic and industrial) is a far, far more efficient way of reducing emissions than changing the way we produce it.

Look at plastic bags: a small charge made a massive change in behaviour.

Protests, particularly by a younger generation are effective as a part of changing the behaviour of a population and of individuals.

MsTSwift · 23/05/2019 19:14

I have had a gang here making placards all off their own bat. 10 year old gutted she can’t go too

PuppyMonkey · 23/05/2019 19:38

We’ve also made banners Ms Swift Grin

OP posts:
Gth1234 · 23/05/2019 20:33

how will the climate change lobby put us back to the dark ages?

IMO, in simplistic terms.

The (western) world runs on consumption. The rest of the world is deadly poor, and trying their damnedest to get to the West. The governments of the West dealt with the recession by making money cheap in order to maintain consumption.

They want and need us to buy houses, cars, holidays, entertainment. meals out, computers, mobile phones, hot tubs, etc etc. and so on.

We want better services (labour's clarion call), medicine, education, policing, transportation, infrastructure, pensions, welfare. It all costs money.

If we stop spending and consuming then millions will end up out of work. If millions are out of work the welfare state grinds to a halt, and most of us face poverty. Look at the reaction to Thomas Cook, British Steel, and Jamie Oliver just this week. Sympathy with people losing their jobs. But to prevent them losing their jobs, we need to spend more. Enough of us need to spend to keep most people in work, and keep the merry go round running.

If the West stops spending and consuming we will revert to a much poorer economical model.

Our nuclear reactors use nuclear fission, not fusion which is the problem. Workable nuclear fusion is the goal. Unlimited free energy.

hilbobaggins · 23/05/2019 21:23

I’m in total agreement with you @Gth1234. I’d actually be very interested to see your original diatribe. People here have no fucking clue how unbelievably privileged and comfortable our lives are and how ghastly things would be under any kind of hardcore “green” agenda. If you’re anxious now, just wait to see the havoc that would wreak.

And the Greta Thunberg phenomenon is repulsive. That child is being exploited. And hers is a weird, anti-human, doom-mongering message that seems to be designed to terrify children. I can’t believe how many middle-class parents seem to be lapping it up. We should be calming our children down, not ramping up their fear and anxiety. Good decisions are never made in a state of fear and anxiety, and we should know that.

These problems will be resolved by business and technology and the kind of investment that can only happen in a strong capitalist economy. Stop putting pressure on the government to take your rights away. “Please tax us more, it’ll be fine if you call it a green tax!” It’s insane.

Porpoises · 24/05/2019 07:13

These problems will be resolved by business and technology and the kind of investment that can only happen in a strong capitalist economy.

But why is this not happening? I think the "we need to panic" message resonates because there is a truth to it, that scientists are saying we have about a decade left before the world's used up all the carbon that we can ever burn. Maybe we can do carbon capture and storage, but that technology is no where near to the required scale, and governments/people are not investing in it seriously. Ditto with other business and technology alternatives.

I welcome debate and criticism of a hard green agenda, but where are the groups campaigning for an alternative that actually achieves what's scientifically necessary? At least greta thunberg understands the urgency of this.

PuppyMonkey · 24/05/2019 09:30

Well, they’ve just left for the local protest event.Shock

I did just ring into the school again in case the office staff were unaware and explained again. The woman said: “That’s great, thanks!”

Phew.

OP posts:
SE13Mummy · 24/05/2019 17:10

My DD went to school as usual. Along with the vast majority of her Y9 friends who were definitely going to the strike today Hmm .

PuppyMonkey · 24/05/2019 19:02

About 200-300 people at our local march. DD said it was a good event, she enjoyed the experience.

Her dad said it was all a bit haphazard and there were lots of stoned older kids there holding Cuban flags which he was a bit Hmm about. He did get interviewed by local radio station though.

All in all, a good experience but I’m not sure she’ll do it again.

OP posts:
kalopali · 24/05/2019 19:05

Thank god my DC are petrolheads and not snowflakes.

KatieHack · 24/05/2019 19:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PuppyMonkey · 24/05/2019 20:46

Thanks Katie - Or maybe I’ve raised a snowflake Wink

OP posts:
hilbobaggins · 26/05/2019 08:43

@Porpoises

These problems will be resolved by business and technology and the kind of investment that can only happen in a strong capitalist economy.

But why is this not happening?

I’m sorry but this just demonstrates a real lack of understanding of what is actually happening. Do you honestly think that there is no investment and successful innovation in these technologies in this country? We are making massive strides forward in areas such as converting plastic waste into energy, advanced battery science and hydrogen fuel solutions. These are British companies who are leaders in the field - people who are actually working hard on ways to make our energy cheaper, greener and more efficient.

One of the problems in the increasingly hysterical “climate crisis” reporting is that there is never an acknowledgement of the excellent work already done in this country by industry (and, yes, by successive UK Governments) in this area. This is not sensible, balanced reporting; it is click-bait, designed to create fear and to get you reading (and panicking, and seeking out even more alarming stories). That’s the way news reporting works, and has done for generations. And it matters, because without fully understanding where we are, and how far we’ve come, we can’t make sensible choices about where we go from here.

Really, anyone genuinely interested in trying to make a difference in this area should stop virtue-signalling and banner-waving and demanding that “the Government does something”, and put their money where their mouth is by investing in companies who are developing long-term technologies that will make a difference.

Alicatz66 · 26/05/2019 08:48

I would let her go .. good luck to her .. and you don't have to justify yourself to people here either !!!
It's a great thing to see young people feeling passionately about these issues ..
for so long it seemed that young girls especially cared about nothing more than celebrities and eyebrows!!!!
🌸🌸🌸🌸

Alicatz66 · 26/05/2019 08:50

Oh ... ha ha .. I'm late to the party !
Glad she went though ! X

Porpoises · 27/05/2019 15:16

@hilbobaggins I actually work in the renewable energy field as an engineer. I know what we are achieving. But it is nowhere near fast enough to meet the challenges.

I've been watching the climate science for over a decade, watching the lines of "projected co2 emissions that we need" and "actual co2 emissions that happened" move further and further away from each other. We need world carbon emissions to halve within 10 years but instead they are still rising. This won't be fixed without radical change.

I've also seen that we need governments on board. To give just one example, the recent UK cuts to solar subsidies have pretty much killed off an industry that was reducing its costs so fast that it was projected to be able to stand on its own in 3 or 4 more years. Now those companies are gone and the experienced workers have left for other sectors.

So I have turned to activism.

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