ILeclerc, Berries, Stars and Cats, I appreciate your commitment to defending your opinions. I don't quite 'get' the motivation though - is it really just to discredit some young activists and cast unfounded aspersions on their character? Literally no harm has been done, so it seems it just comes down to a personal feeling of indignation?
Berries, you are quoting the IPCC report in the most selective way, hinting that any other reading of unfolding world events is alarmist, ill-informed and overly dramatic. This is so sneaky! Parts of the world are indeed becoming 'unlivable' as a direct consequence of man-made climate change: in my professional role I often meet families from countries who report how life is increasingly hazardous or impoverished as a direct result of adverse climate conditions. These places may have experienced similar issues historically, but current events are exacerbated by the climate emergency. Examples include Jordan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Mali, Afghanistan and Somalia.
Further up the thread you suggest that my suggestion to manage our expectations of our future standard of living and working toward sustainable adaptations will cause more death and misery (I paraphrase) than climate change. Really? What do you think is being advocated? We cannot pursue a global or national growth economy indefinitely on a planet of finite resources. A gradual transition to sustainable alternatives will be necessary. Failure to make timely adaptations to mitigate future damage is what will cause untold harm.
Marsha, I remember when Greta first became 'the face' of the climate movement and London and other cities erupted with the first Rebellion events. People would say "That's all very well, these people all moaning about the climate, but what are the alternatives? What are their policies? What do they suggest we should be doing instead? What does XR actually want!? " thus dismissing the concerns of activists as clueless at best or inflammatory hypocrisy at worst. The early core message was always clear, and directed at the governments of the world as opposed to individuals: "Tell the truth" and "Act as if the truth is real". The point I am making is that it should not be up to the populace to solve the climate emergency. Governments need to act responsibly and with due urgency and transparency; to listen to scientists and hold corporations to account. The points you raise about HS2 and nuclear energy are really good examples of where conflicting interests, expected harm vs potential benefit, integrity and timescales collide. Fracking is another one. There is abundant scientific research and evidence that these will cause harm in the short, medium and long term. The irreparable damage to wildlife predicted by the HS2 project may seem surmountable if one's focus is on economic growth (which is what all the 'benefits' essentially boil down to: prioritising the capacity to rapidly transit a workforce or consumers participating in the growth economy), over the preservation of ancient woodlands (with their inherent capacity to sequester carbon), watercourses and the wildlife therein. Nuclear energy is similarly touted as a green alternative and I have yet to see a single solution to the problem presented by the storage of the huge quantities of radioactive waste generated which will not store up dire problems for future generations and be vulnerable to any number of environmental factors, material deterioration or human error, potentially causing critical damage. I grew up experiencing directly the impact of the Chernobyl disaster, which had lasting and damaging impact on the community of my childhood, albeit in another country hundreds of miles away.
Growth may be necessary to enable us to sustain the status quo for a while longer, until other factors inevitably intercept the trajectory, and what happens then will no doubt be more damaging than a planned and anticipated weaning off our dependency on fossil fuels and transitioning to a more sustainable alternative, which should include adjustments in living standards.
And whoever likened the activists of my acquaintance I referred to in my previous post to Antifa; nope, all acquitted of all charges. Not guilty. Judge and jury on the right side of history.