AIBU: Elderly parents do not care about their impact on the environment

[Scientistathome]

My elderly parents acknowledge (in passing) that the human impact on the planet is destructive and that their family's future could be jeopardized.
However, they refuse to do anything about it. They burn gas and electricity in summer to keep warm (extra jumper? Nooo!), Will not Install solar panels (they can afford it), take unnecessary flights, ... the list goes on.
They flaty refuse to change any habits despite that they know they should and could.
I get quite mad with them!
AIBU?
I know it is their choice, not mine but it affects all of us (their grandchildren are quite disgusted with them).
Are other people's parents like this?
(I know that some parents cannot afford eco-friendly choices like solar panels)

I hope you are not inheriting their house, they should take out equity release and spend the money on holidays and flights, leaving you nothing- that would be green enough!

😂😂🙌🏻

You forgot handing over house deposits.

This. But then OP wouldn't able to start MN comment thread #35678 about how old people are terrible

And the balance of a downsized family home

Oh god another ageist thread.

You do your bit OP, their lives, their choice.

Oh and if this is real, stop alienating them from their grandkids

Honestly you need to look after your own carbon footprint not try to police other families.

The lifestyle we led as children and younger adults WAS low carbon, but it was not due to our own effort. As young people, we inhabited the world that the previous generation had shaped. One that was unconsciously lower carbon and where holidays on a plane happened to be an expensive luxury.

The labour involved in living this low carbon, low cost lifestyle as a child was largely provided by Mum. You say that she made your clothes, found second hand toys, had to endure less convenient shopping arrangements, less relaxing holidays and potentially more tricky commutes to work. I am Gen X and remember my Mum doing these things too, …and enthusiastically embracing any advances that made life nicer and more convenient.

So it’s little wonder that many of our peers, once they became mature adults, invented and promoted modern conveniences. Boomer CEOs 20ish years ago were busy leading teams that were developing online shopping, piecing together and promoting cheaper package holidays, putting in place procurement of fast fashion. Bright people with some empathy, who wanted to make the quality of life of others better (as well as making money of course). They largely succeeded and despite the disadvantages that have since come to light, some of these advances gave people, and poorer women in particular, more freedom from drudgery and nicer lives.

So it’s little wonder that some posters feel upset and defensive when confronted with the idea that a lot of these advancements are, as it turns out, wrecking the living environment for their grandchildren.

Younger people are now inhabiting the world our generations shaped, and like us when we were young, they are calling for improvements to support quality of life for all. Climate action isn’t a call to return to the bad old days. It definitely doesn’t mean agreeing to freeze in our own homes or not assertively articulating our needs.

It should be the most natural thing in the world for those of us who grew up in a freezing damp house to demand better for ourselves and the generations after us.

Calling for better access for all to the technical advances in home insulation, and more renewables so we can all still keep warm AND more cheaply this winter. The benefits of this kind of action will be felt by most, but it is women of all ages who will feel the most benefit.

And @Yoghurtpotsatdawn hopefully the younger generations will come up with some better treatments for arthritis. It’s a bastard.

I absolutely agree with all of this.

My DM does everything she can to lower her carbon footprint, she is 75 but believes in improving the outcomes for her grandchildren. She doesn't ask what I have done before she takes any action, what a cynical way to look at it. She is not a fatalist and neither am I step up and stop making excuses, of course doing your bit helps!

f yoir vit helps

My Dad is the same and is working on a environmentally friendly fertiliser for tropical plants. He is 77 but still trying and doing his bit.

Sadly in many places recently that isn't actually true though.

Your parents are old enough to make their own choices YABU

@OilOfRoses many pasts of the UK do NOT have excellent public transport.

ChallengeAnneka. You make some excellent good points and I agree that although life was more environmentally friendly, it was bloody hard, labour intensive and pretty unpleasant.

The advances that have made life fairer and more comfortable and less exhausting, should be used thoughtfully and resources not squandered to the point we leave behind a catastrophic legacy. There’s a balance between going back to hand washing, living in damp, cold conditions and making all our clothes by hand, and castigating those who put their central heating on if they need to and not putting solar panels on their roofs.

Nor me. The virtue signallers can hug one another to keep warm - I'm sticking the heating on as and when needed.

I spent my childhood winters in a freezing cold house, with endless draughts. I'm not doing it again..🙄

@NannyOggsWhiskyStash Why not everyone likes Greta Thunberg

The young woman screams at professionals who are actually doing their jobs and who are trying to solve environmental problems, people who are highly educated while she, herself, has very rudimentary schooling and expect that because she yells at people and feels a lot, her opinion matters as much as a scientist.

Now, I'm grateful for Greta for taking Andrew Tate down a peg, but I find her annoying too. I know of a girl the same age as her who does amazing work for the UN while managing to stay in school, and she receives no near the same attention as Greta. Perhaps because she's from Sri Lanka. The media has hyped her up to a level I find unhealthy for a young person with mental issues, and I fear what will become of her when they media-attention stops.

I'm another one from a very poor background , I froze to death in the winter when i was a child. I had chilblains every winter. When I was a teen, dad managed to get night storage heaters, as he came into a small amount of money, I can't explain how lovely it was to actually be warm in the house.
Before that it was all second hand everything, I was bought 3 of everything in terms of clothes when money allowed, we never went on holiday, had no car , walked everywhere.
I refuse to be cold: I've done that.

Nor me. The virtue signallers can hug one another to keep warm - I'm sticking the heating on as and when needed

Not having the heating on except when it's really necessary has become one of those things that's used as a moral judgement as if it's a binary choice - are you a GOOD person who cares about the planet and shivers or are you a profligate waster (probably a boomer to boot) who doesn't care about the future of the planet and your grandchildren because you whack the thermostat up at the slightest provocation?

I don't like being too warm. I liked this summer because the temperatures were just right for me, and I leave switching the heating on as long as I can. But like a lot of people here, I grew up in a cold home, I'm very grateful for my heating and I'm not going without it because some smug git like the OP thinks I should to flaunt my (and his) eco credentials.

Where did the OP go? was having his arse handed to him by women just too much for him?

Bloody boomers. How dare they enjoy the later years of their lives after working for decades with a holiday and heating. Maybe you shouldn't have had children if you if you were so worried about carbon footprint.

Yes but don't forget those bloody boomers could by a loaf of bread for 7p and a house for 15K so they are now entirely responsible for any spoiled grandchildren their own offspring may have produced.
Those boomers should sit in the cold and consider the life choices they as individuals made that lead to the decline of society and the death of planet earth.
In fact, they should save the planet by offing themselves, not by going to Dignitas though as that would be an unnecessary flight. The money they worked hard for all of their lives can then be passed down to their undeserving and entitled offspring who could put it towards solar panels and an electric car (conveniently forgetting the damage the production of the batteries causes).
I assume that would make OP happy.

I'm hoping that the elderly parents leave their money ,whatever is left after having the heating on full blast, to Cats Protection , or some such charity.

My Boomer parents live ina council house taking away homes for better deserving families I mean they should just live in a shed!

MrsJayy. Yes get them into a shed immediately. I’m in a 1 bed HA flat. I’m absolutely skint though because I had to take early retirement because my arthritis is so bad, so I think I might not need to move into a shed with your DPs. But who knows. It might be an appropriate penance for all the times I’ve put my heating on.

Heating on and a bedroom I mean 😃

My parents had normal jobs my stepdad manual until he took redundancy and he has lung disease because of his job, I think when people think of "boomers" they see men in red trousers playing golf and cruise ships !

There’s definitely that stereotype of boomers MrsJayy. I have friends who live in big houses and go on lots of holidays but I know plenty like me who due to all different life circumstances are in low paid jobs that they can’t afford to retire from or like me on small fixed incomes and struggling due to health reasons and a financially abuse ex leaving me in a nightmare scenario