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)

That's not noble when it's the only choice they had. I'd rather they bring back all the glass bottles. Mobile phones didn't exist. I know plenty of elderly who had two cars, two homes, dryers, overseas holidays, tvs in more than one room. They also drove around in cars spewing leaded petrol, threw away things rather than recycled them (including all those glass bottles and paper), used leaded paint, burned coal and had wood burners, to name a few things.

I feel that the burden of change should fall on older generations (including myself) as they often have more resources with which to do it

Oh you do, do you? that's a handy cop-out for the kids that are so disgusted with them, isn't it? they can continue consuming, never mind the world you're so worried about them living in when they're older.

Clearly your parents feel differently. I bet they really look forward to family visiting 🙄

Good lord.
Solar panels are not worth investing in if you are elderly. Life is too short to feel cold and not see the world.
Let's hope they leave what's left to environmental causes.

I do get it OP although I still think they could do much worse. My other half is from a country where recycling isn’t a thing, anywhere. Even where there is wealth. Landfill is seemingly everywhere when travelling around it. When I first visited, it opened up my eyes to how inconsequential me diligently rinsing my baked beans cans might be and how it really is down to governments to do the lion’s share. Depressing, I know. Not that I don’t still try to do my part, though!

I used to tie myself in knots trying to single handedly save the planet but discovered what we do individually doesn’t really make a lot of difference and what you save in one area you lose in another. I’m still careful but not obsessed and while wanting a better future ecologically is commendable you can’t force others to do what you think best.

This stuff makes fuck all difference while China and US are powering through their fossil fuels.

I'm with you OP, there is a clear age divide between those who want to manage and reduce the impact we have on the environment and those who don't care.

To put it bluntly, your parents won't see or feel the impact so see no reason to make even minor sacrifices.

This is why it needs to be policy led. And also about making the best decisions as individuals. For example, did you know the biggest impact you could have (bigger than an electric car,no flights and so on, all put together) is to ensure your pension and investments go to only environmentally positive organisations.

On the later 2 no that's just your opinion and judgement.

On the first in terms of heating it's not a case of putting a jumper on do either of them have arthritis by any chance?! As being cold causes a big impact on joints making them more painful. I doubt they want to have to explain they are in greater pain or they want to spend the money on gas bills so instead heat their home to help aid them.

Yes, I think it's not uncommon amongst older people to carry on as before because they know climate change won't affect them as much personally. My neighbours fall into that category; they've burned mattresses in their garden before and don't believe climate change is real. But I know plenty of younger people too with massive cars, the latest gadgets, several foreign holidays and a wardrobe full of fast fashion. Change needs to come from the top, or it won't happen. If I was in my 60ies or 70ies I probably wouldn't install solar panels either because they won't make their money back before I die.

Ok the putting heating on in summer is excessive but your other complaints are a little ott. One person's unnecessary flight is another's important and solar panels are not as good as some think.

The real changes need to come from the very rich who fly all the time and have much larger footprints

You must have lived in a fairly privileged world then, back in the 60s, 70s, 80s , this was not common for the average working class, lower middle class family to have holidays abroad at the frequency people do now, to run two cars, tv's in more than 1 room, dryers etc

As time moved on and these things became cheaper yes, but back in previous decades not so common

😂😂😂😂

So you can have a spare room and a car and phones but they should sacrifice their lifestyle because they are old.

I'm disgusted that your son has a phone when two cans and some hemp string would suffice.

The rampant consumers (especially of plastics and very cheap clothes that are made of artificial fibres and travel from China) are generally the younger generations, for goodness' sake.

I don't have solar panels. My passion in life is travelling. However, I buy very little compared to many (can't afford to while saving for my next trip).

But I recycle and avoid plastics where I can. And I wouldn't appreciate being lectured by my kids.

This type of hectoring is what turns people off from listening.
felt this needed repeating!
Its probably a jealousy, your children will have never been on holiday, owned electronic devices, had the heating on unless there was ice on the inside of the window, would never have worn new clothes, spent all their spare time looking after your garden where you grow all your own vegan produce of course!

Have you educated your children on the real drivers of climate change and the refusal by those governments to do anything? This pisses me off like the lies behind antibiotic resistance. Younger people do have the resources to use reusable water bottles and coffee cups. Your parents generation (and mine) didn't create the plastic waste etc that is around today. It isn't elderly people buying the seasonal crap from B&M, Poundland etc. Our first all inclusive holidays had us using a ticket system for real glasses, not plastic. Our parties didn't have a million balloons. As said, no central heating, sparce bathing, nothing disposable, not even nappies. The amount of light pollution is having a detrimental effect on our wildlife. I don't think that I'd be as zealous on recycling if I lived in Blackpool. You and your children need to not be so closed minded and think things out a bit more.

Personally, I expect less from younger generations as they have less money to pay for lifestyle changes ... I feel that the burden of change should fall on older generation ...

The burden of change should fall on those with the money and (more especially) the power to create change, who are sometimes young and sometimes old. I really dislike the attempt to cast climate change issues as a 'young versus old' thing. Many of today's older people were the younger environmental activists of an earlier age (and there would have been many, many more if 'activism' in those days just meant posting on social media, as it does today). The fact that politicians and corporations have lied and procrastinated in relation to climate promises isn't the fault of people who happened to be born in a particular range of decades (and whose year-for-year carbon footprint may well be lower than that of the device-ridden young).

The belief that individuals can make a real difference is a massive con. Governments and big businesses are the ones who need to bring about change.

Leave your parents alone to enjoy their retirement as they choose.

Rubbish. Everyone I knew back then was working to middle class. My own family were definitely lower working class and had one car, but that doesn't negate that everything - glass, paper, plastic, went to landfill. Not to mention how many of that generation smoked and flicked butts everywhere. Or the amount of leaded petrol and paint they threw away everywhere. They're also the generation that us younger ones used to comment on that threw around the most garden chemicals everywhere. Environmentally light they were not!

I'm 67,last night i sat in my living room and felt quite cold. It was raining and the outside temperature had dropped. I didn't put the heating on, but at one point I did contemplate using the electric fire to warm up. I was dressed sensibly BTW. Older people often feel the cold more, we get less active for starters. Why should older people freeze rather than use central heating?If that is what they want , why can't they? It really is miserable being cold[ been there as a child].

There are 8 billion people on this earth! Commercial companies worldwide are churning out tonnes of CO2 by the minute- The USA, China, India etc. don't give a hoot about it. It's ridiculous to resent and be disgusted by a little old couple having a nice holiday and putting their heating on for a while to keep the chill off while the world's rich are taking private jests and basking in air-conditioned luxury villas the whole year and the world's largest economies and leaders continue unregulated. It won't make a jot of difference to the future what you or I or your parents do in our life-time.

Look on the bright side. If they're elderly, their impact is likely to be time-limited.

I honestly don't give a shit about carbon footprint and the future. I'm broke. I barely do anything or go anywhere.

Until the rich are stopped in their tracker, I'm not going to change my behaviour.

I hate this business of pitting generation against generation.

My parents are both dead but would be almost 100 if still alive. They were brought up in the war and never wasted anything, especially not food.

As for my husband and I (I'm in my 60s, he's in his 70s), I think we do pretty well.

We have solar panels.

We drive an 18 year old car (which we will soon be replacing with a plug-in hybrid). We walk when we can. All our working lives we commuted to work by public transport and our children went to school by public transport from the age of 11. We haven't flown anywhere since 2016.

We recycle everything we can. We fill less than 1 normal bin bag with rubbish every fortnight. We have virtually no food waste (peelings etc go in the compost).

We use the "eco" settings on the washing machine and dishwasher and use the tumble dryer only for towels and in the winter/when it's raining. We have a water butt to conserve water.

We don't buy fast fashion. We expect clothes, household items and furnishings to last.

No doubt we could do more. We eat meat - though usually only 2 or 3 times a week (plus fish) and I always buy it from a butcher rather than a supermarket.

We had children, but only two and quite late in life. I used disposable nappies (and wish now that I had persisted with the washable ones I started off with).

As for heating, well yes, we have it on in the winter, but never in the summer. When our boiler goes, we will replace it with a heat pump.

In summary, there are people of every generation who try to do what they can. There are people of every generation who can't be bothered. Most of us are somewhere in between.

Not the ageist pitchfork thread you were hoping for @Scientistathome ?