So scared for my children.

[Hiker50]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair
I feel terrified for them. I just hope we can start to make some changes in the next few years.
I don’t talk to them about it but I just do end my time thinking about what I can do to try and help them in the coming years.

I think the best thing we can do is vote Green at the next election

Ha ha, no please don't. It would be like having children in charge and you would be waving goodbye to women's rights.

Hello@Hiker50 there is lots we can do as families, individuals, communities and as a society. I'll fess up that I work in STEM research and while we are part government funded we are seeing increasing projects coming through from the mega corporates.

I started a thread on positive action here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/climate_change/4667124-positive-action-on-climate-change-and-sustainability

Ill also go on record that XR and JSO do more harm than good, and glueing yourself to the road is moronic and counterproductive.

Ill also state that the general media reporting, either alarmist doom mongering from the guardian or dismissive denial from the right wing press is appalling. Anything coming out of activist or lobbying organisations is even worse.

Ill post more in a bit but don't despair!

@Daftasabroom Thanks that’s incredibly helpful. I’ve deleted The Guardian - it’s appalling for my mental health.

Genuine question to OP - why did you have children if you are that concerned about it all?

Sorry changes. No matter if we implemented every climate change initiative here will offset china's power stations

Population growth is the big problem. There are far too many people on the planet and they all need food, clothes, warmth, etc., as a minimum all of which takes energy to produce.

The best thing people can do is have fewer children, preferably no more than 2, to try to halt the ever increasing population growth.

Then we need to "re balance" the planet and move populations back to more "natural" locations, i.e. hot places where solar can provide all the power needed, get people living closer to where the raw materials are located to reduce transport of goods, food, etc.

That's funny!

We have a Green city council and they've ruined the city. They've enforced bus gates, one way systems, pedestrianisations, traffic calming, etc which has made the city centre a ghost town where most of the decent shops have closed down, leaving a vacuum of money laundering vape shops, nail bars, Turkish barbers and ethnic supermarkets. People living on one side of the city wanting to go to the other side for the hospital have to take 10 mile detour on the motorway as there are no through roads due to the Greens pedestrianising parts of the main road that used to go through town. How is it "green" to have to drive 10 miles to go 3 miles directly! They're completely bonkers!

Sounds like a decent approach to me

Kurtzegesagt have made 2 realistic but hopeful videos I found helpful. Here's one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yiw6_JakZFc

Here's the otherhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LxgMdjyw8uw

Best thing you can do is not have kids. But being scared won’t change anything. Make good decisions in your own life, vote wisely, and let them be happy.

@Withswitch it seems a bit rich to suggest your child should forgo parenting when you weren't willing to do so?

@Hiker50

No problem! Ill divide the next few posts into themes (a nice distraction in between spring cleaning!)

Theme 1 - Education.

The first is to understand what actually causes global warming. The physics is reasonably straightforward. Most of the energy reaching earth does so as visible light. When that light interacts with some kind of matter it transfers energy. This could be you on your sun lounger, it could be your tomato plants, it could be the air, or the sea. Most, but by no means all, things convert some of this energy to infrared radiation. Don't worry about the word radiation it's just means to give eoff energy radially in all directions, it how radiators work and why they're called radiators. Infrared radiation is what we feel as warmth or heat. Many things continue to emit heat (infrared radiation) even when it's dark, like a patio on a summer night.

Some gases such CO2 and methane also convert visible light into infrared heat. These are the greenhouse gases. When visible light interacts with these gases they radiate infrared heat back to Earth. Warming the planet.

There's lots more on the internet but that's as concise as I can make it.

The next thing I would suggest is that you have a look at some of the free courses for mature students https://www.eastleigh.ac.uk/about/news/ahead-of-cop26-eastleigh-college-launches-new-course-in-environmental-sustainability/ these are paid for by the government and are about GCSE level.

You'll need to get your head around emissions scopes,there a good explanation here https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/focus/climate-change/zero-in-on-scope-1-2-and-3-emissions.html

The next level up is probably the Green House Gas Protocol. They also do some free courses. https://ghgprotocol.org/e-learning-opportunities

At some it'll help to get to grips with the real data. https://ourworldindata.org/ is awesome, but you'll have to dig around a bit

Basically we need to stop burning fossil fuels.

At some point you'll get challenged on the science. Particularly "it's the sun". It isn't, despite the last couple of nights, the sun is in a cooling phase.

Ill post again on easy positive action in due course.

@Hiker50 ignore anyone who says don't have children it's a very dangerous myth.

@LameBorzoi my nearest train station is 270 miles away. How should I get there?

Er no thanks. The Scottish Greens are absolute loons. And they don't seem that bothered about climate change anyway, they're more interested in gaslighting people into believing men can become women.

but the more people who vote green, the more the main parties will pay attention to green issues, even if greens don't get many people in

Research shows that over 65s take the most holidays abroad and it's significantly reduced for young people. I'd suggest you do your research.

By the same argument, every vote for the Scottish Greens is a vote for gender self-id etc. No thanks.

I’d rather there be fewer people so I can live the life style I want than give up what I like .

I can't quite decide whether that's refreshingly honest or staggeringly selfish.

This is incredibly interesting. You’re so kind to do this. Thank you so much.

My children are all in their late teens.
I find people like you really interesting - mumsnet has hundreds of you. Very odd.

@Daftasabroom I think I’ll look into doing a course.

What’s odd about it? It’s a fair question!