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.

This is where I'm aiming to be. I get one ride on this merry-go-round, I intend to enjoy it! I will try my best to be the least impactful I can be (avoid flying, cycle as much as possible, vote carefully, think green when shopping for energy, internet or pretty much anything else, my kids wore second hand reusable nappies, 99% of our clothes are second hand, we reduce and reuse as much as possible, recycle too, we rarely eat meat etc, we're open to learning, evolving and realising when we made mistakes) but beyond that it's too big of a problem to fall on my individual shoulders. It's not fair it should keep me up at night or totally stop me enjoying my own existence.

I read somewhere the world needs 80% of humans trying their best imperfectly rather than 20% doing everything perfectly. That took the pressure off. It can be overwhelming if you let it, and it's pointless because individuals aren't going to fix this.

So, am working on raising kids who are healthy and happy. They are currently content with second hand gifts, charity shop clothes, local camping holidays, old dumb phones rather than the newest handsets, reused paper and cloth decorations at birthdays, candles which have been lit once, being careful with water, respecting energy, looking after our things, having reusable pass the parcel bags, a birthday display with reusable boxes rather than everything gift wrapped etc. It is different to my childhood? Absolutely. Do I sometimes feel they're missing out? Sincerely! Do they know any different? No!! As a kid I didn't get sad that I didn't have the same playing out freedom my mum had in the 60s and 70s. Kinda looking at it like that.

I love this. My kids love charity shops and their ancient phones. We eat well and live well.
I hadn’t thought of the 80% analogy that’s a very good way of putting it. I took great joy in my eldest extensive travel last summer which relied entirely on trains and the occasional coach. She had the best time.
@shouldprobablyturnalighton you and your family sound wonderful.

Yes that wound be a significant problem. Fortunately my body is able to maintain my core temperature. Does yours not do that?

Not with ambient temperature. Not really in the grand scheme of things.

Speaking of the UK specifically we can easily experience a temperature difference of 40 degrees between summer and winter extremes. Having the average temperature increase by a single degree has made bugger all difference.

Young people are entitled to do all them things, why shouldn't they explore and travel the world! It's the celebrities and politicians flying helicopters and first class planes who need to be more responsible, fast food companies and hospitals need to be made to recycle, it's the big corporations having the worst impact of climate change.

Why are young people entitled to travel the world? We all need to what we can . In general I don’t think most young people care at all about the environment. They think they’re entitled to do exactly what they want.

But these 'young people'are around because their parents hads sex and thought having children was a good idea, no matter what people say the world needs less not more people this 'but I want a baby' seems to be more important than any thought going into it

I would much rather a young person took a flight for a once in a lifetime trip, when compared to celebrities using private jets as a form of commuting.

I am not concerned at all about climate change. Good infrastructure can withstand adverse climate conditions, deaths by climate-related events have dropped HUGELY in the last hundred years — this despite a population boom. Never been a safer time to be a human being, your children are lucky tbh.

I do what I can (about to spend a sickening amount of money on an ev as our only car being second hand car we got in 2011 on last legs). Minimise meat / moon cup/ cycle as transport / stopped at two kids/ last few summer holidays car not flights. But we’re not perfect and I’m not going to let worrying about it ruin the time I have left on earth.

Yeah we also stopped at 2 for the same reason even though I don't feel done. and got a hv and thats eye watering enough!! Eep!

I'm afraid your wrong. The air temperature that you feel is a very small element of the effects of global warming and that 1°C makes a huge difference. Global warming world perhaps be better termed increase in global energy content, but it doesn't exactly roll of the tongue!

Just one example: we've just had an incredibly wet and warm winter and spring, this is largely due to warmer oceans leading to more evaporation, equally warmer air is able hold more water vapour before it condenses into clouds. This leads to wetter winters just like those we've just had. The other feature we are increasingly seeing is that weather systems are becoming both more extreme and more stable. So instead of a couple of days of rain or wind, we are seeing weather last for weeks.

It's the energy content we should be worried about not just temperature. Your granny and your toddler probably both have a very similar body temperature, except one of them is running round like a loon while the does crochet down at the WI.

Ask yourself this, if the situation is as dire as the climate scientists make out, why are they continually telling lies and half truths to try to justify their position?

My humble opinion.

Individuals need to educate themselves on more than just what they can pop in the recycling bin and paying for a carbon offset for their flights. This will allow them to make informed choices across the board - who to give their vote to, who to use as a banking provider, who to buy their large purchases from. Relying on the science and evidence rather than MSM click bait.

Businesses need to do things better at the micro economic level. This includes changing to purpose before profit models which place environmental and social metrics on an equal footing with financial/profit metrics. This is a basic tenet of donut economics.

At the macro level, governments and institutions need to implement positive adaptation strategies. The concept of positively adapting to climate change (au fait complet). Town planning and environmental strategies that embrace "coping mechanisms" at community level are needed.

Climate change has happened. The next question is how we can mitigate further warming and then learn to adapt.

Ask yourself this - how long can you afford to put your head in the sand?

Polar ice caps are showing evidence of warm water inundation from below the caps - this WILL create rising sea levels at a higher than expected rate and affect weather. This WILL negatively impact the world's poorest and most vulnerable communities. This in indisputable.

They aren't.

However, translating the complexity of scientific debates into media bites is fraught. All the ifs and buts get lost in translation.

Are all your charity shop / ancient phone loving children under the age of 10? It’s much harder with teens.

Yes but what’s say your average mum of small children in Reading supposed to do about this Armageddon other that go vegan / ev / recycle etc?

Actually no. Not at all, my 17, 20 and 23 year old are all HUGE fans of thrift shopping. They are very aware of the perils of fast fashion. We went 12 months without buying anything new (excluding food, toiletries, medicine). You might be surprised at how much our young ones adapt.

Vote. Make your voice heard. Politicians can't design policy if they aren't aware that this is an important issue for voters.

You don't have to be vegan. Eating a bit less meat and a few more veggies is good for you, and something that's achievable.

Change starts with small things.

Learn everything you can get your hands on. Use this to inform your consumer behaviour and your life choices (voting, insurance, energy, large purchases). Effect change without making any changes, just by changing how and where you spend your money and who you support politically.

The economics of sustainability https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/research-areas/economics/economics-of-environmental-sustainability.html

Doughnut economics https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics

Social procurement - buy from a Social Enterprise
https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/buysocial/

It's not China's fault that "The West" are demanding ever increasing quantities of products, often cheap tat, nor that "The West" were happy to export our waste to the Far East for "processing" (i.e. dumping). China, India, and other Eastern Countries are just satisfying our demand for "abdicating" our pollution etc from West to East

It’s good business for them. And increasingly they are selling their tat to emerging markets so eventually Westerners will be handwringing about it while the rest of the world gets on with it.

Cant stand how British people feel guilty about things that have nothing to do with them

@Bridgetta Cant stand how British people feel guilty about things that have nothing to do with them

Surely if you buy a product the place, materials and method of production are purchasing decisions so therefore absolutely to do with you?

Surely if you buy a product the place, materials and method of production are purchasing decisions so therefore absolutely to do with you?

You can buy what you like but don’t pretend that China is doing you a favour by ‘taking your emissions’.

It is merely good business. And getting ordinary Chinese people wealthier than they ever could have imagined.