The statistics being revealed today at the climate conference are terrifying

[Babybellblue]

Basicly if we continue as we are now the planet will begin to become uninhabitable in roughly 35years.

So a child born today will not likely reach 40yrs old.
I remember David Attenborough last year guessed at 50yrs which was bad enough.

It really scares and but the tone is when not if now.

What is your AIBU?

It won't be uninhabitable. Can you provide the statistics for that?

Not a disbeliever (do climate change professionally!). There's quite a lot of 'now' happening too - have you seen the UK Green Finance paper that came out last week?

It's all over the news due to the Glasgow conference being held.

@Babybellblue

Basicly if we continue as we are now the planet will begin to become uninhabitable in roughly 35years.

So a child born today will not likely reach 40yrs old.
I remember David Attenborough last year guessed at 50yrs which was bad enough.

It really scares and but the tone is when not if now.

The planet will not become uninhabitable, but parts of it will be very difficult to live in and there will likely be wars over resources, especially water. We will also lose a huge amount of biodiversity and could well destroy entire ecosystems, coral reefs and rainforest will probably be gone within our lifetime.

To make a real difference we not only need to cut emissions, but also stop and then reverse global population growth and engage in climate engineering to reverse some of the damage already done.

Cheery.

Does any realistic technology actually exist, though? Climate engineering? What does that mean?

@21budgies

Does any realistic technology actually exist, though? Climate engineering? What does that mean?

There is plenty of technology that could be deployed in a matter of years that would have an impact, cloud whitening, ocean seeding being the two quickest to deeply, but they have costs and people are not yet willing to pay. It may well be someone like a Bill Gates who starts that kind of action off.

You can have a quick read on Wikipedia and there is a lot more from universities if it sparks an interest.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_engineering

Oh God, this sounds terrible. I am now wondering if it is ethical to bring a child into this world.

I was listening to the radio recently where a lady had won an award for being able to regrow coral. It sounded fascinating and really positive. I think the worry with so much of this is that we’re running out of time. However in the face of adversity sometimes amazing things happen. So it’s important everyone doesn’t just give und feel completely powerless.

It also pisses me off that our billionaires are so busy ploughing their tax free earnings into space travel and couldn’t give a shit about the planet they actually live on.

I have this feeling they’re hoping to find a new planet they can start a new Aryan race on, but that might be me back with the tin foil hat again.

YANBU. And I wouldn’t have children now. It’s not that the UK would be uninhabitable - but if other countries or areas are, then the “problems” of refugees that we have now will be laughable. There will be wars over resources with vast swathes of humanity suffering. We’ve left it too late and I can’t see any way out tbh.

I also feel that all the effort we are putting in as a family eg not travelling by air, recycling, cutting down meat - maybe so utterly pointless that we should really be doing the opposite, and partying now while we can. Am I a terrible person?!

@LiquidSodaCrystal

I also feel that all the effort we are putting in as a family eg not travelling by air, recycling, cutting down meat - maybe so utterly pointless that we should really be doing the opposite, and partying now while we can. Am I a terrible person?!

I think it's too late to stop the horrors on the way very soon.

I look at my 4yr old and just want to say sorry for what's about to happen. I honestly wish I hadn't been so selfish in having him.

I think comments about children are really unhelpful on a parenting site. I feel really sorry for those who are pregnant or TTC. It must be such a confusing thing to want to do what people have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years and yet have this worry the planet will be a burning inhabitable mass.

I’m going to carry on doing things I can do. I’m going to ensure my children have the best childhood I can offer and I’m going to hope that some miracle happens in the future.

I think certainly, if nothing is done to halt CC, then in a coup,e of decades we will see migration across the planet the likes of which we'll have never seen before.

I watched a documentary last week about the effects of CC on Africa (as a continent especially vulnerable to its effects) now! It was utterly heartbreaking and terrifying. The spread of the Sahara, disappearing oases and people forced to feed their livestock cardboard as a result of lack of rains and no other feed being available.

Unfortunately, it’s going to cost the average person a lot of money to go fully green, very high energy prices, cost of electric cars, heat pumps and additional insulation for your house, also stop foreign holidays, etc, are todays people prepaid to pay the costs for previous generations mistakes?

@FreeBritnee

I think comments about children are really unhelpful on a parenting site. I feel really sorry for those who are pregnant or TTC. It must be such a confusing thing to want to do what people have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years and yet have this worry the planet will be a burning inhabitable mass.

I’m going to carry on doing things I can do. I’m going to ensure my children have the best childhood I can offer and I’m going to hope that some miracle happens in the future.

Sorry if my comment about children was upsetting. It is something going through my mind when I read about this stuff.

Something that I am bearing in mind is that I remember during a science lesson at school we were told Amsterdam would be underwater by 2025. Obviously this hasn't happened. None of us know for sure what will happen over the next 50-100 years.

I found the Earthshot programme very hopeful - some amazing ideas for real change (including the coral one mentioned above). But if the global population keeps growing at the same rate as it has been then it makes all action even more difficult?

@FreeBritnee

I think comments about children are really unhelpful on a parenting site. I feel really sorry for those who are pregnant or TTC. It must be such a confusing thing to want to do what people have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years and yet have this worry the planet will be a burning inhabitable mass.

I’m going to carry on doing things I can do. I’m going to ensure my children have the best childhood I can offer and I’m going to hope that some miracle happens in the future.

And yet there's always someone demanding the right to have a third child.

This is so important and yet so few people care or want to know, let alone do anything about it. I feel hopeless about the future.

I'm getting to the stage of thinking that quite a lot of humans in a sense deserve what's going to happen. The level of stupidity and selfishness and head in sand. The other inhabitants of the earth certainly don't.

I know this won’t be popular, but I think they should stop paying people to have children. Stop child benefit etc. People managed just after the war to raise children they could actually afford without paid maternity leave, child benefit, subsidised child care etc. Perhaps people will really stop to think a bit more then.
Most of the problems boil down to the fact of there being just too many humans on earth, we’re in danger of becoming vermin at the expense of other species who have just as much right to live & not become extinct because of our plundering of habitats. Whether you believe climate change is man made or not, and this makes for a very interesting read..
Global warming doesn’t alter the fact that a persistently increasing population makes more & more demands on a limited amount of earth’s natural resources be that water, food production, energy etc.

Yes I think the OP hit the nail on the head with the the lifespan of our children. I have two and feel so guilty for that now.
Our kids lives are not going to be happy ones I fear.