Find out parents' thoughts on the Climate Emergency

[JustineBMumsnet]

This thread is now closed

With a rise in extraordinary weather events around the world and activists like Greta Thunberg in the public eye, more people than ever before are engaging with and are worried about climate change. Following the launch of the “Portraits from the Precipice” campaign - which places art that inspires action on climate change on digital billboards across the country - we’d like to hear your thoughts on the Climate Emergency.

Here's what Octopus Energy – the green energy supplier behind Portraits from the Precipice – has to say: “With climate experts giving humanity 10 years to slow rising global temperatures, the time to take action for the planet is now. We all have a crucial role to play in combating the climate emergency.

Whether it be to switch to a renewable energy company, to buy an electric vehicle or even to just make small dietary changes or reduce the amount of plastic waste in your home… acknowledging the problem is just step one, we now need to act.”

Thinking of the Climate Emergency, what are your biggest concerns, if any, for yours and your children’s future? Are there any small things your family does to try and help? What would you recommend as being the most effective change people can make in helping the fight against Climate Change?

How aware are your children of the Climate Emergency? How do you talk to them about it? Do you think schools are doing enough to educate children on the Climate Emergency?

All who share their thoughts on the Climate Emergency on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list and provided by Mumsnet). Octopus Energy will also donate £300 to a charity fighting climate change, of the winner’s choice.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

I've been a climate change activist for over 10 years. I'm pleased that everyone else is waking up to it now, but also rather horrified that it has taken so long.
I have been on a renewable energy tariff for about 12 years, currently with Octopus.
Have had an EV for 4 years, charger installed at home.
Am a flexitarian who has just done Veganuary, will probably go back to small amounts of ethically sourced meat & dairy, but only at weekends. The rest of my family are enthusiastic carnivores, but as I am in charge of most of the food shopping and cooking I can limit this. Stopped buying cows milk completely and they have adjusted to oat milk.
Been a Riverford organic veg box customer over 10 years.
Never buy fresh veg out of season or from outside Europe, and nothing air freighted, except Avocados which are a weak spot!
Our home is well insulated (for a period property) and heated by biomass for which we get the RHI.
The weak link is flying - we have a holiday home in Europe. I am starting to replace some of the journeys by train, and we have also driven there occasionally, but need to do more about this. Have gone back to offsetting unavoidable flights.
The DS's school does not take the Climate Crisis seriously enough - for example when I suggested a Meat-Free Monday, the Head clearly thought it was a wacky idea.
My kids (now young adults) do understand the seriousness of the climate crisis, but i think they are the 'selfish generation' whom parents (including us) have indulged for far too long so they are reluctant to change their behaviour to do anything about it, if it is at all inconvenient to them.
I want to see far more leadership from Government, bring in carbon pricing so that higher carbon consumption becomes uneconomic, start to support onshore wind again etc.
The EV charging network is appalling and just not being tackled properly by local government.
I could go on and on, but that's probably enough for now ...

I think one the problems is that lots of people think that reducing single use plastic & eating the occasional veggie meal is tackling the climate crisis.

It isn't. In my view, the most effective things as society we can do are:

1. Really get engaged with politics, call your politicians out on this, all the time, and Vote for a better future.
2. Recognise that every £ you spend is a vote for the sort of future you want. Save, spend, invest your money wisely ... and the rest will come.

I think we all have our own blind spots where the changes needed are currently uncomfortable or unthinkable.

I have an 'extra' child. I would not have aborted for the sake of the planet.

One of my vegan earth-warrior friends has four children and a dog.

Most youngsters on the ER marches would find modern life 'impossible' without their mobile phones, which date and need frequent replacing.

Wisteria might find it unthinkable to give up the holiday home rather than find other ways of getting there.

On another thread, people are discussing how 'disgusting' it is not to shower daily - despite this amount of water use only being the norm for a few decades, and certainly not worldwide.

We expect somehow to make radical differences while keeping current standards the same. I'm not sure we can.

I take a practical approach because gnashing teeth won’t help.
I’ve reduced my commute from 60miles a day to 12. I’ve reinsulated my house, I’ve got red meat consumption down to twice a week and try hard to buy local. I don’t buy ready meals. I have never been particularly “throwaway” but only need to put our wheelie bin out once every 8 weeks for a family of two. I try not to waste anything. I grow some veg.
As a single mum working full time, I don’t have time for much more than that.

Change needs to happen! unfortunately increasing population is only speeding up the climate change process.

I don't think schools teach enough. My 13 and 10 year old woud be oblivious about it without our (family) conversations about climate.

Dd's old primary school she left last year won awards for their recycling and reusing but I don't hin they did anything bigger than that and the kids really understood why they were doing it. Nothing about carbon foot prints and trying to protect our planet.
Although saying this parents should be teaching their children about this at home. Everyone needs to do their bit in protecting and saving our planet.

I am looking at ways to try and reduce my carbon footprint although I do think I could probably do a little bit more.

I do feel that businesses could do more though. As individuals we can only do so much but I think businesses seems to be quite a long way behind your average person. If large businesses made certain changes (using less packaging, cutting back on using plastic or using plastic that is recycleable for instance) that would help us as consumers to do that little bit more too.

Our children's school (primary) have been doing lots of work on climate change, the environment and things like recycling and reusing which I think is great. I think part of the issue is we have become a bit of a throwaway society and teaching children from a young age that you can recycle or reuse things should hopefully be something that will stay with them into adulthood. We also teach our children about recycling and they see me reusing things and recycling them rather than just chucking them away. Our just turned 6 year old daughter has been known to walk around the local park when we visit the play area collecting other people's rubbish and putting it in bins - if she sees rubbish she will always comment on the naughty people that left it there and how they should've taken it to the bin themselves.

Climate change is something that worries me. I worry that this is all too little too late and that our planet is already gone past the point of any return. However I'm still determined to do my best to try and do my bit and will encourage and teach my children to to do the same - after all they will be on this planet longer than me.

Everyone needs to reduce what they use, rather than focus on recycling or re-using (these are good, but need to use less in the 1st place). Unfortunately, what we can all do here in great britain will not have much impact if the other countries in the world do not take action too

Green energy sources cannot provide enough power for any one country's needs, let alone the world. There's a big yellow thing in the sky and its energy needs to be harnessed, by a global effort, to build some sort of heat collection unit in outer space, which then stores the heat and reflects it back to our planet. Once the initial expense of its manufacture and operational costs are met, power could be virtually free to the whole world population but, of course, energy companies wouldn't like that very much.

Also, we should make more use of everything we discard- recycle what it is cost effective to do and use the rest to produce power, especially human (and animal ) bodily waste. Why let that go down the 'pan' when there is a never ending supply. However, if humans are the cause of climate change ( which I think is great exaggerated - pollution is an entirely different matter which is caused by man) then there is an obvious solution to that - get rid of the humans!!!!

Thinking of the Climate Emergency, what are your biggest concerns, if any, for yours and your children’s future?
The demise of society as we know it
Are there any small things your family does to try and help?
Turning off switches at the source, energy saving light bulbs, reduce reuse and recycling
What would you recommend as being the most effective change people can make in helping the fight against Climate Change?
Convincing other larger more polluting nations to do better like lobbying China, boycotting everything from China until they change their practices to be more env friendly
How aware are your children of the Climate Emergency? How do you talk to them about it? Do you think schools are doing enough to educate children on the Climate Emergency
I don't have kids, but my nieces and nephews are very aware through their schooling. As a teacher, yes to a point but the curriculum is jam packed as it is but there is opportunity to address this subject in assemblies and tutorials/pshe and science and geography lessons

I feel helpless mostly. I know we're not doing enough in our house, but I don't see what else we can afford to do.

I've been close to tears over the fires, the plastic, the state of the seas. I feel the change has to come more from companies & governments though.

We try not to drive, we don't fly. I do buy single use plastics, because I can't afford not to. Why should it be so expensive to be more green?

Also, even if the UK banned all plastics tomorrow (yes, obvs I know that will never happen) then part of me feels it's too late. The seas are rising & full of plastic, the ice is melting - I fear we're already past the tipping point, & too many people don't care.

I’m really worried about it. At home as a family we try to recycle and conserve engeryas much as we can. Children need to know there is no planet b. Yes it need to be tight in school along with practical life skills.

It worries me and I think about it a lot. I try to set a good example to my kids and we are eating less meat. I think what us individuals are doing is a drop in the ocean and governments should be leading the way and encouraging manufacturers and industry to become as green as possible. Our current government makes me despair as they don't seem to care less about anything or anyone but their own party. The same with the USA.

I have a 3 year old son and I'm terrified for his future. My concern is about his future is the state of the planet and how we are going to come back from the place we're in now. The extreme weather in particular and how extreme things will actually get, especially with how things are in Australia. We do small things like recycle as much as possible, rarely eat meat, fly once ever 3 years, holiday in the UK, use public transport and get our electricity from renewable sources. Like many here I feel really powerless overall. The narrative of the media that we should all stop using straws is infuriating and really we need to be lobbying big companies and voting in green parties all over the UK. We live in such a throwaway society and I hope that we can move away from this. We all need to be talking more about this and attending/organising marches
My son is too young to understand the full extent of the climate emergency but we do talk about taking care of the planet and how important it is that we try to look after all the animals. We also attend local marches and climate awareness events and I explain why we're going.
The one area I struggle is climate change deneirs and I want to learn how to have a better response to these people as I can't even fathom denying it's happening, but hey some people do.

I feel a little helpless about the whole thing. That's not to say that we don't try to do our part by recycling, eating less meat etc. but in reality, I'm not sure how much it helps when some major economic powers in the world don't seem to care or want to make changes. Still, we have to try regardless don't we?

The children are aware and are being brought up to be conscious of the choices they make regarding the environment.

So concerned for the future generations

Mostly I just feel absolutely helpless about it all. We watched that show The War Against Plastic last year and are trying our best to cut down on single use plastic, but it feels like a drop in the ocean (excuse the pun!) when you walk into just one supermarket in one town in the UK and are greeted with acres of plastic. Literally everything is packaged to the hilt. It's so hard and even if us, one family, stops using it, there are millions who won't. I feel like we're just shouting into the abyss.

Thanks all for your comments! The winner of the prize draw is @torthecatlady

Congratulations @torthecatlady

It is important we all do our best , no matter how small it will help.

In trying to do changes at home - we don't use cling film or plastic bags now but unless the government makes big changes I worry it will be too little too late.

I think we can still make a difference. We need to stop being so ignorant

it is something i worry about. We try out best to be as kind to environment as possible!!

I still recycle, but feel less involved since the idiots who stop traffic and cause disruption entered the arena.

The larger companies need to do more. I think most people do their best to do what they can but it is a drop in the ocean compared to mass polluting industries.