Climate change and our grandchildren’s future

Whether or not climate change is man made or evolutionary ( and I believe that it's vastly accelerated by human activity), the world's climate is most definitely changing for the worse in terms of its impact on humanity.
Previous world problems such as wars have been geopolitical and in theory, solvable. Climate change, though, is an entirely different beast, and I think it's very arrogant to think that humans can control it. In the face of nature, we are powerless.

I have a few Chinese friends, students studying in Edinburgh. We were talking about the end of their one child policy which I assumed would be met with approval. On the contrary: when I asked one brilliant student little princess how she felt about having kids. She replied that she wouldn't want any. She wanted to have a career, travel and to have a relaxed lifestyle and generally live the same way we in the West have taken for granted for years!

I believe the Chinese are working harder to make their country carbon neutral than most other countries.

I just wish we weren't so addicted to cheap plastic imports and I wish our successive governments didn't emphasise Growth of the economy.
I also wish celebrities, politicians and Royalty would lead by example.
When the COP climate conference was held in Glasgow a few years ago, some delegates flew in by helicopter from Edinburgh. Madness.

Mollygo

Freya5
Yet they (China) keep belching out co2 like there is no tomorrow.
Yes, to keep the rest of the world supplied with goods their own climate restrictions won’t allow to be made.

That is exactly what I was thinking, MollyGo.

Manufacturing causes pollution. Every time we buy / use something that has to be manufactured, wherever it is made, we are morally as responsible for the resulting pollution as we would be if those things were still produced here on our doorstep.

I am in favour of renewable energy but worry that it might not be so planet friendly as we are led to believe. For example, LBC radio recently referred to concrete that was needed to build a wind turbine and suggested that wasn’t helping the planet either. Also I worry that in 25 years, we are going to have a mountain of solar panels which no longer work. The science in creating renewable energy is still in its infancy unfortunately and the Uk under Ed Miliband is in a great hurry to close down conventional oil, gas and coal and replace with solar and wind energy. I hope it works but am afraid it won’t.

It is already too late.

No.
Saying that is like telling people there is nothing they can do.

Absolutely brilliant post Notagranyet24. Should be compulsory reading.

I am glad that my 3 daughters, all in their 30s, are not having children because of climate change and I'm glad I don't have grandchildren, I feel so sad when I look at children now and think of what they will face. We are already seeing dramatic climate change, the end won't be pretty, as the world gets warmer and wetter, as crops fail, as floods become more frequent, as vast numbers of people move away from the former or from drought and fires, do you skeptics and deniers think it's all going to be peaceful and just a 'little' bit deprived?

Wake up, this is much bigger than 20th century concerns and it's bigger than China, India and Trump, Argentina is about to leave the COP talks and align with the US
The oceans are warming, the plankton on which the entire ecology of the sea rests will be unable to survive, there will be no life in the seas. The Pacific Islands, the Maldives and other islands will become uninhabitable as sea levels rise. The movement of disease vectors such as mosquitos, ticks, viruses and bacteria is changing as the climate changes.

Everywhere you turn, the world is in a perilous state, that's why the UN, WHO, 99 per cent of scientists and a few responsible nations say this is the greatest danger our civilisation has ever faced and never mind children, I feel so sorry for the species we will take down with us. I cannot be complacent or condone deniers, we have known for decades what was happening, so did the oil companies who hid the outcome of their own research. It is SO sad to see us destroying the planet on which we live. It is already too late.

I decided at age 11 that I did not want children. There was no debate about climate change then. I made my decision on purely personal grounds. The idea of subjecting my body to that horror and then being stuck with responsibility for another human was horrendous. Also family life looked like a pretty grim lifestyle to me.

At the time my ideas were considered very odd but and adults argued that I would change my mind.

My father never forgave me for not "giving him" grandchildren. My parents told me in my 20s that if I had no children they were splitting the estate into thirds and leaving two thirds to my sister because she had children.

Now women are a lot better educated and many of them are no longer willing to be simply a brood mare to some lazy man child. They want more and better than just being a mother. I suspect that "climate change" is a handy bandwaggon to jump on to cover feelings which others might condemn as selfish.

I believe that climate change is due mainly due to the cycles of the Earth, but exacerbated by human activity. I don't see how anyone can deny the melting of the permafrost and glaciers all over the world.

But how much of it is due to things like tectonic plate movement; being in Solar Maximum; the movement of magnetic North; the release of huge amounts of methane from sink holes in the permafrost as it is melting and from sink holes under the oceans (methane holds heat in the atmosphere far more than CO2); or changes to the oceans from the melting glaciers ? So many variables at play that could all have huge consequences to the ecosystems of the world.

For those so dismissive of YouTube - every university in the world probably has a YouTube channel now, every scientific establishment produces videos as do scientists from all over the world. You just have to check carefully who you are watching.

She is right but the world has always had problems, somehow jt keeps turning.

Skydancer

Our ecologist friend says climate change is the biggest problem we face and, unless we address it, humanity is finished. He predicts this will be within 200 years. I totally agree with the poster who said that flying should be discouraged. It is ridiculous that people fly to foreign countries to get married or for stag weekends. Talk about blinkered!

Tell Starmer who flew off to the COP Meeting.

undines

Climate change is a scam and a very sinister one that is destroying the future for our children - not because of what is happening to the planet but because of the depression, fear and despair induced. 'Climate change denier' has become an insulting label, and an excuse to reject all those (and there are many of them) genuine scientists who dispute the 'evidence' for human-caused climate change. Yes, there is always climate change, always has been, but global warming is in dispute and certainly the role of fossil fuels has been distorted. Why? As always, follow the money. The net zero nonsense is also a handy way to frighten and control people. We need carbon in the atmosphere, it makes things grow. What we do not need are greedy corporations and cynical governments who put forward a scary myth, silence debate and meanwhile ignore REAL environmental concerns, such as pollution. Check out 'Climate Change, the Cold Truth' on youtube

This sums up my feelings too. 👍

Couldn’t agree more! We need more carbon not less, how do you think plants grow. It’s a scam, follow the money trail & think for yourselves instead of swallowing the propaganda machine.

Our children are just as responsible for the mountains of plastic, big cars, foreign holidays, and hen weekends, as well as all the other things which contribute to climate change.

I'm not going to be wringing my hands over anything.

undines

Climate change is a scam and a very sinister one that is destroying the future for our children - not because of what is happening to the planet but because of the depression, fear and despair induced. 'Climate change denier' has become an insulting label, and an excuse to reject all those (and there are many of them) genuine scientists who dispute the 'evidence' for human-caused climate change. Yes, there is always climate change, always has been, but global warming is in dispute and certainly the role of fossil fuels has been distorted. Why? As always, follow the money. The net zero nonsense is also a handy way to frighten and control people. We need carbon in the atmosphere, it makes things grow. What we do not need are greedy corporations and cynical governments who put forward a scary myth, silence debate and meanwhile ignore REAL environmental concerns, such as pollution. Check out 'Climate Change, the Cold Truth' on youtube

I will. Always good to look at both sides of an argument. Thank you, Undine.

I wouldn't check out anything on YouTube! I've already had my volunteer gardener (a lovely man) come and tell me we were already at war - because he read it on YouTube.

I probably won't see the worst of climate destruction, I'm 84 now. The words 'climate change' are a bit of a euphemism anyway, aren't they?

trump will probably be the final straw...

I'm not sure what I think about CC ... ice caps are melting, I agree, and we are seeing changes in our weather. But, could this not be because of the rotation of the planets around the sun and gravitational pull the sun has on the planets?
This next comment will be met with POOHS-POOHS, but what caused the distinction of the dinosaurs? Was it a meteor or climate change?
The rotation around the sun is constantly changing; this could be part of that and if so nothing we can do about it! I'm not saying that we should just pollute earth until we can't live on it anymore, we still must do our part to keep the earth as clean and pure as possible, but climate change? Just my thought, I'm no scientist!
And let's not forget how wrong our scientists' were about COVID! And, YES! THEY WERE WRONG!!

Absolutely!

If Climate change continues at it's current rate then Humans will not be able to survive in nature on Earth in about 1.3 billion years due to sustained hot and humid conditions.
The oceans may evaporate in about 2 billion years.
The surface temperature of the Earth will reach 149 °C (300 °F) at the poles in 2.8 billion years.

Possibly we need future generations to continue the work that our children and grandchildren have begun. Perhaps the collective thought from future generations will work evven harder to save the planet. We need further generations to be the superheroes for our planet.

Greta Thurnberg is right, when she says "growth, growth, growth" is the problem. We still haven't got to the stage when democracies put reducing carbon emissions ahead of growing the economy. Everyone wants their children to have a world of work & a society where their standard of living is at least as good as ours. & that's part of being a parent , wanting the best for your children. But it's probably incompatible with turning around the current global warming, & this has to take precedence or else our descendants will have a world of extreme temperature, tight government control, regular catastophic weather events in all countries & an influx of people from un-livable countries to places like Northern Europe, that will make the current small boats look like a molehill. China have done more than any major economy & have succeeded in getting more energy from renewables than fossil fuels this year, & their CO2 emissions per capita have been falling steadily for years. India, not so good & that & the USA are a major worry.I am happy not to have grandchildren because I don't want to imagine what havoc they will go through when they are my age if not before.

Mollygo

Freya5
Yet they (China) keep belching out co2 like there is no tomorrow.
Yes, to keep the rest of the world supplied with goods their own climate restrictions won’t allow to be made.

That is what I meant when I said "we'll have to give up an awful lot". Washing in a Dolly tub again. Nothing to stop China refusing to make these goods are there. Of course they won't , their economy will collapse , as will ours if we carry on as we are.

Our ecologist friend says climate change is the biggest problem we face and, unless we address it, humanity is finished. He predicts this will be within 200 years. I totally agree with the poster who said that flying should be discouraged. It is ridiculous that people fly to foreign countries to get married or for stag weekends. Talk about blinkered!

Climate change is a reality, it has been since the day the earth was born. As much as we'd like to, we can't stop it.

I remember not all that long ago the "experts" telling us we were about to enter an ice age, and then mother nature changed her mind and decided she didn't like the cold.

What is a scam, is all these schemes and ideas to stop it, they won't, it WILL happen but after we are all dead and gone.

Sorry to be a doom merchant, but remember your natural history!

Im

Earlier on two world wars, flu epidemic killing thousands and the Great Depression kept the first half of the century in fear.

We grew up from mid century in fear, Cold War, Cuban missile crisis, Irish troubles and more, it’s never been any different. I remember my very real fear as an adolescent when the third world war was just a moment away. The world held its breath.

I do not believe climate change is a scam and am concerned, of course, but there has always been crises of one sort or another.

Your daughter is still very young ( for nowadays) to make that firm decision. . My dd was 10 years older when she had her first child. Many of her friends had their first children at 40 plus. She has lots of time to decide. If she still wants children and meets the right person she may very well change her mind.

My thoughts too, Allira.