Climate change and our grandchildren’s future

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.

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.

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.

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. 👍

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.

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

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.

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 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.

Absolutely brilliant post Notagranyet24. Should be compulsory reading.

It is already too late.

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

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.

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 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.

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

By sending their plastic tat to the rest of the world.
I just wish we weren't so addicted to cheap plastic imports.

chrissy08

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.

I get very tired of being told by people to think for myself just because I hold views that are different to them.

Just why some people think they know better than anyone else and no one else is able to research and think is beyond me. People who go around calling everyone else 'sheeple' are usually just sheeple themselves, who will listen to anyone so long as they are not establishment.

David Attenborough - 4 minutes on climate change

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p076w7g5

Someone in my family said this a few years ago. He is a holier than thou climate change advocate but now has two children who he obviously adores.

He travels regularly by plane, and drives a car. He seems to have no scruples about using fossil fuels and plastics when it suits him to do so, but still bangs on about not buying balloons or other plastic items for his children.

Wyllow3

David Attenborough - 4 minutes on climate change

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p076w7g5

and that was 5 years ago!!

I do have concerns for the future generations. Even though I am being denied contact with my grandchildren I still worry about what the world will be like for them and any of their offspring. I do what I can but me alone cannot save the world. I get so frustrated that there's so many selfish people today. For example, my next-door neighbours grandchildren have off road motorbikes. Obviously, the children are growing. The older child was telling us he was getting new protective clothing as he had grown out of his. We turned to the younger one and said wasn't it great, he could have big brothers old gear. You should have heard grandma. "My (younger) Grandson isn't wearing second hand, I will buy him new". You should have seen his face drop. He actually wanted big brothers cast offs. This is the woman who, in the 8 years she has been our neighbour, has had 5 brand new sets of dining table and chairs. Buys all new clothes, right down to the underwear, when she jets off on her holidays, only recycles what she has to, but most goes into the rubbish bin. Won't give any of her cast offs to charity shops; she would rather put it in the bin to go to the tip. Her opinion is that she won't be here to see the world fall apart so why should she do anything to save it. I don't talk to her much now as she has an entirely selfish attitude. P. S. When we go on holiday we go UK. We camp, mainly, and never buy new clothes for our holidays. I repurpose old clothes, most of which are from charity shops, grow as much fruit and veg as our garden allows. I know everyone is different, but I will continue to do my bit.

My parents were born just before and during World War 1. I was born during WorldWar 2 and grew up under the mushroom cloudof the Cold War.

It is difficult to think of any generation since time began that were not born under what to them was an existential threat.

Come to that, how about being Jewish in Germany in the 1903s/40s. or living in Gaza now?

In fact, where climate control is involved, a lot has had and a lot is happening. Between 1990 and 2022 the UK has reduced its production of greenhouse gases by 50% www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=How+much+has+Britain+reduced+greenhouse+emissions+since+1990

Much of the technology we use now to reduce emissions didn't even exist in 1990. This will continue.

I am sure mankind will run it to the wire, but with birth rates falling and technology booming. I am sure with effort we will survive.

I can remember the Great London Smogs of the 1950s, that killed thousands of people and contrubted to my grandmother's death.

EEJit

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

Agree.

DiddyNan

EEJit

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

Agree.

Disagree

Whatever the cause of the current global warming, if you like the 'natural' explanation that is fine.

But whether the cause is manmade or natural, our high consumption of fossil fuels that adds to the warming is still not a good thing.

When you have a fire, you do not use petrol to try to extinguish it. - and this is what we are doing at present.

So the debateable cause of global arming does not in any way mean that our efforts to reduce the rate of warming by cutting out human made sources is unnecessary, on the contrary, if global warming is natural then we need to be even more persistent in cutting our own contribution to the natural problem.

Are you watching Panorama?