“Climate change is the result of a legacy of extraction, of colonialism, of slavery.

I don't know. I imagine it is. For one thing, we'd have to go back to when Adam was a pup since there has always been colonialism, empire building, racism, fill in the blank complaint. How about we just forget about all that and move forward without all the hand ringing and accusations about the past? And I come from a people who have long been oppressed by the British Empire. Let's all just get over it!

I could pee myself with laughter when I hear people whinging about "white privilege". There wasnt much privilege in the shit background where I grew up.

Me either

My response is similar to biglouis.

Climate change is the result of people - not patriarchal, racist, colonialist people but just people . If there were no people on the earth, the animals would not have invented all the labour-saving devices (starting with the wheel, which allowed us to carry far more stuff home than the puny amount we could lift and shift unaided) that have as by-products the debris that fills our wheelie bins and is tipped into landfill, or the manmade fibres that never disintegrate, or the greenhouse gases from industrial processes that wrap the globe in a cosy blanket. The animals would have continued to eat what they could find or catch, wear their own fur or feathers, live in burrows or make nests of natural materials, and travel about by Shanks's pony, not by car, train or plane.
(For non-Brits, Shanks's pony = your own legs)

Also, people are the most successful species in the world. They have colonised every area of the globe. They have been brilliant at using their intelligence to solve problems like famine, drought and freezing weather, at curing and preventing disease, and at reducing the rate of infant deaths. In a litter of fox cubs, for instance, only one in four will become an adult and start its own family, but in humans, most children born now survive to adulthood. Between 1927 and 2017 the human race increased in number from about 2 billion to 7.5 billion, and it is expected to increase to 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at nearly 11 billion around 2100.
The graph at populationeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/carbon-emissions-and-population-infographic.jpg shows the correlation between the increases in population and carbon emissions.

Some people don’t understand the term white privilege.

Well to the two Bigs and hen that’s just plain arrogance just because you don’t experience something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exists

Elegran

Climate change is the result of people - not patriarchal, racist, colonialist people but just people . If there were no people on the earth, the animals would not have invented all the labour-saving devices (starting with the wheel, which allowed us to carry far more stuff home than the puny amount we could lift and shift unaided) that have as by-products the debris that fills our wheelie bins and is tipped into landfill, or the manmade fibres that never disintegrate, or the greenhouse gases from industrial processes that wrap the globe in a cosy blanket. The animals would have continued to eat what they could find or catch, wear their own fur or feathers, live in burrows or make nests of natural materials, and travel about by Shanks's pony, not by car, train or plane.
(For non-Brits, Shanks's pony = your own legs)

Brilliant Elegran
It is too easy to blame “others” , but mankind must collectively take the blame, shoulder the burden and take responsibility for our actions now and in the future.

So the only real answer is to reduce the human population.

Any ideas anyone?

vegansrock

Some people don’t understand the term white privilege.

aint that the truth!

All very well being “woke”.
Just one word CHINA!

SweetPea Historically, the best population reducers have been the four riders of the apocalypse - War, Famine, Plague and Death - but our idealism and ingenuity (and fear of annihilation) have kept down global warfare and made inroads into famine and plague, though hunger and death till stalk the earth.

It is likely that the numbers have passed the point where over-population can be controlled - and people expect more personal freedom than they accepted centuries ago. Chairman Mao made the Chinese restrict their family size by imposing drastic penalties for non-compliance, but that didn't work permanently, and had the side effects of unbalancing the sexes as baby girls were quietly got rid of in favour of sons to work the land. Social engineering is a two-edged sword.

The answer, if accepted and practised, is for couples to voluntarily have two children or fewer. That happens naturally as people no longer have to exist by subsistence farming or otherwise scratching a living, with many offspring to share the gruelling work and to look after parents when they can no longer earn their own daily bread.

It takes several generations of comparative prosperity and good health for it to be commonly realised that all the children you bear will survive and be strong and healthy. If you know that two out of three of them will die before they are old enough to work, you have a big family.

I don't know how you encourage every person to be responsible and far-seeing in their reproductive decisions. That is a very personal subject.

Any one truly concerned about climate change should read Bjorn Longberg.

Oh and BTW the population of the world has already passed 'the tipping point' and is slowed to un recoverable levels in some countries. China being one.

Namsnanny

Oh and BTW the population of the world has already passed 'the tipping point' and is slowed to un recoverable levels in some countries. China being one.

I’m afraid I don’t understand what that means Namsnanny Can you explain please?

Also Googled Bjorn Longberg but didn’t get very far. Is it possible to summarise his thinking?

Shirley48

Are we ever really going to be able to tackle the effects of climate change without (the impossible task?) dismantling our patriarchal, racist, colonialist society’s structure? Is it too, too late?

takeclimateaction.uk/resources/race-and-climate-reading-list

e360.yale.edu/features/unequal-impact-the-deep-links-between-inequality-and-climate-change

www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/watch-is-climate-change-racist/

This is rubbish. Read "Fossil Future" by Alex Epstein. Fossil fuels actual help us to mitigate climate dangers. Epstein gives data about how they have done that already.

It is a really interesting book. He bases his arguments well and they are well backed up with data from reputable sources. The problem we have is that today's "designated experts" and our "official" knowledge system base their arguments on the idea that nature without humans lies in a "delicate nurturing balance" that humans are destroying. This idea is not well grounded in reality.

There is a moral imperative to allow the several billion people in the world today who use less electricity than a modern refridgerator to improve their lives as developed nations have.

Read the book. You won't regret it and you will feel much more positive about any human impact on climate.

Lathyrus I'll try but simply put, China has more old people than young and its birth rate is so low it cannot recover from this position.

The internet has plenty of info about the birth rates of different countries, should you wish to check.
Bjorn Longberg is a well respected scientist whose research and conclusions are easily found.

Better you get it from the horses mouth than rehashed by me!

But the old people will die quite soon and then there will be fewer people in China.

That’s a good thing, isn’t it!

If the rest of the world would follow suit then fewer people = less demand on resources= less pollution. = environmental recovery hopefully.

It seems so plain to me.

WW111 will be along soon!

Precisely, .
Although, the result will inevitably be an extintion crises for the human race, sooner rather than later.

I wonder who will be gluing themselves to the roads to protest on behalf of our (near) future generations??

geeljay

WW111 will be along soon!

Its here, just cleverly hidden.