Do you all have the same views on climate change? Are your kids more concerned than you? Do they (or do they want to) take more active steps than you to combat the issue. As for me, I’m pretty aligned with my kids who are in their early 20’s. Several friends with teens have the same general views as their kids but the kids are taking and demanding more steps like eating vegan, traveling less. Etc… Curious if this is common.
The next climate change discussion I have with my teenage boys will be the first one…
My kids and I are equally cognizant of the direness of the situation. That my daughter has a one year old now just multiplies how worried we all are.
Can’t imagine how this can be seen as an us against them situation.
We’re not fanatical, or even directly acknowledging climate change, but trying to make lifestyle choices for financial and health reasons that can help reduce our impact.
Minimalism (also makes Christmas a snap!), fuel efficiency, energy efficiency, about 50% vegetarian, etc.
Kiddos seem pretty well aligned.
Last time I discussed climate change with my son I pointed out that I’ve already lived through quite a few “apocalypses” and while I understand the theoretical attractions of doomsday cults, I’m a bit skeptical of the inevitability of the latest.
I hid under my school desk to escape certain atomic annihilation.
“The Population Bomb” - Paul Ehrlich, and Silent Spring - Rachel Carson, meant I was going to be crowded out of the world and/or stave to death.
(I also tossed in Malthus, for historical context about “expert” predictions.)
I was going to be cold and shivering in the dark because of “energy shortages.”
Climate Change 1 meant I was going to freeze to death in an ice age.
Modern technological society was going to come to an end due to the Y2K bug.
As a Manhattan resident post 9/11, I needed a “go bag” to have any chance of surviving the next terrorist nuclear or biological attack.
Now Climate Change 2 is coming along to kill me and Al Gore said the North Polar Ice Cap would be completely gone in five years… Oh, wait, he said that in 2009…
That’s about when my son stopped talking to me about climate change.
We’ve had discussions, are equally concerned, and the kids question whether they want to have kids of their own or not. I’m more hopeful than they are about the future.
Al Gore is only one person. It’s good to not choose one human being in one moment of time as your reason to stop reading on your own. He was informed by an amazing scientist who knows more now. He knows more now too. We have All learned a great deal since 2009.
Luckily many people are listening to the science of 2019 and trying to stop climate change. And not gloating about 2009.
The Al Gore comment was mostly for comic relief.
That said, apparently, he still hasn’t learned enough to park his private jet or giant SUV.
Perhaps when I see him on a sail board with Greta, I’ll start to take him seriously.
“Can’t imagine how this can be seen as an us against them situation.”
Wasn’t thinking as an “us against them” more like are your views the same or different and even if same are your actions as a result of those view the same or different. I think my kids are like me concerned about climate issues but not making major changes, even if we sometimes think we should.
I would not be surprised if younger adults are usually more personally concerned about it than older adults, since younger adults have a longer remaining life expectancy that will result in them being more likely to have to deal with the longer term effects (on either a personal level like whether that beach house will be flooded several decades from now, or on a political level dealing with mass resettlement of refugees from places made uninhabitable).
But then, wasting energy = wasting money. Seems like, regardless of political views, conserving energy will be good for one’s personal finances.
What strikes me is how many young people don’t intend to have children of their own, or just see it as highly unlikely. Climate change is adding to their sense of hopelessness. I’ve heard that view from my daughters and their friends.
We are in a backslide now but hopefully the future will become more positive.
I just remember growing up in the 70’s, worrying about pollution and animal extinction in a way that was sad buy not apocalyptic. The series of storms and relentless disasters we’ve had for the last several years, plus the gloomy news about ice melt and sea level rise, are things I never, ever, imagined would happen in my lifetime.
When I hear about projections for 50 years from now, I feel lucky that I won’t be around.
Ds2 is resentful that my generation has screwed up everything. sigh
Ds1’s gf is a vegetarian, but I don’t know why she chose that route. I do know that she became her family’s only vegetarian in middle school. Ds1 now eats less meat as well, and they definitely aren’t big consumers. I think we all have a similar level of concern.
Those concerned about environmental impact of different foods may want to take a look at sites like:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/your-kitchen-and-the-planet-the-impact-of-our-food-on-the-environment
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-06-01-new-estimates-environmental-cost-food
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/46/23357/tab-figures-data
http://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html
Meat from ruminants (beef and lamb) has the largest climate change impact due to methane production.
This topic comes up with two of my four kids periodically. I try not to downplay it, or pull up examples from the past that never panned out, since I do take it seriously, even though I’ll probably be long gone before things really start to get weird.
I also tell them that I’m pretty sure no meaningful effort will be made to do anything about it, and that they’ll just have to arrange their future lives accordingly. There is no thing in life that I’m surer of than that.
There is much discussion of teenage and young adult suicide these days. The hysteria being generated by Greta Thunberg and her enablers is likely to make that situation worse.
And whatever happened to acid rain? That was the predicted apocalypse a couple decades ago.
What happened to acid rain is that multiple governments imposed restrictions on pollution and technologies were developed to limit emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. (Ever heard of a catalytic converter, to name one example?)
Unfortunately combating global warming would require a level of cooperation and effort far higher than what was required to decrease acid rain, and I think it’s a case of too little, too late.
I asked my daughter and her BF (early to mid-20s) — on a scale of 1 to 10 — how worried are you about climate change.
My daughter surprised me by saying 4 (I was expecting a 8 or 9). Her BF also said 4.
I cannot remember exactly how they worded it, but both of them thought it would get addressed by various world governments & businesses, imperfectly, slowly and in ways we may not foresee.
Note: both work on The Hill.
Then my daughter chimed in that she was more anxious about being the random victim of crime. Maybe an 8 on that, she said. A mass shooting, bombing, attack by vehicle, etc.
She says she does not want to have children of her own. Her BF claims he is not as adamant about that but would be okay sans kids.
Both of them do “small” things to be less wasteful, buy used, etc.
For whatever reason, climate change does not keep me up at night. The problem seems so so big.
I’d say my issues are The Robots Are Coming (what in the world are people going to do for work and how will we make a living wage?) and The Microbes Are Going To Get Us In The End (antibiotic -resistant, anti-fungal resistant microbes etc)
Happy Holidays! 
I am scratching my head here. she makes mental health worse? Just look around you with the political environment, the chaos happening to our beloved country, from both sides right now…and you picked on the little girl and blame her for mental health? I think you picked the wrong person here. If anything at all, she inspired the entire generation to stop and think about what we do in a daily basic, to leave less carbon footprint, to live modestly…That alone deserves so much respect, even if you were not a believer.
I am not a climate change fanatic, i am not anything fanatic for that matter. That’s because I am lazy. But when someone smarter than me, more passionate than me, and braver than me standing up for something they believe in, trying to make a difference in the world, I am in awe and I am thankful. I would be so proud if my kids are half as passionate and brave as her.
As for the topic of this thread - my kids and us are on the same page, but we are not fanatic about it, just the usual recycling, use paper straw if we have options, etc. and mostly donate to the good causes. That we are good at. I am too lazy to go out and protest and whatever else the activists are doing, but I am grateful for them, and we support them via donations. Sitting in front of the computer and click, that I can do. Sailing across the world or go out in the cold to march and protest, no thank you.
In fact, when my daughter decided to go CA for college, my only request for her is to not come back as a vegetarian, because I do not want to have a tofu turkey for thanksgiving, and that i would disown her if she turned vegan lol.
If I was a teenager, I would be more worried about the $23 trillion (and growing) deficit than climate change. Sooner or later, that bill is going to come due, and when it does, nobody is going to be talking about plastic straws.
It highly concerns me to see sea turtles and dolphins washing up on shore with their belly’s full of plastic or choked to death by a beach chair casually tossed in the ocean. I agree with my teens about climate change and that humans can be selfish and unapologetic in the way they treat this planet and living things.
My H and I are vegans and my kids only eat chicken. We don’t use plastic bottles or bags. We are far from perfect but we try to our part.