I feel like it is an exciting time for young people. Without the politics, people are reimagining the way people live. Look at the Instant Pot, tiny house revolution (a little extreme, but really some neat design work involved that could be scaled to appeal more to the masses), etc.
An earlier post spoke of a solar panel installation with a 3-4 year payback. This was impossible even 5 years ago.
No one in this family wants to give up meat anytime soon, but we only eat it about three days a week anyway.
We’re on the same page as DD. Specifically, we aren’t panicing about global warming, but we are all very mindful about the environment. DD was raised to be the same, by us (not by Greta-whats-her-name or by social media). We don’t use straws or paper plates; we do use soaps, shampoos, etc. that are environment-friendly, even if they cost more. We all have our reusable water bottles (haven’t bought bottled water in ages), recycle everything we can, and bring all our own bags to the grocery store.
I think there is more we could all do if we tried. I would mandate businesses find a substitute for styrofoam whenever possible (or find a way to recycle it), and I would let consumers bring their own plastic containers into grocery stores (currently not permitted, at least at mine). I would incentivize solar and geothermal energy, maybe nuclear too.
In thinking about this more, my kids absolutely have influenced my behavior, such as giving up plastic water bottles and using a Nalgene-type bottle when I work out. We already recycle a lot and have composted for years. We carry reusable grocery bags. For more than 30 years I’ve lived in a crunchy kind of place so a lot of this is second nature at this point.
What is odd is how many people in places where tap water is safe to drink buy bottled water. Seems like a big waste of money (as well as natural resources) compared to filling a reusable bottle (even after counting the cost of the reusable bottle).
We are all equally concerned about climate change. One of my kids is so concerned, he is actually and advisor to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
As there is no way to recycle styrofoam, it should be outlawed for packaging where cardboard or cellulose peanuts will do.
Also, I heard years ago that Germany has a tax on the lifetime of packaging. A great way to have less waste, like the box you immediately throw out (or recycle) that your toothpaste comes in. If we are going to use plastic, why not use it more than once for packaging, and bring the item home in your own bag?
That’s surprising, @greenwitch. We have a styrofoam recycling place (and other hard to recycle materials) around here. There was a vignette on them on the news but I cant recall what they repurpose the stuff into.
My list grew too long to quote everyone but it’s apparent here that, despite many CC posters being fairly well educated, too many are climate change deniers. Ugh. Two words kept coming to mind catching up on this thread - “Okay, Boomer”.
For me, plastic has a lot of cause for concern beyond the fact it takes almost forever to decompose - there are health effects from plastic that are just beginning to get the attention they deserve. When there are alternatives for many, many plastic products and packaging, I think this is a relatively easy area where progress can be made with a change in mindset and awareness.
@doschicos , the thread is about where you stand relative to your kids on climate change, not what you think of other people’s opinion.
Saving bats more important than wind power?
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ontario-cancels-nearly-built-200m-wind-farm-over-threat-to-bat-populations
Ontario cancels nearly-built $200M wind farm over threat to bat populations
Even environmentally friendly energy plans have to satisfy every interest group.
Seems like this thread, if you read through it, drifted off that topic back on page one. Don’t think most of the climate change deniers’ posts are addressing their stand relative to their children’s. Maybe I should have quoted all of them after all to make that clear. Fortunately, my kids and I all believe the scientists. 
@doschicos ??
Yes, too easy to drift on such a hot-button topic.
Bats eat zillions of mosquitos and other insects. I would not want to be killing bats, or birds or any other wildlife.
That’s one of those “sounds good, but beware of what you wish for” situations.
The breakeven point based on environmental impact (energy used in creation of the item, transportation to end user, washing for re-use including heating the water, creating and transporting detergent, disposing of waste water, etc.)between Styrofoam single use coffee cups and re-usable ceramic mugs is somewhere between 200 and 1000+ uses depending on the study. As most ceramic mugs last well under 100 cycles in commercial use, a mandate to replace all Styrofoam with ceramic would be terrible for the environment.
" As most ceramic mugs last well under 100 cycles in commercial use, a mandate to replace all Styrofoam with ceramic would be terrible for the environment."
Curious as to where your get the “well under 100 cycles” from. Seems very low to me for a sturdy mug.
atomom here.
My now 17yo is very much concerned about the environment. One year she actually cried and bullied the whole family into granting her birthday wish–to pick up trash in the woods!
We live in the Midwest and I hate the cold. If I jokingly say “I love global warming” when we have a warm spell, or “Bring back global warming” when it is cold, D gets furious. If she starts talking about how bad things will be in the future, I’ll say, “Good thing I’ll be dead soon!”
Jokes aside, I do think it is reasonable for young people to be more anxious about these issues since they will be living with them longer. In our family, though, I probably do more than anyone to conserve. I haven’t seen D stay home and turn off the lights! She does like to TALK about these issues, though.
The reality is that most of it (what other countries do) is completely out of my hands. I am hopeful that technology–solar especially-- will eventually be the solution. I hope I live long enough to see more positive changes…
Great organization, for those who care about the environment:
https://ucsusa.org/
That warming is occurring, and humans are making it worse to some degree, has somewhere become twisted into: we’ll die if if what some believe needs doing isn’t done. And while I believe in geological scale warming, with a small human twist to it, I deny that Greta Thurnberg is preaching a path anyone should bother walking.
My kids are free to believe whatever they’ve educated themselves up to, as am I.
@catahoula — you’re probably right that the people on this thread (or their similarly wealthy descendants) won’t die from climate change. But don’t forget that it has taken effort and technology to maximize growth of crops to feed the growing human population. If climate change destabilizes a portion of current cropland, there will be famines and plenty of people will die.
Plus massive needs for migration/immigration due to changing weather patterns making parts of the world uninhabitable (heat, drought, flooding, etc.). There are legit reasons this has been a topic of extensive study within the Department of Defense for years.