Dd said I don’t think we (her generation) will be able to have kids

[lov2dibb]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I didn't think the OP's DD was talking about population control. I thought their DD meant that they wouldn't want to bring up a child in a world already affected by climate change.

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It wasn't specified one way or the other but it sounded like part of the whole package - her having/wanting children and climate change.
I don't think you can address climate change without addressing population issues.

[EssexSue]

Do you think she means it though? I mean she probably does at the moment but we all say things at 16 that don't necessarily carry forward into adult life.

[Rik666]

The reason that generation may not have kids is that young teenagers (mainly male) will be too scared to go near the other sex, in case they get accused of all sorts of nonsense!

[FlorayG]

I genuinely believe it's too late to do anything about it. We should have taken notice of Al Gore 20 years ago. So the next generation sadly are just going to have to live with the mess.
In deep time this climate change is minor and only something that has happened many times before - it's just that now there are humans who realise it's happening ( and yes, have accelerated the process)

[Guest]

Originally Posted by FlorayG

I genuinely believe it's too late to do anything about it. We should have taken notice of Al Gore 20 years ago. So the next generation sadly are just going to have to live with the mess.
In deep time this climate change is minor and only something that has happened many times before - it's just that now there are humans who realise it's happening ( and yes, have accelerated the process)

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I agree - we are in mitigation not avoidance mode now. But, if we can just turn the tide a little bit it may make the future slightly brighter. Problem is though that it doesn't seem immediate enough a problem for many people to make fundamental change. And I don't just mean the individual I mean at nation state level. Look at the recent Amazonian fires for example.

[Hopefulholiday]

Originally Posted by claireyfairy8

It amazes me that a 16 year old is concerned with this to the point she is considering decisions like not having a family.

I don't believe that commercial flights are really the problem. The focus should be on those taking private jets on a whim etc.

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It was a general conversation about climate change but she thinks that the world may not be a world where you would want to have children, she’s doing A Levels which require them to analyse situations and draw conclusions, she’s just applying these skills to the real world, I’m not sure she’s unusual tbh.
I do believe that commercial flights are a contributor along with very many other things, we need too change many things to see a difference and I’m not sure how we will achieve it.

[Hopefulholiday]

Originally Posted by lov2dibb

The climate change zealots really have a lot to answer for terrifying our children into this kind of thinking.

While population control may well be an influencer on climate change people in the uk are not really having too many children.

The UK is 153rd on the chart for population growth and 165th for birth rate!
The majority of countries above it are in Africa and the Americas.
see here

In my opinion the best way to control the planet's population (and it's affect on climate change) is to ensure access to good education and contraception for girls and to enable them to be independent and have a purpose other than getting married and having babies.

There was a recent article about one woman in Uganda who had 44 children having been sold into marriage at the age of 12!
So when it comes down to it it's the developing world where most of that needs to be addressed and that's not PC as there are a lot of societies resistant to that kind of thinking due to cultural/religious reasons.

Your daughter should stop worrying about her own reproduction and maybe focus on doing something that helps others out of forced marriages etc.

All the focus on Co2 emissions from air travel is just headline grabbing and doesn't address the real issues.

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Thanks for your reply, her main point was really regarding what sort of world will be left to bring children into rather than population control - both population increases and air travel are contributing to global warming, both need to be tackled.

[Hopefulholiday]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

The whole point of ER is to be disruptive so as to get governments and big businesses to do something. Their demonstrations are not really aimed at the general public. As individuals, there's very little we can do about it.

And even if people don't like ER's demonstrations, that doesn't really change the fact that climate change is real and that we need to do something. People might not like ER, but so what?



I didn't think the OP's DD was talking about population control. I thought their DD meant that they wouldn't want to bring up a child in a world already affected by climate change.

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Yes that’s what I meant, I obviously didn’t phrase very well!
I get the point of ER, they feel they’ve tried the ‘normal’ ways to raise concerns and nothing happens so they’ve resorted to their current strategy - I just have very mixed feelings about it as I think getting public support would be better but not sure how!

[Hopefulholiday]

Originally Posted by EssexSue

Do you think she means it though? I mean she probably does at the moment but we all say things at 16 that don't necessarily carry forward into adult life.

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Yes I understand what you are saying, it’s just the fact that maybe the younger generations think we won’t be able to stop the increase in global warming, I don’t think she was making a definite statement.
My ds on the other hand thinks we should kill off the human population and let the world recover

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by FlorayG

I genuinely believe it's too late to do anything about it. We should have taken notice of Al Gore 20 years ago. So the next generation sadly are just going to have to live with the mess.

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Yeah, scientists knew about this issue 50 years ago. It was reported in newspapers 30 years ago. And I'm still not sure we're doing anything significant about it now.