If that view is widespread, at least there is a good chance your children won’t have to bring up the subject at all with their children.
I’d tell my children that they may hear some nonsense about there being no climate change from the children of ignorant people, and to politely but firmly set them straight, as those people are the reason so little has been done.
I’d tell them that climate change is so important that we should all push our elected officials to take significant steps toward adapting to climate change and mitigating future effects, and that we can no longer allow ignorant people to block what must be done.
Because humanity is going extinct in the next generation or two?
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Because you don’t bother warning people about an upcoming threat once the threat has arrived and taken hold.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: back atcha.
I’m sure Czarcasm can come up with some answers of his own (ETA: he beat me to it), but mine would be that if we blow our last chance to prevent it, then when the Firebug has kids, a steadily worsening world where it just keeps getting hotter will be taken for granted; no need to talk about it.
The reason to talk about it now is so we can prevent that outcome before it’s a given.
“Grandpa, tell us again how you had to walk to school ten miles in the blazing sun, with snow up to your waist!”
“Uphill! Both ways! And we were grateful for it!”
Regards,
Shodan
FWIW, I’m convinced that the human race will survive, one way or another. Our ancestors populated all sorts of remote and inhospitable corners of the earth back in the days when drawings on cave walls were the height of civilization.
I don’t think we’ll go back that far, but even though I come from long-lived stock, I’ll probably be checking out about mid-century, so I won’t see the worst of it. My son, OTOH…
I told them nothing. When they were old enough for such things to matter to them they were old enough to read and form their own opinions. Now they are starting adulthood as fully formed adults able to think for themselves and have opinions including ones I don’t agree with.
I’ve talked about it fairly extensively with my younger kids (the older ones are already adults and already have their own views, though we discuss stuff like this whenever we are together). I’ve told them that I think that it’s happening, that I think we are starting to turn the corner on getting a handle on future CO2, but that this isn’t going to really do much in the short or medium term, and what my read is on the best projections of what MIGHT happen and what that will probably mean for them. We talk about the impact this will have on our rather extended family, especially those still in Mexico, but also throughout the US and the rest of the world. Also, we talk about my dad’s view, which is decidedly pro-Trump and anti-global warming. They ask me all the time for my thoughts on his comments and assertions, so I give it to them.
Pretty much just like everything else, we talk about it and I’m there to answer questions as best as I can, or find them the answers. I don’t go in for the scare tactics I’ve seen used, but I also give it to them as straight as I can, from my own observations, readings and take, and encourage them to look stuff up if they want to get a different take than my own. One thing I’ve told them is I’m not an infallible font of all wisdom…far from it. I can and have been wrong, so take what I say in the context that I THINK this is how it is, but that might not be right. It will just be my straight thoughts, not a lie and not an evasion.
I honestly dont know because I dont know what will become of this. I’ve become a little disillusioned with all the years of doomsday predictions. Yes, I will discuss how the climate has changed but I dont know how it will be in 50-100 years.
The people who are saying that Climate Change will be the end of humanity are not doing anyone any favors.
Even in the most apocalyptic scenario, people will survive.
But, the the cushy life we have become used to might not. Certainly, coastal cities are going to be in a lot of trouble. Nobody needs to die from rising oceans, but submerging trillions of dollars worth of real estate is going to be an obvious problem.
If the climate warms to the point that the US “breadbasket” becomes unsuitable to going wheat and corn, it’s not going to be a simple task to just re-locate to Canada or Siberia. Water shortages in the West might cause serious unrest and force populations to move.
It’s even conceivable that wars might be fought over desirable farming land - if those wars become Nuclear (stupid, but possible), that could really screw up the planet.
You’re saying that parents should be dishonest with their children about their opinions concerning climate change? Or should just refuse to talk about it with their children when they bring it up? Or what?
Remember, the OP was asking what you’d tell the kids if “they expressed concern about the future”. Not about what sort of birds-and-bees lecture you’d consider yourself obligated to give them even if they didn’t bring it up.
Then it seems weird that you don’t mention those views (except the ones on not worrying about “more extreme things”) when you’re answering the question of what you’d tell your family if they expressed concern about the future regarding climate change.
I mean, if somebody asked you what you’d tell your kids if they expressed concern about, for instance, unprotected sex or illegal drug use, I doubt you’d consider it responsible parenting just to assure them that “they don’t need to worry” about exaggerated extreme pessimistic warnings, and then switch to giving general advice about work/family/education that doesn’t even mention the topic they expressed concern about.
I guess one thing we could use some clarification on from the OP, or from respondents to the OP’s question, is the age range of the “child” being discussed here. We probably all agree that we’d take somewhat different approaches with, say, a preschooler as opposed to a teenager.
You’re right, the OP could use some clarification. It just said:
I imagined a scenario like a grade-school-aged kid coming home from school and asking something along the lines of “Daddy, our teacher had us watch the UN’s Climate Action Summit today and Greta said ‘We are in the beginning of a mass extinction’. Are we all going to die?”
Certainly others are free to fill in the vague OP with their own imagined scenarios.
My original post “switch[ed] to giving general advice” because I don’t anticipate climate change being a factor of any significance in the advice I give to my children about work/family/education. I will not, for example, ever tell them “due to climate change, you should consider not having children, or having fewer than you were planning”.
Then as I said, please do be honest with them about that opinion (leaving it to your discretion how and when to frame it in age-appropriate form, of course). ISTM they have a right to know it.
My, sounds like climate change will mostly be an inconvenience…except that you’ve failed to factor in overpopulation and another important factor:
“For a long time, people just thought of biodiversity as saving nature for its own sake,” said Robert Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which conducted the assessment at the request of national governments. “But this report makes clear the links between biodiversity and nature and things like food security and clean water in both rich and poor countries.” [bolding mine]
And you neglected to mention more severe and more destructive widespread wildfires, more severe floods, and more frequent and powerful hurricanes, and other disasters. Nor would the remaining clean water supply suffice for the masses of migrants.
Here’s how NASA says climate change will impact regions in the US:
Canada’s central and western farm country will also be subjected to increased heat and drought, so don’t plan to move there.
The general population has pretty much yawned its way through decades of warnings. The situation is very urgent, whether we’re talking about the extinction of all humans or the suffering and deaths of many millions.
I tell them the facts. Climate change is a fact. That our current blazingly-hot September is likely an effect of climate change is a probabilistic fact. That climate change will have incredible deleterious effects on world food supplies, disease vectors, and climatological disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, and flooding is all but certain. That we contribute to climate change in a small way every time we drive, turn on a light, eat a burger, or send a post over the Internet is a fact.
What they do with those facts? That’s for them to decide.
I’ll share the facts with my own children and with my students, because I’m not hired to do otherwise.
I guess I don’t really follow what you’re asking (or perhaps I do follow but it seems so nonsensical to me that I’m having difficulty believing you’re asking it of me). Are you saying I should have age-appropriate discussions with my children about work/family/education and I should make sure to “be honest” and mention the things that were not significant factors in the formulation of that fatherly advice? Like, “Hey, you should get a job. BTW, these things did NOT factor into that advice: your mother’s maiden name, the color of paint in your bedroom, climate change, the orbit of Mars, Poland, the Loch Ness monster, the SCOTUS’ Kelo decision, the letter ‘R’, the number 37, etc, etc, etc”? Because if that’s what your asking, I’m probably not going to do that.
Seems clear enough to me (but then it would, wouldn’t it). I think that if your children express concern about climate change to you, you should be honest with them (with age-appropriate timing and framing as you see fit, as I said) that you didn’t anticipate climate change being a factor of any significance in the advice you give to them about work, family and education.
I’d tell them if they’re at school when climate change hits, they should curl up into a ball under their desks.
Sure, all that is possible - but it won’t result in the extinction of humanity, and the Earth isn’t going to turn into a giant ball of flame.
I’m not saying that this isn’t going to be a huge upheaval, but - millions of people die every month. If that number goes up by 2x, nobody will even notice.
The only way to combat this is to be realistic - first of all by talking about the real and imminent threat to coastal cities. Making the “average joe” aware that climate change isn’t some “hoax,” by showing sea level rise, is IMHO the way to go.