What did you do in the war, Daddy? - Issue 10

[ukyp]

By Aakash Bharania, 15, Harrow

http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/203361/index.html

How old will you be in 2050? Science tells us that if we fail to cut our carbon emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050, our generation, your children and future generations to come, will only stand a mere 50% chance of survival. UN statistics show that climate change already takes over 300,000 lives every year and this number is set to rise dramatically.

Young people everywhere have recognised that we need to act. Climate change is the new social struggle; it will affect us the most. This is a struggle that we must fight to preserve our planet. A struggle we must fight not just for humankind, but for all living species in our world. We are prepared to change the way we live to win this battle against climate change.

This is our “What did you do in the war, Daddy?” moment. Unless we act now the consequences will be inconceivable and irreversible. Now is the time to endorse 350 parts-per-million as the safe level of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Now is the time to save 300,000 lives each year and prevent a humanitarian crisis. Now is the time that we must act, not only as individuals but as a collective. So, what will YOU do in the war against climate change?”

[Liam Hannan]

Nothing.

Not because it's not happening, but because I've yet to see a scheme that will make a blind bit of difference*;

"Last year, we doubled the number of lucozade bottle tops collected in Didcott, we melted them both down and made them into a small novelty comb for a xmas cracker"

woop woop!

This idea that everyone can "do their bit" by recycling just a little is nonsense.

1 - the recycling is getting sold to China who are landfilling half of it anyway

2- Climate change requires more than cleaning out your used milk cartons. We need to radically change our lifestyles yesterday; and I mean radically. Ban private transport that runs on fossil fuels. Actually come down on industries that emit too much carbon. Stop using plastics to manufacture everything...


But we're not going to do that, and we are going to sleepwalk into the greatest catastrophe humankind had ever faces because of the greed of Western Capitalism. When that day comes I don't want to be living in a yurt drinking goats milk out of a hollowed out tree stump, I want to have enjoyed myself.

Climate change is inevitable. That our actions speed it up isn't, but stopping ourselves from ruining the planet can only be done by changing everything about our society - and we're just not going to do that. So why bother putting yourself out?




*I have heard of a scientist who thinks we can buy ourselves about 60-80 years to get our act together by effectively freezing the upper atmosphere, but on it's own that scheme won't do the job.

[Thom]

What liam said, to a point, theres nowhere near enough funding going into any kind of renewable energy, instead they're building nuclear plants, because they're cheaper/easier in the short term (yeah yeah, it's cleaner that coal, but they don't use that anymore, oh wait....)

But Liams attitude isn't the way to deal with it either.
i'd rather try in vain than give it up.
(even though, invevitably, the next ice age will happen)

[Liam Hannan]

What liam said, to a point, theres nowhere near enough funding going into any kind of renewable energy, instead they're building nuclear plants, because they're cheaper/easier in the short term (yeah yeah, it's cleaner that coal, but they don't use that anymore, oh wait....)



Just a point on the nuclear plants - they're not cheaper in the short term - just easier (you have fewer NIMBYs to deal with)

[Paul]

(you have fewer NIMBYs to deal with)

The new planning laws allow the government to bypass local planning procedures for important projects - ie national infrastructure such as power plants, or runways.