If there was something they could do as an individual which would help only their individual child have a habitable future, they would absolutely do it.
Thing is, everything they can do either only works if we all do it or only helps every child equally (a tiiiny bit) while costing the parent individually.
It’s a coordination problem. Humans lack the structures to coordinate as a species (the largest unit of coordination we have is a nation and even that doesn’t work well).
I would have always considered myself and my husband leaning to left politics and being eco conscious. But man, having a kid kind of radicalized us.
Even knowing full well that cooperations are the major problem we still do the small and individual things. We know it is mostly for our conscience, so that we can say, we did what we could. We definitely don’t do everything - for example, I still eat meat about once a month and I give our toddler meat a couple of times a week. Today I bought strawberries from Greece because that was all she wanted to eat. At the same time, we are stepping further and further out of our comfort zone. We now started having a compostable trash bin. I have a huge phobia of larvae etc and vetoed against it for ages, but we’ve arrived at a point at which I will try it out (at least for 9/12 months). We’ve always recycled and tried to mind what we are buying and how much we want to consume, but I would definitely say we unconsciously upped our game because now, there’s more at stake. All these small things, reducing plastic, reducing waste, reducing consumption, buying less, travelling less, double checking the food labels to avoid the big No Gos like Nestle…
We also changed our life goals and ideals. We don’t want a house anymore. We don’t want to ever own a car. We don’t dream of travelling the world or own this or that. We don’t celebrate holidays with meat meals and an abundance of unnecessary presents. Money well spent is money spent on better things. I am happily donating money I would have spent on trips or items or takeout to OVD Info or help for Ukraine instead. It’s a much better gift to ask someone to donate 10€ than to get me a bottle of wine or another scarf.
At the same time, we are reminding ourselves all the time that this is not enough. That big change needs to happen. And I think that’s where the biggest “radicalization” happened. We went from nagging youngsters, dooming nihilists, to people who do more than just care. From doing our little thing at home, but excusing doing big things with “well the system needs to change for this to work”, cursing big corp. We now want to make that chance happen. More than ever and more actively. This means finally becoming more political. I’m now applying for citizenship so that I can actually vote in my country of residence and maybe join a party. Because that and campaigning are the things we can do. Go to meetings, demonstrations, join a movement, join a party, sign petitions, talk, talk, talk. Be angry. Be loud. And may I add, this doesn’t just concern the environment. Social issues are so much more unbearable now.
I wish it didn’t take a kid to make me that much more active. I wish I had done more in the past. I am ashamed, especially considering my nationality, I should have been so much more active. But the second best time is now. Some things take awful sacrifices, but imagining your child’s future, it’s not “just nice” if it sucks less than we fear, but it is an indescribable visceral ever present fire of energy.
Yeah it isn’t fair that i punch everyone equally because climate change is everybody’s problem.
The least they can do as a parent is tell their children to reduce, reuse and recycle, Using public transportation or cycling to go everywhere, turn off the lights or electronics when they’re not using it. It’s a small thing but if everyone does it slowly earth can be a better place.
If we teach our child to do good for the environment our child can teach their children to do more good and before you know it it becomes a generational effort.
I know, it’s the least they can do. It’s like the parents abuse chain if we can educate the next generation to do better while we try the best we can do to fix.
You bought into corporate propaganda that individuals are responsible for climate change and not the top 100 polluting corporations.
Hook line and sinker.
There is absolutely fucking nothing that recycling does to stop this. Most of the developed worlds “recycling” gets shipped to third world nations who dump it in landfill or the ocean.
Just because corporate make a bigger pollution doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do the right thing. If you don’t want to recycle because they just dump it elsewhere it is okay you can reduce your usage or reuse it.
I like seeing the multi color rainbow from all the replies… I’ll pitch in… we should all have UNLIMITED RESPONSIBILITY. OUR ABILITY TO RESPOND SHOULD BE LIMITLESS. As soon as we say something isn’t our responsibility our ability to respond dissappears. So as you say still recycle but every thing you do to help let it galvanize you to purchase less overall. This world is fucked by consumption and chasing desires and if we buy less they lose. That’s just my perspective I know it won’t sit with all. Humans are spiritual beings sent here to spiritualy grow not materlisiticaly buy.
I have been designing recycling systems for most of the past decade, among other projects, and you are at most partially correct.
A. Define recycling because you if you are talking about material recovery, like scrap wood being turned to saw dust or solvent recovery from a cleaning process, we do this all the time. Why the heck wouldn’t you pull a chemical out of your waste stream that you want to use again?
B. Sure a lot of ewaste goes overseas your cans and bottles aren’t. And even then they do process it. I know. I have been to the facilities that do it in South East Asia.
C. Household recycling can be a lot more effective if the government was not working with the worst fucking assholes in the world. I quite literally have two versions of multiple designs. 1 the government gets and the good one for private sector. The government folder is labeled “for idiots”.
Whenever I hear people ranting against recycling I just mentally picturing a heavy smoker drinking pop and whining about the salad they ate six months ago hasn’t kicked in yet.
I’m not ranting against recycling, I am pointing out that the whole “personal responsibility” for the environment, carbon footprint and the push to recycling as a panacea was a propaganda campaign by oil companies.
That’s all hopium. We won’t ride the bus and reuse our water bottles out of climate change. The ruling class doesn’t care if we have PFAS in our placenta. They just want a walled garden and better shit than the poors.
Are you a boomer or were you raised by a boomer because I call bullshit. The “me” generation could have done a lot of things and didn’t do any of them.
Most of them don’t actually love their children. Not the way we mean it today. The children were left to figure it all out on their own. Ask any gen X or older millennial.
Children weren’t outside because people were less fearful, they were locked out of the house and forced to fend for themselves.
The only loving families for most were those portrayed in television.
That’s ridiculous. As if anyone could gatekeep the concept of families loving their children, like it’s a new thing recently invented.
You simply were not present to observe all of what you are assuming happened. I was present to observe many “boomer” parents providing a loving upbringing for their kids. They raised my generation, and I knew many of them.
I don’t think that’s fair.
If there was something they could do as an individual which would help only their individual child have a habitable future, they would absolutely do it.
Thing is, everything they can do either only works if we all do it or only helps every child equally (a tiiiny bit) while costing the parent individually.
It’s a coordination problem. Humans lack the structures to coordinate as a species (the largest unit of coordination we have is a nation and even that doesn’t work well).
“What I do won’t matter” said by every individual is exactly how nothing changes.
Sure the ocean won’t suffer for the loss of a few individual drops of water. But if there are no drops of water at all, there is no ocean.
We are all drops.
deleted by creator
I agree, it’s not fair.
And I want to add: We [parents] do do stuff.
I would have always considered myself and my husband leaning to left politics and being eco conscious. But man, having a kid kind of radicalized us.
Even knowing full well that cooperations are the major problem we still do the small and individual things. We know it is mostly for our conscience, so that we can say, we did what we could. We definitely don’t do everything - for example, I still eat meat about once a month and I give our toddler meat a couple of times a week. Today I bought strawberries from Greece because that was all she wanted to eat. At the same time, we are stepping further and further out of our comfort zone. We now started having a compostable trash bin. I have a huge phobia of larvae etc and vetoed against it for ages, but we’ve arrived at a point at which I will try it out (at least for 9/12 months). We’ve always recycled and tried to mind what we are buying and how much we want to consume, but I would definitely say we unconsciously upped our game because now, there’s more at stake. All these small things, reducing plastic, reducing waste, reducing consumption, buying less, travelling less, double checking the food labels to avoid the big No Gos like Nestle…
We also changed our life goals and ideals. We don’t want a house anymore. We don’t want to ever own a car. We don’t dream of travelling the world or own this or that. We don’t celebrate holidays with meat meals and an abundance of unnecessary presents. Money well spent is money spent on better things. I am happily donating money I would have spent on trips or items or takeout to OVD Info or help for Ukraine instead. It’s a much better gift to ask someone to donate 10€ than to get me a bottle of wine or another scarf.
At the same time, we are reminding ourselves all the time that this is not enough. That big change needs to happen. And I think that’s where the biggest “radicalization” happened. We went from nagging youngsters, dooming nihilists, to people who do more than just care. From doing our little thing at home, but excusing doing big things with “well the system needs to change for this to work”, cursing big corp. We now want to make that chance happen. More than ever and more actively. This means finally becoming more political. I’m now applying for citizenship so that I can actually vote in my country of residence and maybe join a party. Because that and campaigning are the things we can do. Go to meetings, demonstrations, join a movement, join a party, sign petitions, talk, talk, talk. Be angry. Be loud. And may I add, this doesn’t just concern the environment. Social issues are so much more unbearable now.
I wish it didn’t take a kid to make me that much more active. I wish I had done more in the past. I am ashamed, especially considering my nationality, I should have been so much more active. But the second best time is now. Some things take awful sacrifices, but imagining your child’s future, it’s not “just nice” if it sucks less than we fear, but it is an indescribable visceral ever present fire of energy.
Yeah it isn’t fair that i punch everyone equally because climate change is everybody’s problem.
The least they can do as a parent is tell their children to reduce, reuse and recycle, Using public transportation or cycling to go everywhere, turn off the lights or electronics when they’re not using it. It’s a small thing but if everyone does it slowly earth can be a better place.
If we teach our child to do good for the environment our child can teach their children to do more good and before you know it it becomes a generational effort.
none of that would have ever made any difference. the scale of industrys vs individuals is staggering.
I know, it’s the least they can do. It’s like the parents abuse chain if we can educate the next generation to do better while we try the best we can do to fix.
You bought into corporate propaganda that individuals are responsible for climate change and not the top 100 polluting corporations.
Hook line and sinker.
There is absolutely fucking nothing that recycling does to stop this. Most of the developed worlds “recycling” gets shipped to third world nations who dump it in landfill or the ocean.
Just because corporate make a bigger pollution doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do the right thing. If you don’t want to recycle because they just dump it elsewhere it is okay you can reduce your usage or reuse it.
I like seeing the multi color rainbow from all the replies… I’ll pitch in… we should all have UNLIMITED RESPONSIBILITY. OUR ABILITY TO RESPOND SHOULD BE LIMITLESS. As soon as we say something isn’t our responsibility our ability to respond dissappears. So as you say still recycle but every thing you do to help let it galvanize you to purchase less overall. This world is fucked by consumption and chasing desires and if we buy less they lose. That’s just my perspective I know it won’t sit with all. Humans are spiritual beings sent here to spiritualy grow not materlisiticaly buy.
I have been designing recycling systems for most of the past decade, among other projects, and you are at most partially correct.
A. Define recycling because you if you are talking about material recovery, like scrap wood being turned to saw dust or solvent recovery from a cleaning process, we do this all the time. Why the heck wouldn’t you pull a chemical out of your waste stream that you want to use again?
B. Sure a lot of ewaste goes overseas your cans and bottles aren’t. And even then they do process it. I know. I have been to the facilities that do it in South East Asia.
C. Household recycling can be a lot more effective if the government was not working with the worst fucking assholes in the world. I quite literally have two versions of multiple designs. 1 the government gets and the good one for private sector. The government folder is labeled “for idiots”.
Whenever I hear people ranting against recycling I just mentally picturing a heavy smoker drinking pop and whining about the salad they ate six months ago hasn’t kicked in yet.
I’m not ranting against recycling, I am pointing out that the whole “personal responsibility” for the environment, carbon footprint and the push to recycling as a panacea was a propaganda campaign by oil companies.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fossil-fuel-companies-spend-millions-to-promote-individual-responsibility-2021-3?op=1
While it was a few years ago this is a great example of glass not getting recycled: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-07/recycling-companies-forced-to-stockpile-glass-industry-crisis/8778088
Gotcha.
That’s all hopium. We won’t ride the bus and reuse our water bottles out of climate change. The ruling class doesn’t care if we have PFAS in our placenta. They just want a walled garden and better shit than the poors.
Are you a boomer or were you raised by a boomer because I call bullshit. The “me” generation could have done a lot of things and didn’t do any of them.
Most of them don’t actually love their children. Not the way we mean it today. The children were left to figure it all out on their own. Ask any gen X or older millennial.
Children weren’t outside because people were less fearful, they were locked out of the house and forced to fend for themselves.
The only loving families for most were those portrayed in television.
That’s ridiculous. As if anyone could gatekeep the concept of families loving their children, like it’s a new thing recently invented.
You simply were not present to observe all of what you are assuming happened. I was present to observe many “boomer” parents providing a loving upbringing for their kids. They raised my generation, and I knew many of them.