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[Balinkay]

@Noods,

what happened mate, did one of ours cut line in front of you at Tesco? Who hurt you?

And yes, it kind of is your fault - global warming / climate change doesn't happen overnight. You can't seriously blame 15-25 year olds for the abhorrent state of things.

I do agree a lot of us are very hypocritical though. Also think a lot of this is just empty virtue signalling. It's naive and "in vogue" or however the expression in English goes.

However, it's commendable that at least young people are talking about it. It's not often I hear someone older mention the climate at all, when in reality its change is a monstrous threat to all of us. Well maybe not your generation, as you figure you'll be dead by the time Southern Europe is a desert wasteland and Northern Europe is frozen over. I plan to live long enough to see that though! If nothing else, then just for the satisfaction of seeing people who've been well of for a while be… less well off.

[Balinkay]

They need to change it from protests to celebration parades as they are the saviours of the planet. Like everyone teenager around the world they blame their parents for everything! !

True, but conversely the parents in this case are too stubborn, shortsighted and lazy to see that things are actually pretty bad. The truth is somewhere in the middle I'd imagine.

And let's be honest here - if you want change in the world (and I think we all do, young and old alike) you don't turn to people in their 40s. You turn to people in their twenties, because we've not yet been chewed and spat out by life and by extension have the necessary energy and drive to actually accomplish something. It also helps that many of us are basically still teenagers eagerly looking for a hill to heroically and romantically die on. Further still many of us just do it to look good and catch starry eyed naive tail.

[stevie harkness]

Part of the problem is people all pointing the finger at each other instead of pulling together.

Youngsters have the muscle and drive, Oldies have the wisdom and experience. What a team!

Some of the Extinction Rebellion people are in their 80s and 90s according to the police who arrested them.

[Balinkay]

Youngsters have the muscle and drive, Oldies have the wisdom and experience. What a team!

Yup. That's how it's meant to be really, but a well informed functioning populace's voting habits are more difficult to predict and manipulate than those of people pitted against each other based on their race, age, gender or preferred party colour. And it's aways easier and more convenient to just say "those youngsters have it so easy and are so entitled, they think they know everything!" or "those old folk are so lazy and set in their way, how easy must life have been for such idiots to survive!". Wishful thinking… what a sin. Has a good case to be the first, second and third commandment.

I was hoping that the turmoil of The God Emperor and Brexit would reinvigorate (or at least shake up) democracy and public discourse in the UK and US and it seems to have worked to some degree.

[RedNoodle]

They need to change it from protests to celebration parades as they are the saviours of the planet. Like everyone teenager around the world they blame their parents for everything! !

Unfortunately this current lot is the 'me,me,me' and 'offended by everything/takes responsibility for nothing' generation.

[Balinkay]

Careful noods, England's a pretty small country - not sure you can fit that gigantic brush in there.

[RedNoodle]

@Noods,

what happened mate, did one of ours cut line in front of you at Tesco? Who hurt you?

And yes, it kind of is your fault - global warming / climate change doesn't happen overnight. You can't seriously blame 15-25 year olds for the abhorrent state of things.

I do agree a lot of us are very hypocritical though. Also think a lot of this is just empty virtue signalling. It's naive and "in vogue" or however the expression in English goes.

However, it's commendable that at least young people are talking about it. It's not often I hear someone older mention the climate at all, when in reality its change is a monstrous threat to all of us. Well maybe not your generation, as you figure you'll be dead by the time Southern Europe is a desert wasteland and Northern Europe is frozen over. I plan to live long enough to see that though! If nothing else, then just for the satisfaction of seeing people who've been well of for a while be… less well off.

The only reason a lot of young people mention the environment is for a bit of virtue signalling and because 'global warming' has only been a 'thing' for the last decade or so. Had the same information been common knowledge/highlighted previously, the same type of debates would have occurred. This isn't happening because the current younger generation happen to be more caring and empathetic than previous generations, because they're certainly not.

We still don't know exactly what effect we've had on the environment, but 'we' have been responsible for likely adverse effects on the environment for a couple of hundred years at least. Trying to pin any adverse changes on any one generation is both disingenuous and a way for some to deflect any responsibility away from themselves when they may have caused/are causing their own adverse effects on the environment. This includes the current younger generation who are very good at pointing their fingers, but aren't very self aware and willing to take responsibility for what they are/should be doing.

[RedNoodle]

Careful noods, England's a pretty small country - not sure you can fit that gigantic brush in there.

I base my views on what I see/experience, not on what is deemed 'acceptable' by this current 'hear/speak/see no evil' world in which we live. There are rarely any absolutes, but there are many more 'general truths' than people want want to admit.

[ianlfc]

True, but conversely the parents in this case are too stubborn, shortsighted and lazy to see that things are actually pretty bad. The truth is somewhere in the middle I'd imagine.

And let's be honest here - if you want change in the world (and I think we all do, young and old alike) you don't turn to people in their 40s. You turn to people in their twenties, because we've not yet been chewed and spat out by life and by extension have the necessary energy and drive to actually accomplish something. It also helps that many of us are basically still teenagers eagerly looking for a hill to heroically and romantically die on. Further still many of us just do it to look good and catch starry eyed naive tail.

The last thing you should be worrying about in your twenties is saving the planet, There's far too much good things to be getting up too. Travelling, partying and mixing them both following a football team is highly recommended. Because once you start a family it slows down. Its when you're in your 30's you start to put paper in the right bins, not your 20's. And If it is youre doing something wrong.

[stevie harkness]

It sounds as though many of these youngsters are too scared to start families and bring children into this world.

If it really is the end of the world then even at my age I'll be partying with the rest of them!

although predictive text wants me to say "praying"