Inspirational 15 year old gives up meat and dairy.......

[Skip]

Finally, it takes a 15 year old child, to speak out about climate change and giving up meat and dairy in reaction to it!
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/11 ... ld_swedish

[colonyofcells]

If fire was never discovered, the carbon footprint of each person would only be about 2,000 calories of energy per person per day from food instead of about 200,000 calories of energy per person per day.

[f00die]

If fire was never discovered, the carbon footprint of each person would only be about 2,000 calories of energy per person per day from food instead of about 200,000 calories of energy per person per day.

floored me
the "discoverers" of fire
where not even our species
if only they had known what
their discovery
would do to the climate 1 million years later
i wonder if theres a lesson in that
for us?

[Chumly]

I don't think it would've made a difference at all. Thinking about long-term consequences doesn't make people stop doing what's bad for them with consequences within a decade or two. The vast majority wouldn't care about consequences that far off in the future.

Michael

[Birdy]

Hi Skip,
Thanks for posting the link. I started reading the transcript and will watch the video later when I have time. The replies so far don't seem to address the topic (not sure what fire has to do with this Democracy Now interview). It must be especially hard for young people these days, growing up in a world of such uncertainty. This young woman is taking the strong path to positive change. Hopefully more and more people will hear and act on this information.

[LuckyMomma]

I thought this young lady was exceptionally articulate and mature for her age. Her mom, the opera singer performing a duet of flight of the Bumblebee was really cool. My teenager happens to be doing a Jewish fellowship. We are not Jewish but it is something my daughter is very interest in. As they are having fewer holocaust survivors to tell their story, they want to educate young people to go and share at their school. They don’t want to forget the past. It’s like that when sometimes I sit in church, going over the same thing, don’t forget Jesus. Then again, I don’t want my kids to forget their cultural roots, giving them exposure to our cultural language and food, but not forgetting about ones roots is relevant since we can use it to communicate with others. We all should be thinking about the future of our planet, but there are so many distractions.

Anyway, I had a discussion with my family about it. My spouse says, we can’t think about the environment and everything, we have to worry about making money, the kids don’t need distractions, they need to concentrate on school. My kids care about the environment and they enjoy eating this way. My daughter shared with me that she heard about a man on the Internet who decided to do his best to live with making waste. After a year he succeeded by making very little garbage but he gave up cuz it was too hard to live that way. With commercialism and progress there is always gonna be waste. There’s no way we can go back to simple and clean. It is sad. Our pets are part of the problem too cuz they eat meat and make garbage too. We need less people too.

[Skip]

Anyway, I had a discussion with my family about it. My spouse says, we can’t think about the environment and everything, we have to worry about making money, the kids don’t need distractions, they need to concentrate on school.

By thinking about the environment and everything, your husband will improve his health and his quality of life. What good is money when you are to sick to enjoy it? You will make more money when you are healthy and live longer. Hence the need to think about transitioning to a whole food, plant based vegan diet.

[Grammy Ginger]

Well, I'm going to be the naysayer.

What in the world was a nine-year-old child being taught things to frighten? I raised a lot of children and believe with all my heart that childhood should be childhood. There is so much time to live in agony of climate change and all that comes with that later on. Let the child believe in Santa. Let her enjoy the beauties of the earth and sky. Let her gain a loving relationship with animals and nature. Let her be a child without the heavy cares of the world on her shoulders.

Certainly, tell a child that eating a cheeseburger and ice cream hurts animals and ought not to be done. Even go into a small amount of detail. Even tell her that eating animals pollutes the earth. But don't scare her that the world is coming to an end.

I came to this conclusion as a teenager. As a child, one teacher told my class that we wouldn't make it to 30 because the coming nuclear holocaust would turn us into crispy little critters. I lost all motivation for school and gave up my dream of being a surgeon. There was no point. Well, I'm 55 and made it well past age 30. The cold war ended when I was 28. I would have been an awesome surgeon...but then I would have a conflict of interest now...but I digress.

Yes, teach children to be good stewards of the earth and kind to animals and to recycle and and and because these are decent human things to do. BUT STOP scaring them.

[Skip]

I don't believe that there is anything wrong with teaching young people about climate change or nuclear war or death. There is a good way to educate young people about such topics without scaring them into believing that there life isn't worth living because they are going to end up dead anyways. For example, a child's pet dog dies and the young child doesn't understand it. This is a good opportunity to educate the child about the cycle of life without signalling to the child that her life is worthless because she's going to die too.

[Grammy Ginger]

Well...this little girl was so frightened that she couldn't go to school or eat. I am sure I can't convince you, but my experience as a mother, grandmother, teacher, and child makes me hold fast to my opinion on this.

[Skip]

Grammy Ginger,

I respect your point of view even thought I don't totally agree with it. I agree that children should be shielded from the many horrific things going on around us, but as some point, which is an arbitrary point, we learn about such things.

For example, discussing with the children of various ages affected by the many mass school shootings that have taken place. Those high school kids protesting against the mass shootings are the leaders of tomorrow and their voices are heard by children younger than them.