We'll be all dead and gone when the world will under go catastropic conditions that will make life in over 60% of the globe unliveable.
The games we are playing with climate will make the world a gigantic waste land. Do we really care. Today we make of it an instrument of one-up-manship and power politics knowing we wont be around to face the hell that we are making of the future world. The young will inherit it all and curse us for our legacy of hell they have to live in It is why they should be asked to make their contribution in a serious way and their solutions acted upon.
Personally, I think it is too much to ask of our pollies. It isnt a measure of my cynicism.It is what I honestly see as an honest prediction. Do my readers agree.
Anyone know the Anthem of Doomed Youth? Start singing.

socratease

Sophie has every right to dream, it's what young people do.

The cold, hard facts of reality however, catch up with all
of us in the end. Some learn faster then others.

Firstly Sophie and her friends have to accept, that their
plans will cost them bigtime, for they are end consumers
of energy. Be it electricty, be it food, be it shops
downtown with their lights on, they will pass costs on
to shoppers etc. So is Sophie ready to reduce her standard
of living for the sake of her dream?

Everyone else is not going to pay, she will pay.

Next is the reality that if every single young Australian
put on a grass skirt, gave up on all modern living and
never consumed another KW of electricity, in the big picture
of global climate, it would not make a scrap of difference.

For the global population keeps multiplying at 250'000 a
day. China, India and others are building coal powered
electricty stations at the rate of one a week or so.

So however strongly Sophie feels about this issue, the
prevailing reality is that she and other young Australians
won't really matter in the global scheme of things.

I concede that this is all very hard to digest, but it
hits us all eventually, like it or not.

Dear Sophie, there have been some cutting responses to your article, hopefully some food for thought.

There are however, two supportive comments for you so far on this thread, from Loxton and socratease. May I ask you to tell us which set of comments you feel has added the most value to you and why?

I see some comments relating to Sophie being picked on because she is young.

Not the case.

I'll give anyone who has this overblown sense of entitlement short shrift, the arrogance that they are most important, have the most to lose and the most to gain if only someone else will do something. Regardless of the cost.

that's the problem with every missive I see with the AYCClub, it's all about activism being translated into whining.

I guess when you have been given everything in life by whining, you get the impression that's the way it works - you see Kevin 07 handing out money to everyone, and all the lobby groups getting on the bandwagon, you want your bit.

Posters naturally treat people like Sophie as a child, because as with all the AYCClub articles, they radiate immaturity.

To accuse the posters of talking down to Sophie is grossly unfair. Sophie's article, after all, was arrogant in its tone.
'The young people have to clear up the mess left by the older generation. We know its a mess because (insert a number of unproven assertions which are retreaded scare stories from newspapers presented as facts)'.
You mean we should treat the views of young people with respect, even when they produce stories filled with unproven assertions dressed up as facts - where those assertions are little more than a muddled repetition of media stories or conversations in pubs, filtered through her own preconceptions? I don't mind propoganda, but at least the young could learn to write clever propoganda.

Sorry Amicus

The only ones on this site radiating immaturity are people like yourself who conduct arguments by belittling the author rather than their arguments. Can we please drop the "Dear Sophies" and the "littles" etc. They fairly drip with condescension.

Spindoc, as to your reference about whether my support has been of value to Sophie as opposed to the "cutting" repsonses, that is for her to decide. My post was primarily a plea to show some respect.