[Velvetta]

When I heard on the news yesterday that it is practically inevitable that temps will rise by 4 to 6 degrees in the next 50 years or so, I just felt terror.
We have been aware of global warming and its effects for 20 years or more, yet Australia increases its greenhouse gas emissions by 3% every year.

Because business and income, both national and household are so tied in with fossil fuels, it seems we cannot relinquish our hold on them. Hydro fuels and all the alternatives are perfectly viable but no one is willing to give up their position in the money chain. Car manufacturers, factories, transport - all would need to spend a huge amount to convert to alternatives and they aren't willing it seems.

I feel so frustrated as an individual that this selfish short sightedness is going to cause enormous suffering in the future as ice caps melt, natural disasters multiply, food sources diminish and mass animal extinctions occur.

I want my children and my grandchildren to live in a better world, not worse!

I'm no scientist so forgive me if I've oversimplified things or missed something, but it does seem that no one with any power is willing to shift this paradigm and it moves me to tears.

[jess1980]

I feel the same way. I've often had sleepless nights worrying about whether I've done the right thing by having children I do live in hope that things will change but only time will tell

[Oriental lily]

It's scary.

I think it will come to the point of adapting. Not preventing.

As you said no one wants to take on the reliance of fossil fuel.

One of Australia's economy pillars is coal.

So much money involved. And developing countries are demanding more and more.

I think of of all the natural wonders that will vanish. Great barrier reef......

It's horrible but I really don't see a solution.

[stopwhiningatme]

Yeah, a bit. I use the argument to try and curb their insatiable desire for plastic sh*t and ****ing annoying toys like ****ing trashpacks and....what are they? Moshi Monsters??

[lozoodle]

Yeah its a bit scary, but there isn't much point in working yourself into a state over it. Losing sleep at night? Really?

[JJ]

I do a bit, but there's other stuff I worry about much more (though in the end I suppose it all ties in together anyway).

[Sassy Girl]

It doesn't worry me at all given it's just a part of the cycle that the earth has gone through for millennia.

It is scaremongering nothing more.

[witchesforest]

hell yeah, i am terrified and ashamed not to be doing more. i

think there will be a really ugly century ahead as 7 billion, then 8 billion, then 9 billion people experience poorly growing crops, food insecurity, changing rainfall patterns. we are isolated from the geopolitical reality a bit here in Australia but I sometimes think we are a bit like late Victorians or Prussians before WW2 - that events are going to speed up and overtake us and we will look like quaint fools who couldn't see what was coming,

[Oriental lily]

A denier .

There is never been a time in all the earths history that we have has temp increases like this.

Normaly changes happen over hundred, even thousands years or driven by natural disasters.

But hey I am sure it's nice feeling with your head nice and deep in that sand.

This post has been edited by Oriental lily: 04/12/2012, 09:30 AM

[squeekums]

Well it wont be an issue when the world ends in just over a week
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*no I dont really believe it will happen