Are ‘climate change protest’ children on a hiding to nothing?

Re the recent climate change protests. Well done to those youngsters who realise that change is needed and are prepared to have a go.

They must accept, however, that the oft-chanted ‘somebody needs to do something’ actually means the somebody is in fact them.

To keep expecting government to be the ‘somebody’ and the ‘something’ being more pointless legislation will soon sap their enthusiasm as all the good effort and intention becomes professionally hi-jacked.

Is the climate changing? Without doubt in my lifetime the ‘seasons’ have been different, but history will recall similar changes in nature over centuries.

I will readily admit that the damage being done to the environment is largely due to the human lifestyle, an exponentially expanding world population requiring more and more of the planet’s resources.

That said, these young people are already part of the problem and I wonder how many of them are prepared to accept this fact and tackle the hard choices?

Apportioning blame will not change the situation and all the UK Government’s initiatives put in place today will have little effect for generations to come, and even less if the rest of the world chooses to ignore reality.

Some of the questions these young people will have to ask themselves must include ‘why does so much of our food have to be transported halfway round the world?’

Technology products, tools, clothing, even furniture, the list is almost endless. Are they prepared to have less? The means to manufacture and materials required would be the same here in the UK as in China or any Pacific rim country, the difference and the deciding factor always is cost and profit.

The globalised economy is the driver of environmental damage and to try to argue otherwise is delusional.

If China, India and poorer South American countries continue to pollute the air and water, making all these ‘must-have’ goods for low-cost high-profit corporations, the younger generation will be on a hiding to nothing.

I applaud their effort and suggest one of the ways forward is to buy less and make it last longer.

Maybe those of us ‘baby boomers’ of the 40s and 50s who didn’t have access, or money, to today’s huge range of products can look back and see when it all started to go wrong.

The ‘Provi’ cheque for clothes and shoes, telly on the ‘never never’.

Oh, how we have been sucked in. King Street, Gosport