I was probably about eight years old when I decided that I never wanted to have children. Ever. That it would be sheer irresponsibly and cruelty to bring a child into a world doomed by climate change. Even at eight, it was patently clear that humanity was never going to get its act together and work to actually fix the problems created by previous generations. Too much short-term thinking, too much trading of short-term profit for losses which would be pushed onto strangers in the future. It's been a long time since I was eight. Nothing I've seen since has suggested that I was mistaken.
People have been sounding the alarm on climate change for over 50 years. The effects are apparent by now. We're past 1.5 degrees C baked in. The governments make mouth noises about "Net Zero by 2050". There are regular climate summits where they gather, make sincere-sounding mouth noises, pat each other on the back, then go home and try not to do too much. They don’t dare upset the status quo. The hard work, the effort, the money, that's all for Someone Else In The Future to figure out.
Multiple generations of young people have grown up being taught that they have to make environmentally responsible choices. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Take the bus, subway, or train. Carpool. Get an electric vehicle. The young people are being told that they have to make responsible choices. That it's on them to put the effort in, and if they do, they'll save the world. Well, the young people have been watching. And they've seen all the politicians make sincere-sounding mouth noises about responsibility. The young people have then seen then the politicians - the ones with the ability to enforce wide-scale change, with the ability to dedicate our collective resources and our collective manpower to the colossal effort needed - take only weak half-measures. Nothing that would rock the boat, or more importantly, upset the corporate elite. Biden, at one time, made sincere-sounding mouth noises about how much he was against drilling in the Arctic Circle. What a surprise, when there was an opportunity for short-term political gain, those mouth noises went down the memory hole. So much for sincerity.
Climate change is an existential crisis for human civilization. It's accelerating in a positive feedback loop. I and so many other people are tired of seeing people make sincere-sounding mouth noises taking three steps forward and then two steps back, then calling that "progress".
Climate change doesn't care what's politically feasible. Climate change cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be bargained with, it cannot be bribed to go away, it cannot be killed with bullets or knives or bombs. Climate change doesn't care how many sincere-sounding mouth noises get made. The people who created the climate mess will be dead of old age before facing the consequences of the world they created. Their children and grandchildren will have to live with them - at least, briefly. Climate change will force populations to migrate, stressing them and the residents in areas they move to. That will increase anger, hate, division, and promote authoritarianism. Climate change is a threat to democracy.
A lot of people here got very upset at the criticism of Biden for approving the Willow project. What do you expect? The younger generations are being given the choice between death by slow poison and death by electrocution, and they're expected to be grateful for the option of poison. Fifty years of alarms being sounded on climate change, and our guy - the one on OUR side - is still giving handouts to fossil fuel companies. The other guy is going to be outright maliciously evil. These are our choices, and people are trying to shame us for feeling despair and anger?!
"Don't worry, not a drop of oil will ever come from that project (Citation: A Wild Guess Pulled From My Butt), accelerating climate change will ensure that the operation isn't stable!" Sorry? We're supposed to find that comforting? That's the good news? That there won’t be any oil drilled because... things are going to keep getting worse anyway? That’s the GOOD news? Conversely, consider that if by some insane miracle humans manage to slow climate change, then... the oil company will be able to drill that oil up easier?
Then there's the alternative excuse that it's just "a drop in the bucket." Every little drop matters when the bucket is already threatening to overflow, like a dam about to be overtopped due to record-setting, historically unprecedented rains. The youth keeps being told that every little action they can take to reduce their carbon footprint helps. But it's okay to add more drops in the bucket.
We're tired of the attitude which makes mouth noises about fighting climate change, but keeps handing fossil fuel companies subsidies and blank checks and drilling permits. It is literally suicidally insane to allow fossil fuel companies to be driven by the insatiable demands of shareholders for every more ever-increasing profits. The invisible hand of the free market has no heart, has no brain. It doesn't care about destruction. It doesn't think about the future. It only thinks about more more more, now now now. We don't need to be giving more drilling permits to fossil fuel companies, we need to be nationalizing them and putting people in charge with the intent to slowly wean the nation and planet off of fossil fuels. If nothing else, the stock market won't be thrilled if Wall Street is sitting under 10 feet of water.
Is it so unreasonable of the planet's youth to ask that the people in charge at least pretend to give a damn about whether there are future generations of humans?