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RSS FeedHas the destruction of the extended family contributed to climate change?
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| No | 71% | 133 votes | Total: 187 votes | |
| Yes | 29% | 54 votes |
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Add to FavoritesOh for goodness sake. You might as well ask if blowing your nose contributes to climate change. Or walking to work rather than driving. Both activities cause the exhalation of carbon dioxide, that evil gas that will cause the downfall of civilisation and the end of all life as we know it.
Fact. Global warming happens. It always has and always will. The fact that it is interspersed with global cooling shouldn't be ignored. We do not now, nor have we ever contributed in any meaningful way to the planets system of weather.
Take a look at the figures for the amount of Co2 that, as a species, we have released into the atmosphere. Yeah they look impressive, but Co2 is not a major player, if you were to envisage the atmosphere as a football field then the Co2 would be the line at the outside of the touchdown area. Our contribution would amount to the width of a pencil on that line.
Gore, that extremely well paid doomsayer, continually touts the fact that Co2 changes have always been linked to temperature change. His claim that it causes the change is open for debate however. In fact I would go as far as saying that it is open for ridicule. All the evidence gathered from the ice core samples that have been collected indicate that the levels of Co2 change after the fact, by as much as several hundred years.
But, you may say, our weather has changed in the last decade. Summers have gotten warmer, weather has become more extreme.
If you have the good fortune to have relatives who were children in the 1920's ask them what the summers were like back then. You might be surprised by the answer.
The ice sheets are melting. Yeah, ok they are. This has happened before and will happen again. In the 19th century there was a mini ice age. They grew at that point.
Thats the thing with a planetary climate system. It changes. It is affected, primarily, by that big thing that comes up every day. Some call it the Sun. Do not underestimate its power to change our climate, when it gets hotter so do we.
Basically I would say that we should look more carefully at the evidence, do no take it as wrote that what the press and the politicians say is correct. Try and find a balanced argument, not easy in the current climate I know. It could be that the powers that be are scaremongering. For instance look into when the first reports of global warming as a catastrophe started to circulate. You will find that it was late 1989. A time when the cold war, that big fear stick we used to be beaten with, ended rather abruptly.
So, are we facing the end of life as we know it?
On balance I would say no.
Has the extended family even been destroyed?
Learn more about this author, Scott Cameron.
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Yes
As a mother of two I am always busy with cleaning, cooking, entertaining, doing housework and yes, I have some of the most up to date labour saving devices to help, but that does not mean that life has become any easier than it was for my mother, or her mother before her. The break down of the extended family means that very often women are left trying do to the work that was once shared between many family members and the reliance on modern devices just adds to the problem, and contributes to our huge carbon footprint.
In the fifties a wash would have been done (a whole wash, not just a half one to save money and time) and then either put out onto a line to dry or on a clothes horse to air. But it was not just the mother who took on these tasks. Most families would have had the mother (or in law) living with them to help with chores and taking care of little ones, sisters and aunts lived in the same street and would be on call if help was needed. Today we live so far apart we have to rely on high energy consuming, expensive electronic devices just to keep our heads above water. Women juggle housework, family and work on their own without any extra help, so yes, it is easier to just throw washing into the tumbler dryer, put something in the microwave, load the dishes in the dishwasher. Even the most fundamental of things, the washable nappy (diaper) becomes a chore if your hands are tied with the rest of modern life. Many women argue that their mothers used them, but most of their mothers had help from their families.
Modern life has bought us many great changes and astounding technological advances but for me it has also signaled the end of the family; so much stress is added by 'needing' the most up to date technology that divorce is becoming rife. Climate change is here and we are not helping it with our lifestyle. Perhaps if we all came back to the fundamentals of family we could help not only our peace of mind but also the planet as a whole.
Learn more about this author, Thomasina Jackson.
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