Melting Glaciers

 If there is one thing designed to wind everyone up in the blogging world, or elsewhere for that matter, you only need to write/speak the words ‘climate change’ and it’s on for young and old.

Quite a bit of fence sitting goes on because taking a stand often means copping flak from people with the opposite point of view.

This post was prompted by an English blog post discussing young people who had gathered to make a statement about climate change.

What times we live in – if you believe in climate change – when the young are protesting about what in the future may well be seen as the most important thing in our generation while politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are indulging in such childish behaviour.

Climate change came to the notice of scientists as far back as the Industrial Revolution. It was met with skepticism even then; coal powered machinery etc. allowed certain people to become very rich and if there’s one influence on many things, in many places, it’s money.

Arguments rage back and forth while people pick selective facts to support their side of the argument.  Keeping a balanced outlook requires a certain detachment and the ability to with stand scorn and derision for taking a stance against the climate deniers.

How do I feel about young people protesting about their future being affected by climate change?

It’s their future and in democratic societies, they still have the right to protest. All the oldies who mutter about children who should be in school instead of on the streets protesting, will be dead and gone when the young generation of today have to face climate change difficulties.

And how does the title fit into all this?

The people of Bolivia and Peru who have been affected by melting glaciers due to climate change are neither schoolchildren nor are they protesting in the streets of western counties. Instead, they are grappling with melting glaciers which disrupt water supplies to cities to a greater extent and to farms who rely on snow each year to a lesser extent.