I put 3-400. We have just under 3000 for 6 people (well, usually just 4 now, but maybe 5 again next year), and that feels plenty big; we'd be fine with smaller if the house used the space well. We also have done several 2 month stretches with all of us in around 220 sf, though, when we travel in the summer with our trailer and been fine; the house feels ridiculous when we come back from a long trip (and, paradoxically, I usually feel restless like a caged animal for a few weeks while I settle back in to stationery life).

I think a lot of people aren't aware of the history...if I take a week off from the chat board I can feel hopelessly out of the loop! But, yes. There are things about which reasonable people can disagree, and then there are...things that are not like that.

If you dig a bit, you'll find there are quite a few things artehaus thinks we're all being duped about.

The big tobacco comparison keeps coming to my head as well. And I think having people arguing about whose parents/grandparents/kids/neighbors used the most fossil fuels is probably exactly the kind of distraction a lot of the people in these industries love to see.

My dad commuted from Canton (well, almost) to Atlanta in the 70s/80s. And my mom drove me to private school in Sandy Springs for several years. They were not role models of environmentalism for sure.

It's extremely well documented that corporations covered up research on climate change for decades. I don't have any issue blaming them.

This doesn't really have much to do with your larger point, but right before I read your post, I was reading the wikipedia entry on the history of climate change denial, where I found out that the first research into the effects of carbon dioxide on climate happened back in 1824, and by the end of the century the ways in which increased carbon dioxide would increase temperature were pretty well understood. There was an article in Popular Mechanics in 1912 that talked about how burning so much coal could have a substantial effect on global temperatures over time. So, yeah, industry not being willing to give up money now to save the world later has a very long history! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denial

Here's the chart about carbon dioxide: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide If I'm looking at it right, carbon dioxide took longer to hit the 25% increase predicted (but it's there now) and the resulting temperature increase was not as dramatic. But both are still continuing to rise dramatically as predicted and accelerating over time.

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature#:~:text=January 18%2C 2023-,Highlights,0.18° C) per decade. not that much. But the increase is accelerating.

I'm fascinated by this turning point: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna38070412 Imagine if people had jumped on this back in the day and kept it from becoming a weirdly politically polarizing issue! But it was always the people with the money and power who really could have done something.

you said your kids won't do small things that you feel are helpful for the environment. I didn't say that about my kids. But I do think that, like lots of us in this thread are saying, my kids understand that the time when small, individual actions could make a difference is in the past. We need big, systemic changes. I feel kind of hopeless sometimes in the face of that. My kids are building lives for themselves, making art, learning, and, yeah, doing what they can to be responsible humans in the face of a very uncertain future. I find them incredibly brave.

I do think there's a lot of fascinating work being done on this type of stuff (carbon recapture, et. al.) I don't know...the way climate change happens seems so straightforward and easy to understand (too much carbon!) that I feel like there must be a workable solution. And I think humans are capable of doing big, great things. If we want to. It sounds so absurd when people talk about stuff like carbon recapture being "too expensive." Like....money is a made up thing! We're all going to feel very silly that we couldn't fix the world because it cost too much money when, like, water and rice are the only currencies that count.

Maybe my biggest source of hope is that climate change is getting awfully expensive (see: insurance premiums in Florida, among many other things).

Adorable! (I thought this post was going to be about beer, though 😂)

It's heartbreaking how much my kids take it for granted that the world as we know it will be gone within their lifetimes.

Seeing how many people aren't worried has me more worried now than I was before I opened this thread. It must be incredibly frustrating to be a climate scientist. Good job, climate scientists, chugging along Cassandra-like! I do have some hope for a big solution to save us all from ourselves. Like how Malthus was wrong because he didn't foresee nitrogen fixation. But, then, nitrogen fixation killed a lot of people, too.

Hiking, traveling, planning travel, yoga (just on YouTube, but we do it together), watching TV, watching baseball, going to the local brewery with other couple friends.

It’s our first go round with trying to figure out timing given that we’ve had covid recently. DH could get another shot, but he had covid in January, and we’ll be traveling (in our RV, and to mostly outdoor and/or uncrowded places) all summer. I’m thinking he’s likely better off getting it shortly before school starts…except for how there might be a different version by fall. Hmm.

for future reference, it's very easy to get courses approved through the college board...you just have to "adopt" the sample syllabus, and that's pretty much it. But for my kids' classes where I didn't do that, I listed them as "x class with AP exam"

We've been trying to plan this trip for years now, and it's never worked out for assorted reasons--so we're very excited! We'll be there around 5 weeks. We spent several weeks in Nova Scotia a few years ago and loved it.

yes--that's a great idea. We've used the Trusted Housesitters site to find people to stay at our house several times now, and always had great experiences. Although that reminds me that that's one of the big issue with long term overseas travel...our own dogs! The ones we have currently won't be around in 10 years, but I do like to have a dog or two...that's one of the big appeals of RV travel. Hmm.

DS spend a few days in Portugal during spring break of his study abroad semester last year and loved it! Thanks...yeah, I should look into possibilities in other countries, too--probably it's not that hard to piece together a lot of time abroad every year if we're willing/able to move around. Need to figure out how to afford it all, too!

yes, that could work! I should try to get more excited about RVing in Mexico, but I follow a bunch of RVers who've been in Baja this past winter/spring, and it just doesn't appeal to me. I don't think I'm enough of a beach person. Or, rather, my favorite beaches are the cold, rocky kind. Hence the summer in Newfoundland!

I know OP has said it won't work for her kid, but I've been through AP art history (at home) with two kids now: it's not a difficult exam as far as the skills that are called for, but there's a TON of material to cover, so it can be time consuming and overwhelming (and it's a lot of memorization compared to most exams). I really enjoy doing it, but it also would be nice to be able to slow down a bit and linger over some things. Human geography is not, IME, a particularly time consuming one. I've had two kids do it as a 2 hour 1x/week class (plus some but not a ton of homework--total time commitment of no more than 4 hours most weeks, I'd say, including the class), and do well on the exam with just that plus a few weeks going through a test prep book.

ah, yes--that looks like the answer! thanks! We wouldn't have jobs to return to in this case, but it must be somewhat common for retired people to stay for a long time? I mean, it's a common situation for Canadians RVing in the US; there must be some people who do it the other way around! it's true...I guess there'd really be nowhere to stay in an RV outside of May-September for the most part, so more than 6 months would only be an issue if we wanted to extend it with some airbnbs on either end or something.