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Defining Self

 There is a logic in children suing governments for their climate rights  though many of their other rights are being lost too. There used to be an expectation that a hard-working young person could hope to settle down and start their own family by their mid-20s. 

That is now a dream far out of reach for many people that age. They work hard enough and often have the education that was supposed to lead them to the road to financial stability if not prosperity but reality is that many are joining the the NEET ranks instead. Governments are culpable to this turn of events too as much as they are are responsible for climate crisis and borrowing from future generations. 

Around the world, both innovative and old-school legal arguments are being used to go after companies and governments to seek redress or forestall future harms. At the same time, the fossil fuel industry and its allies have powerful new legal grounds at their disposal to challenge climate rules. A number of cases could be taken up by the highest courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court and The Hague.

The NEET phenomenon is disproportionately male and theories abound for why that is. Makes you wonder if there is also the larger question of what it takes to be a man in this day and age. If the man cannot earn enough to be sole-provider for this family then what must he do to bridge the gap. Add to that such a man is a relationship with a woman who is not interested in being a mother then the family unit as it was traditionally defined does not come together. These are two people in a temporal situation and the while the woman can enjoy her freedom, time motherhood to when it suits her, it leaves the man in the equation somewhat lost. 

 that’s in part due to declining opportunities in traditionally male occupations, such as construction and manufacturing, while “women’s enrollment in schooling, education outcomes, and employment outcomes have mostly trended upwards.”

The traditionally defined concept of what it means to be male is probably more to blame here than occupations.

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