To ask what you think about global warming?

[deeedeee]

After seeing comments on other threads , I'm wondering, what do most people think?

Are you worried about man-made climate change?

Are you trying to change any of your behaviour because of it?

Or are you not concerned?

[MissesandMuddles]

Vegan for the environment (as well as animals and health).

[PlayOnWurtz]

I'm worried about it but the UK will have little impact on its effects until countries like the US, China, Brazil and India start pulling their socks up and paying attention to the environment.

[pennycarbonara]

There is still a problem (I wonder if less than there was 5 or 10 years ago) with people still seeing a lot of things as a live and let live issue, rather than many "lifestyle choices" being unacceptable without significant extenuating circumstances. Which is a result of the way these issues have been positioned politically over the last 2 or 3 decades.

Governments aren't doing nearly enough - current efforts would have been reasonable if it was still 1990; people don't realise the stage things have got to, - and, though it's not like there's much hope of the current lot making a difference, individual countries need to take a lead regardless of what others are doing. Developing countries in particular see unfairness because they want to achieve the same standard of living. Western countries could do with lowering theirs, with far fewer leisure and consumer goods manufactured, imported and advertised; improvements in public transport outside cities; perhaps a different structure for electricity bills (much cheaper up to a particular threshhold to reduce fuel poverty, then much higher above that to deter extravagance). It would be a very different lifestyle, and because so much of humanity is very short-termist in its outlook, no government has come along that's willing to impose something like that the way they were with changes like rationing in WWII or recession austerity because the consequences of not doing so are not instantaneous.

[pennycarbonara]

I have managed to reduce things I would have found it miserable to do without when I was younger, and outright enjoy the alternative, especially in terms of water and electricity use.

It seems to come naturally to some people not to want stuff (e.g. in the too much stuff / plastic tat thread), but I am not one of them, although hardly any of my friends are consumerist. It is often a struggle with willpower, even though I hate clutter and have made various rules that mean quite a lot of things can be ignored. I am much better than I was, but I have to try and avoid TV ads and material about people with flashy lifestyles in order to not want things I don't really need.

[Floods123]

We are talking about the wrong problem. Global warming is a a symptom of a problem. The problem is over population. Worldwide this has increased by billions in my lifetime. Too many people using too few resources. One day the world will wake up and realise. Sadly there are so many people paid good salaries to work in renewable energy and green issues. They have a vested interest in talking about global warming NOT the main problem which is overpopulation!

[deeedeee]

Well if we keep on like we are there will be plenty depopulation from the storms, floods, droughts and wars that are imminent. Shite legacy for our children and grandchildren.

[SilentBiscuits]

There is a huge problem, and yes, I am worried. Even if we stopped drilling/using oil tomorrow our children will still be hugely affected by war, food shortages and natural disasters. Which is why I'm puzzled that no one ever seems to discuss it on MN.

Floods I agree with you but we can't address overpopulation quickly enough to help mitigate the worst of climate change. That is why the focus needs to be on climate change - and now.

[pennycarbonara]

Floods, I think plenty of people realise that both are problems.
The current billions of humans are made possible by use of fossil energy resources which took millions of years to be created, in just a few decades, via their use in fertilisers, heating, healthcare etc.

The numbers working in renewable energy are far smaller than those in fossil fuel related industries.
I think that the following are responsible for overpopulation remaining a "below the line" issue in the media, rather than that:

• th cultural foundation of Christianity and other monotheistic religions, which remain the underpinning of a lot of morality (that humans are essentially the most important creatures, they should dominate nature, and more of them is a good thing)
  
• active efforts to control population have so far been associated with cruel and repressive regimes (e.g. women in China being kidnapped and mutilated), rather than just taxing people befitting their income and efforts to change the general public's idea of reproduction as default and "grown up" lifepath (very weird saying the latter on this site!)
  
• economic growth is desirable therefore more consumers are desirable
  
• many people find the idea of growing old with fewer young people around to look after them, or their peers, frightening. It's a minority who would readily accept that for the sake of the greater good of the earth.

[PaperdollCartoon]

Yes I'm worried, also vegan for the environment (and the animals, and probably for my health but I'm still chubby )

Yes overpopulation by humans is an issue but the massive over population of farm animals and the problems it causes is just as bad, and less meat eating would help starving humans as well.

[bertsdinner]

I worry about it and overpopulation. I feel quite helpless really, and that it's out of my control.
I try to lessen my impact on the environment, I recycle, try not to waste, dont throw stuff away willy nilly/waste electric, etc, but I feel my contribution is minimal, a drop in the ocean.

[user1471446905]

The genie is out of the bottle and won't be going back in. However I have faith that human ingenuity will find ways to work around and adapt to the inevitable changes that will happen. I actually think that efforts and resources should be put towards finding solutions for the issues that will arise rather than pretending we can stop them arising.

[deeedeee]

Only a handful of responses.

Do you think people don't care or don't realise?

[Hygellig]

I've been concerned about global warming since I first heard about it, which was probably in the early 1990s. I certainly remember it being quite widely talked about around a decade ago, when Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth.

My mum's parents had a very low-impact lifestyle although they might not have described it as such. They never learned to drive, went on one medium-haul flight in their entire lives, grew a lot of their own food, didn't buy lots of new stuff and hardly ever went anywhere. I've flown a lot more than them, although for years didn't have a car when I lived in a city now try to avoid using it for short journeys. I think it can be hard for people to feel like their actions can make a difference.

[AnyFucker]

Honestly ?

I cannot make myself care about it. I believe much of it is natural progression. I think far too much global money is spent on trying to prevent something unpreventable.

I know my opinions are unpopular and not very "right on" but I just can't get riled up enough when there are much more immediate problems in the world...stuff that could be sorted today if only people would listen

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I was a very active and passionate member of Greenpeace decades ago. No one listened and nothing changed. I think we're going to hell in a hand basket and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

[HopelesslydevotedtoGu]

DH and I were just talking about this last night and I couldn't sleep after for worrying

If climate change is as bad as predicted I think the next generations will really despise our generation for not acting

I am selfishly glad that we live in the UK

[deeedeee]

Anyfucker, you can't make yourself care about climate change condemning the poorest in the world to drought, famine and war?
About your children and grandchildren's world being far far less secure in all ways than the one you have known?

[HopelesslydevotedtoGu]

Do you think people don't care or don't realise?

Speaking for myself, I'm so scared about it that I try to avoid thinking about it.

Stupid I know.

But I imagine quite a few people feel that way.

[wasonthelist]

I am old enough to remember the early 1970s when the scientific consensus was that we would experience a new ice age very soon. I am not saying I know better than the scientists, but we have always had readjust our thinking as we have learned more - some medical "science" from 100 years ago is laughable now. If the current concensus is right, then nothing short of massive changes to our lives and economic setup will help - and realistically, these changes aren't going to happen. I try to do my bit, but really, pretty much everything in my life is short term destruction of the planet.

[birdybirdywoofwoof]

I think it's real(!) I think it will be devastating.

I feel very disempowered about it tho- and feel this is one of those things that won't be resolved on an individual basis. I am aware I think of my behaviours that aren't great- but I suppose I justify them in that they are a drop in the ocean compared to say what china does.

[pennycarbonara]

Do you think people don't care or don't realise?

I think some people feel powerless so it's more comfortable to have their heads in the sand, or they find it boring, or they haven't realised that things are likely to get serious within their own expected lifespans. Or they don't velieve in it because they have read a lot of denier material.

I think a lot is now unpreventable, and one of the problems is that many people haven't really thought about it hard (because very little prompts them to). They expect life to continue much as it is now for the rest of the century and beyond, just with some technological improvements. That seems to be the default assumption about how the world will be when they are elderly (assuming people here are in their 30s and 40s) or how they expect their kids' lives to pan out into middle and old age.

[AnyFucker]

deee

no, I can't

I am much more exercised by the issues affecting me and my children today

[ParaPrincess]

I do worry about it. I think overpopulation is going to be a huge problem in the near future. Yes we have room for people but do we really have enough resources for all the people to come?

[AnyFucker]

and have you read the "tumble dryer" thread ?

[twopointfourfamily]

I honestly couldn't give less of a shit about it or it's consequences.
I fear it's merely a fashionable concern.
I am with David Mitchel on this one. Sorting your plastics from your glass is now simply pissing in the wind.