To resent the cognitive dissonance that exists around climate change

Yes, the future. People will not massively change their ways. Electric car? Maybe. More house insulation and an ASHP? Possibly. Forgo skiing or 2 weeks in Tenerife? No way. Governments are not introducing draconian emissions measures like banning holiday flights, taking every inefficient car off the roads, banning non-essential import of shite from abroad, banning cruise ships etc etc.
The best thing anyone can do to save the planet is not have kids. That’s only happening in the UK/Europe because housing is so fucking expensive, and people want to have a career and a bit of luxury. It’s nothing at all to do with saving the planet.
ChatGPT says the global population is increasing for the coming decades, albeit at a slower pace than the previous years. So that’s not good.

YES, TURN THE BIG RED INTERNET LEVER OFF 😆
Seriously though, there's a lot of online stuff that should have been massively regulated. Cloud storage and streaming benefits neither us nor the environment, it's just a clever wheeze for the tech companies to rake more money in. And don't get me started on AI...

We would need to close down the internet, etc to help towards climate change, due to the data centres processing all the electricity etc

In the future?! Do you know how much the LA wildfires have cost?! And the floods in Valencia?! It's happening now, right now.
And we don't need to halve the global population (which is set to start declining fairly soon anyway)- we just need to cut the vast emissions that a relatively small amount of people in wealthy countries produce.

That’s way, way off in the future though. And unless the global population halves, most likely inevitable.

I just hope they've got enough money in the coffers to put right all the chaos and destruction climate change is going to cause then they haven't

Well, looks like the government are again considering the 3rd runway, expanding Gatwick and Newcastle airports.
Looks like the economy trumps the climate.
Not sure they have the balls to actually do it though.

Completely agree. If I'm going to have a short break abroad- which to be honest no one really needs- I'd rather do it without the guilt. And I'm officially a poor person. The upside is that any short getaways I've taken by train- although definitely much, much MUCH more complex to organise!- have also proved much more rewarding than flying. No fucking airports- and they often involve an overnight stop in Paris, which is never a bad thing IMO.

At what point would you say your financial
Benefit should take second place?

I mean you wouldn't kill someone in a scrum to get a cheap ticket would you?

But it's ok to contribute to someone's death when you don't know who or when it will happen ?

Where's the tipping point for you ?

Whereas I can get a return flight to Amsterdam for £25 .From my local airport

I like train travel but it can be expensive. Especially in the uk

It's expensive if you book normal tickets, but much cheaper with an Interrail pass, especially if you live a long way from London (as I do). Currently planning a long weekend in Amsterdam, and it WILL take longer to get there (12 hours as opposed to 8 hours if we flew), and will cost more (roughly £300 as opposed to £220, would be a better deal in high season as the Interrail pass price is fixed whilst flights are dynamic). However, it means we don't have to deal with the joy of an airport- trains are a much more pleasurable experience- and we get to spend a night in Lille on the way back, a city I've never visited.

We had a similar few days in Marseille/Paris in October, and it completely converted my boyfriend to train travel! Compounded probably by watching the Netflix documentary about Boeing- I'm glad I won't be flying in a 737 any time soon 😬

I'm planning to take the DC Interrailing to Germany, Romania and Bulgaria this summer.

As a species we have basically decided we would rather die or see others die than give up our lifestyles.

For quite a few years we tried not to fly and went to southern Europe via car / train. Absolutely flipping gruelling and extremely expensive. We quietly book our flights now.

Most people don’t care.

I note Trump.has announced the US will withdraw from the Paris agreement. In his own words" Drill, baby, drill". In the company of Yemen and Iran.

I really hope that people can stop blaming the poor in India, China and Africa now for climate change.

The richest country in the world doesn't care. Why should anyone else?

Well it won't if we don't start now. But would you really prefer the alternative?

And to be honest, a lot of this stuff is in train- and more could be, if it wasn't for the endless carping of those taken in by the deliberate misinformation pumped out by the paid lobbyists of the fossil fuel industry.

Traffic reduction schemes are already being rolled out in cities. Hell, in the Netherlands it happened 50 years ago. Paris has become demonstrably greener and more cycle friendly in my lifetime (and consequently a far nicer place to visit). Last time I went to London I noticed how lovely and quiet the backstreets of Haringey were due to the LTNs. Renewable energy generation is increasing year upon year. A mass rollout of home insulation should happen (side eyes government 👀)

What it really needs is for people to stop fucking whining over nothing.

It would take about three generations, billions of pounds worth of investment, a radical worldwide philosophical and economic sea change and a huge cultural deprogramming to be able to reach this admitted utopia.

Not going to happen.

What does my swede in is the sheer amount of flapping and wailing over being forced to live a miserable, joyless existence if we all work together to cut our carbon emissions.

As if warm, well insulated homes, cheaper power, less traffic and safer streets, more nature, trees and greenery in our everyday surroundings, more opportunity for safer exercise, cleaner air etc were all bad things 🤔

That’s it exactly @malificent7
If you let in the knowledge and really sit with it and think about what it means - for the atmosphere, oceans, weather systems, land use, food production, pollution, migration, housing, natural disasters, long term deterioration of stable conditions, species threat, etc etc - then eventually you think, I am part of this, I am not separate from this, my actions affect this, how can I change my actions?
Or you stick your fingers in your ears.
(Or tbf, some people really honestly don’t understand the science/ physics/ consequences - but everyone can google if they want to learn).
Then you make your choices. And everyone has different circumstances, but surely you would try to help a little bit?
I think we all agree a reusable coffee cup isn’t going to cut it.

Many people I know are climate deniers. That way they don't have to make any changes to their lives. Way of coping i guess. We are truly f***

Agree OP the cognitive dissonance is wild in some of my friends who think they are the climates best friend because they don't use kitchen towels, recycle their contact lenses sachets and bring their reusable coffee cup when we go for coffee.
They scoff and moan at me because I never remember my reusable cup and you would think I was single handedly responsible for climate change. One actually refused to come for coffee one day because she couldn't bear to see me with a paper cup and lectured me about landfill etc.
I'm child free. They have 10 children between the three of them. It's fucking laughable and they don't see the irony.

It's interesting that overpopulation in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia is always cited as a problem yet the inhabitants of those regions affect the global climate the least. The billions of poor South Asians and Africans are not the ones demanding Amazon delivery shit from China the next day nor do they have power hungry home Internet or yearly overseas holidays.

Take a look at some facts and get things into proportion. Road vehicles are responsible for around 99% of pedestrian fatalities. Also responsible for around 25% of the UK's GHG emissions (which is what this thread is supposed to be about).

Godwin's Law (Mumsnet edition):
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a rant about cyclists approaches 1."

If cars don't drive on pavements then how do they end up parked on them? They might not have bells, but they just rev their engines or use their horns instead.