Anyone else surprised that there isn’t more uproar about global warming right now?

Humans in general don't, can't, do long term thinking. We've known about all of this for most of my life at least (heading towards 60). People just don't care.

Posting my link again as it didn't seem to work - in case it inspires anyone with a garage and a non-hilly terrain 😄

https://www.mobilitypower.co.uk/product/monster-2/?attribute^pa^colour=orange

Governments have known about this for decades and choose to ignore it - at their peril.

I've adopted my own approach. I have a grey water system so my veggie beds and greenhouse are well watered legally.
I have retained a lot of trees so our garden is shady and moist (and stuffed full of wildlife hiding from the sun).
I cut and dry my own wood for heat and to minimise gas use. I cycle wherever possible to cut diesel use, and improve my health and that of my wallet.
I eat veggie several times a week, grow my own fruit & veg, keep bees to help with local pollination, and recycle everything possible. I've increased my house insulation to improve efficiency. At some point I will install solar panels to heat water

I can only fix what is in my control.

I agree with you. Another thing that pisses me off is the hose pipe ban after a short heatwave. Wtf. Water companies should have been investing billions into new reservoirs for years now. Instead we have one bout of hotter than normal weather and there’s a hose pipe ban. What resilience do we have as far as fresh drinking water goes if the summers get hotter and longer.

it’s not fair to blame climate policies for our economic issues. The Ukraine war, the pandemic, energy prices, inflation and Brexit are all way more significant factors.

The Uk has also substantially reduced emissions so saying nothing has been achieved is inaccurate.

Dismissing Extinction Rebellion activists as hypocrites who know nothing is also an unreasonable sweeping generalization.i’m not saying that this does not apply to any of them but I seriously doubt it applies to most or all.

i do agree with you about we need to focus on what we can do to adapt.

OP, I totally agree with you .

If I had a garage, and lived somewhere flat, I'd definitely be pootling about in one of these.

No road tax, no driving licence, no petrol costs - no brainer!

https://www.mobilitypower.co.uk/product/monster-2/?attributepacolour=orange

This has some answers, especially episode 10. Changes in law made it near impossible among other things.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002ybbl

The sun is not the only arbiter of a planets climate. If it was Mercury would be hotter than Venus, and Neptune colder than Uranus. On Earth, life makes its own climate.

This story about the mass deaths of emperor penguins really got to me. The species of endurance and resilience par excellence… at the end, talking about their extinction being brought forward, as if it’s an inevitable event. How many millions of years have they been enduring Antarctic winters? Gone in 200 years of human greed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c204626888zo

I shook my fist, very emphatically, at the sun. I even used swear words.

Like they are doing right now on this thread!

It’s not the possible extinction of humans that worries me, but the possible extinction of so many of the other animals and plants we are privileged to share the planet with. We are causing one of the earth’s great extinction events, just so rich people - and it is the richer people, poor people do not consume anything like as much resource - can have their cakes and eat, have every possible convenience laid on and use them to boost their ‘images’, ‘confidence’ or ‘status’. Pathetic.

We have been warned for decades. Unfortunately neoliberalism and globalism came along at the worst possible time, forcing entire economies to re build themselves around consumption and making profit for the rich instead of what was actually needed. Eg in. Britain a wholesale push for privatised transport and more and more cars, requiring ridiculously convoluted global supply chains, instead of more effective public transport and more sustainable local chains.

But we don't really want China to do that, do we? Because if they did, where would we get all our cheap crap from?

If we achieve net zero, we'll have nothing to be smug about. We'll still want all the shit China pump out emissions to produce. We'll still want it shipped by plane, etc.

Trouble is, we want to have our cake and eat it. Net zero is only possible for us because we have shunted the problem of emissions from heavy industry somewhere else.

Nobody wants to consume less. Nobody really wants to do what it would really take. Most think it's not down to us as individuals, that us all giving up plastic straws, etc, won't make a jot of difference. We want the governments to do 'something' about 'big oil', 'big agriculture', and other multi-nationals you can put 'big' in front of, but the 'something' we want them to do has to involve minimal inconvenience to us as individuals. Shoving all the nasty stuff somewhere else so we can't see it, but still get the benefits has long been a policy in this country.

That's not young people. A ton of middle class middle aged people go to those events.

I think there's also a fatigue around people have been saying "climate change - this will happen" for years and a lot of it hasn't happened.

I remember being told Blackpool would be underwater by 2020 due to the ice cap melting. Pretty relevant as I went to school there.
Thing is that it's not just not underwater, but that clearly isn't really going to happen in the near future.
But people think back at that sort of thing and dismiss it as scaremongering and so feel able to dismiss more recent concerns.
To get people act, it needs to be realistic aims but also real threats.

And there needs to be a mindset change in many ways. We're flying for our holiday (Channel Islands, so not far) for the first time since our honeymoon and we've gone past 25 years married, which tells you how often we've flown. I've had people (on here more than RL) calling holidaying in the UK "staystation" and "not really a holiday" and really dismissing holidays here as less good.
Until people start factorising the environment into their decisions and it being considered a good thing then nothing will change.

The planet will very definitely survive without us! But what worries me is the extent of suffering and most of all I don’t want to suffer myself! I can see wars and starvation as climate change gets worse - farmers are struggling every year with the extremes

I wish we would do more though. Solar panels & air conditioning as standard on new builds with link ups to the national grid. You can use the air conditioning as heating in the winter. The grid to be upgraded to cope with excess solar power generated from households. Especially in the South or areas of the country that get the most sunshine.

I wouldn’t say electric cars are pissing about. They significantly benefit the environment by producing zero tailpipe emissions and achieving higher overall energy efficiency than petrol powered vehicles. Even when accounting for battery manufacturing and power plant emissions, research shows EVs reduce lifetime greenhouse gases by 50% to 70% compared to internal combustion engines.

Humans primarily are too busy with either surviving or enjoying themselves to give a shit about global warming and future generations. The planet will survive and probably thrive without humans anyway. Some of us do what we can day to day but it will need to come from the key polluters. Farm Ag, oil, travel, banking, energy industries, not us pissing about with paper straws and electric cars.

What will happen is when it’s too late to reverse the same naysayers will be sat there saying why didn’t anybody do anything.

China isn’t carrying on regardless.It’s the uncontested global leader in renewable energy. The country installs more wind and solar capacity than the rest of the world combined, produces over 80% of global solar hardware, and accounts for roughly 32% of all renewable electricity generated worldwide.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-8d2b6944-4f7a-45b4-96fd-2d92499ff97d

USA on the other hand….

Actually this is hugely ignorant. China for instance is very pioneering when it comes to solar panels and is doing a huge reforestation programme
We are also deeply interconnected with China's economy as western consumers buy so much of the unnecessary tut they churn out. (And then it gets shipped over here on huge polluting ships)

Yanbu. But as for why I think it's a mixed bag of reasons

• people feel hopeless (even though I believe change is within our power)
• people don't want to change their lifestyles so it's easier not to confront it
• people are scared and sticking their head in the sand
• were are so economically driven that it's hard to get any momentum
• big business is great at distracting us with green washing
• people get sucked into social media and become apathetic
• it's so much nicer to believe that it isn't real and it isn't alarming

Nothing we can do about it really when places like China and India carry on regardless. We do our little bit, but the impact is small. We may end up freezing rather than roasting.

Yes OP it's the very hot elephant in the room right now but it's not being massively talked about in the press/parliament. V depressing :(