Please help me feel more hopeful about climate change action!

[plantsplantsplants]

Watched the new David Attenborough documentary (Climate Change - the facts) and feeling very frustrated about the general apathy from the general population.

As a couple, DH and I are doing all/the vast majority of the right things, but it's easy to get down when I see lots of people acting like they're completely oblivious to the urgency of the climate problems we are facing.

Please cheer me up by telling me what you / your family do to limit your impact on our climate!

(Looking for tips of things I can be doing better as well as reassurance that other people care too; don't worry, I know I'm far from perfect and there's always more I can be doing!)

I'm sorry this isn't very cheerful, but individuals taking small actions will have virtually no effect when the wheels of big business carry on turning. We need a total system change - the end to growth and profit and capitalism - and unless we push for that as a matter of urgency, we are fucked. You can switch brands of cotton buds as much as you like but we need legislation to prevent climate collapse.

I can see why you feel over whelmed and down about it. We eat meat only 3 days a week, not much dairy e.g. oat milk, usually just use our car for work (there’s no way around that due to what we do) and recycle

If people really want to make a difference with their lifestyles then you need to switch to plant based diet and stop flying. Anything else is just "pissing about on the margins" as George Monbiot put it.

We plan to throw wild flower seeds around, reduce meat eating, leave seed for the birds, I've already written to Pantene about when they're going to start being reusable and I think I'd like to write to my local council too. I also work for charities.

But we need to see such massive change. Consumerism for a start. Do I really need to buy this??

Thanks for the replies so far – I already eat 100% plant based and last flew in 2013 (compulsory flight for work rather than holiday), but if anything feel more powerless knowing that I've already made the obvious changes, IYSWIM.

I hesitate to say it but the single biggest thing you can do is chose to do is to limit the number of children you have or even to chose to be childless.

One less child saves 58.6 tonnnes of carbon a year. Going plant based saves 0.8 tones, being car free saves 2.4 tonnes.

You’d have to ditch 20-90 transatlantic flights a year to save that amount of carbon.

One child for one year equates to pretty much a whole lifetime of being vegan. Or about 25 years of being car-free.

www.independent.co.uk/environment/children-carbon-footprint-climate-change-damage-having-kids-research-a7837961.html

I imagine there will be a huge bunfight at some point in the future. When all the hot countries become too hot or too dangerous (floods or droughts or both) and the population from those countries decide they want to be in temperate climes where it is safer and there is food production and start moving north. And of course people like us won't want our land swamped by needy starving 'others'. So bunfight ensues.
But I would say its a generation or three away.

I'm childless at the moment and am definitely taking climate change into account when thinking about starting a family. I'd always planned on having a pair of kids, but starting to wonder now about having an only, or even adopting (not a pipe dream, have worked with children in the care system so have experience in this field).

Join Extinction Rebellion. Non-violent direct action is empowering and I believe it's the most likely way to spark fast enough change.

I am sorry to disrupt people, we absolutely do not take this lightly, but governments are being criminally negligant and the climate emergency cannot wait any longer.

Extinction rebellion's demands of the UK government:

• Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
• Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

-Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

rebellion.earth/the-truth/demands/

Don't have a cat or dog.
Don't drive.
Use green energy.
Use energy carefully.
Mend rather than throw away.
Buy second hand.
Reuse everything you can.
Recycle everything else.
Vegan.
Obviously, don't fly.

But I would say its a generation or three away

It's really not.
By 2040 (so 20 years away) the world is on course to be 2 degrees centigrade hotter.
If we make significant changes now, this will be limited to 1.5 degrees.
Our children will face very significant problems from climate change within the next 20 years.

@porpoises – thanks, I've just signed up to the rebellion, but live in a tiny rural town a long way from the nearest group (and a million hours from London)!

Good list @HaroldsSocalledBluetits; I've got all of that covered except for repairing socks when they've got holes in them – I'm trying, but my darning skills are definitely not up to scratch!

LOL I on the other hand am not much of a seamstress but I can darn! I find it very forgiving in terms of clumsy stitchwork. I use a darning mushroom inherited from a great aunt and don't pull the thread too tight.

Is there not something more strategic things to do? I dunno invest in renewables or something? I fly too much for work but otherwise am car free etc. I did have a second kid though

@HaroldsSocalledBluetits I will keep my eyes out for a darning mushroom in charity shops!

@SleepDeprivedCabbageBrain Strategic is what I'd like the most! Investing might be a good way forward; I know our energy provider is a renewable energy company, but the cheaper renewables get, the less call for fossil fuels there will be!