If you ruled the world, what would you implement to help with climate change

[GiraffeInTheCity]

Daydreaming if world domination whilst doing a rain dance...

If you ruled unilaterally, what would you do to make things (anything) more climate friendly? I would

• set net zero targets for much sooner (net zero 2050/2030 feels like ages given the emergency) and would require companies to have solid plans to get there. Probably set it for the next 3 to 5 years. Massive fines if you don't meet targets.

• mandate large scale public transport infrastructure upgrades in big cities where there isn't enough (tax the billionaires to pay for it) and make driving in them difficult (ULEZ, scant parking etc)

• renationalise energy and water, with the view to run it on clean energy and without pumping effluent into the rivers / sea. I imagine there would need to be massive upgrades here too to achieve that. Not renationalising because the private sector is being a bunch of thieves dishonest, But because things need to move quickly now, this is an emergency.

• make eating meat / dairy / fish illegal (I know I'll get flamed for this one...) --

-- What would you do?

If I ran the world I would replant the rain forest in a week.

I'd use genetically modified plants to soak up more carbon.

I would distribute electric bikes to everyone in cities.

And for the big guns, I'd get a thanos gauntlet and snap my fingers to make all the fat cats disappear.

Redistribute land and wealth, not completely, but sufficiently so that everyone had enough land and enough time to work it to produce a decent proportion of their own food
What about those who don’t want to work the land? It’s hard work and has to be done in all weathers.

I grew up right next door to a sheep farm (heard the mothers calling for their lambs all night long each time they were removed) and spent many summers on my best friends grandparents working farm on the moor. (Cows and sheep) I also helped out at the farm up the road. I had horses, kept at various other farms over the years and saw a lot of very uncomfortable things. Weird that all those farms were the only ones that have cruel practices!

Tell me, how do they produce milk if they don't actually make the cows pregnant to start the milk, and then take the calves away? Cows are mammals, like us, or are you going to tell me I'm wrong about that too? 😉

@Andante57 If food shortages and prices rise to serious hunger levels people will be glad of it. At least they may like the option.

@Scrowy

Your blanket observations are also incorrect, my school friend is vegan purely because she grew up on a dairy farm.

@spinachmonster Yes, I did work at an 'ethical' medium sized dairy. Cows were regularly inseminated until they could no longer get pregnant. I believe their lives were shortened by the continual pregnancies. Calves were removed at 24 hours so the mother's could be milked and the milk sold. Male calves were culled mostly, though some were reared for a few weeks for beef or veal. I knew nothing before I worked in the finance department there, but certainly has put me off the dairy industry. I will say they tried to get the cows outside in the fields as much as possible.

I grew up right next door to a sheep farm (heard the mothers calling for their lambs all night long each time they were removed) In my experience the ewes can't wait to get shot of their lambs at this stage. They're not tiny lambs but almost as big as their mothers

Well that's weird. The opposite of what I witnessed year after year.
Yes, the lambs are almost the size of their mothers, but they are still under a year old, often still suckling.

(Any meat from a sheep which is over a year old is classed as mutton- how often do you see that on a menu or a packet? Meaning lamb always means an animal under a year old has been killed. I would class that as an infant animal.) People don't always think about this. I didn't used to.

It's such a shame isn't it. Also the males culled at birth, same as male chicks in the egg industry. It's all pretty hideous.

Male calves are extremely rarely culled at birth now.
For the past 2 years milk buyers such as Arla have stipulated in their contracts that this cannot happen.

Also many dairy farmers use sexed semen, which has a 90% success rate.

@spinachmonster Any meat from a sheep which is over a year old is classed as mutton No it isn't, that's hogget, mutton is over two years.

@spinachmonster @derxa maybe call time on farming ethics on a climate change thread.

Maybe we can all agree that knowing the provenance of food allows us to make educated decisions.

I have a friend who lives in Germany. She and her husband made a decision not to fly for holidays. They went by car, so obviously not as far, but holidays nevertheless.
She is sooo careful with water.
She tells me that the Germans have made a law which is something like preventing new builds from having gravelled gardens or maybe it's drives. Those existing can stay but the new ones mustn't have them. Some new houses near me have got loads of block paving and the tiniest of lawns. I'd make a law that only a small percentage of any frontage should be not green, i.e. two rows of slabs for car wheels and the rest weeds or flowers in among. Tiny steps.

They're not infant animals. More like ten year olds. The lambs butt their mothers' and nearly knock them over. Would you breast feed a ten year old child?

We’ll requisition it when the time comes.

In the UK, too many people and not enough farmable land. Where would all the millions who live in London move to?

We’ll requisition it when the time comes

stuntbubbles - how much land will you requisition per person? Will there be laws governing what use the requisitioned land is to be put to?
Will you send inspectors round making sure the land is being fully utilised?
What if the new owners wish to sell their land - will the former landowner be allowed to buy it back?
When will ‘the time come”?

This was a really interesting thread, I was really enjoying reading the varied and innovative suggestions being made. It makes you wonder what people would be prepared to suggest to stop climate change if the changes were imposed rather than being self driven. Quite a lot of these recommendations are pretty radical.

Lots of things I just don't know why they weren't done a decade or more ago. I remember recommending all new builds should have solar panels a 10 year old and that's almost two decades ago now. If that had been done it feels like costs etc would have come down much more quickly.

Wind farms are a really interesting one because I think electricity generation goes up by the square of the blade length and the cube of the turbine height or similar (I think due to increased wind speeds but not sure) - so there are massive benefits to scaling those up.

😂

I wouldn't make animal products illegal I'd just run TV shows and constant ads showing how they are killed and dairy cows having their calves taken and being battered as they usually are.

@Augend23 Solar panels on houses don't make sense for commercial organisations and the feed in tariffs were withdrawn. Installation is expensive, the grid tie equipment is expensive, and maintenance is expensive (access to roofs). The cost for solar and wind have come down so much that government no longer has to subsidise them. I posted a couple of links to plans for hydrogen and wind development.

Passiv Haus could have and should have been bought in in stages, urban/suburban development and home ownership needs a massive overhaul.

Yes the swept area of a wind turbine varies with the square of the blade length, it's much easier to service and maintain one big turbine compared to a couple of smaller ones of the equivalent capacity.

There is going to be multiple solutions required across all sectors to wean us off fossil fuels.

@whentheraincame but what would you do about climate change?

Do you think animals produce B12 ?

F-all really, the doomsday predictions have been wrong for 60 years. It's a tax generation scheme via fearmongering and if it was really an issue they would just do the necessary things which are glaring us all in the face.

It's a tax generation scheme via fearmongering

Could you please explain why you think this - provide evidence to support your argument, etc?

Every individual to be given carbon literacy training.
Every nation to be given a carbon budget. Big massive fines if they exceed it.
Globally divest in fossil fuel. Invest in wind power. No more nuclear plants.
A free solar panel on everybodys house.
Stop factory farming
Ban supermarkets from using no recyclable packaging.