Anyone else see that huge changes are happening right now and we’re still sleep walking?

[RudsyFarmer]

its Interesting to me that life is just carrying on while there are huge, seismic shifts occurring globally that will impact us. It’s like the start of the pandemic actually. When I read the paper and Covid had been found in China and I thought, ah China, that’s along way away and within a couple of weeks we were at the beginning of lockdowns and my joke about hoarding pasta became a reality.

We’re about to have a heatwave in October. We now have wildfires as standard in Europe every summer and mass migration of people from continents that are starting to become inhabitable are overrunning areas of Italy and Greece. More and more people will start moving away from devastated land in search of more temperate weather, food, housing and employment.

This isn’t something that will be happening in a decade. It’s happening right now. The places that used to grow our food are going to start conserving the food for their own people. I want to feel positive but I can’t see how times are going to get better from here. I read the news and it feels really, really fucking bleak.

One individual can't change anything but
The more individuals who change the bigger the change we will see

One change if you are worried about China is to stop buying stuff that's made there or partly made there ( that may well
Include most EVs)

Change is happening albeit not fast enough so there is no need to pretend that we have no impact - because without people pushing for change in various ways the changes we have already seen wouldn't have happened

Keep up the good work those who already try; go further if you can - and for uk people that's mostly eat less meat, drive less , fly less, keep the heating on low and insulate your home

That chris packham program was brilliant

I don't agree. You can care about individuals and still accept that as the original poster said, times have always changed and it's likely not in our remit to be able to make the big changes need to turn back the tide.
Humans are so full of their own importance but history shows us that civilisations have risen and fallen before. We're just not that special in the grand scheme of things, I don't think. It's possible to accept that, without being thrilled about it.

Nice strawman. I didn't state our carbon emissions were worse. I stated there may be a more joined up approach.
As for your information about wealth inequality perhaps you'd like to list your source because both the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the ONS disagree with you. The former states:
'But income inequality in the UK has grown more than in most OECD countries.'
And their latest statistics show wealth disparity is greater in the UK than every single country you have listed.
The ONS (2023 report) shows inequality has widened even further after a slight pandemic dip.

What a surprise, when your lies on wealth equality are called out you sneakily switch to income inequality and don’t mention the switch.

Are you going to pretend that was just a mistake?

And here’s the OECD data that you are lying about. The UK is around the middle on wealth inequality.

https://www.oecd.org/wise/Inequalities-in-Household-Wealth-and-Financial-Insecurity-of-Households-Policy-Brief-July-2021.pdf

As a species we have pretty much wrecked an amazing planet in slightly less than 200 years.

It was all going along quite nicely bar the odd tsunami, plague and volcanic eruption, the earth coped fine with the rise and fall of various human civilisations and tolerated our attempts to impose ourselves with great walls and pyramids, and most of our predations and violence were focussed on our fellow humans rather than the planet. But then we got hold of the combustion engine and it all went arse over tit. Industrialisation, the pollution of earth , sea and air, the plundering of earths resources, over population, the casual destruction of habitats for other species.

Furthermore, not content with ruining our planet and our own atmosphere we are now littering space by sending up hundreds of satellites to join the unused ones we have already abandoned up there.

I am not sure we deserve to continue to exist as a species. If I was a planet I would seriously consider mustering all my forces to destroy such a dangerous and destructive enemy.

China is making huge moves to lower CO2 emissions.

That's Gaia theory, really, isn't it?

The issue is the new information that Naples is sitting on a super volcano.

I absolutely think we are sleeping walking into a climate disaster but... ARE we due to have a heatwave? The forecast for here (midlands) suggests four days of 20/22c. Is that a heatwave or is it due to be a lot worse in other locations?

fearfuloffluff · Today 10:51

You're not wrong. But there are many vested interests peddling the 'meh what about China and India' line. That's all they have now there's no denying the change is happening.

If developed countries went hell for leather in reducing carbon and banded together to find a way to penalise those who didn't do the same with sanctions etc, combined with support to develop in a low carbon way - we could do it. Or at least have a decent shot.

But that would take humans being selfless and cooperative, whereas the world is run by rich selfish people.

It's incredibly bleak and tbh makes me feel guilty for having had children.
It's incredibly bleak and tbh makes me feel guilty for having had children.

Yup. Sadly I agree with all of that and feel the same. We need a wholesale shift and the current PMs approach, is quite literally, switch off lights you don’t use, recycle and keep your fingers crossed for technological advances. Idiot!! Complete idiot.

I am not even sure it counts as a theory any more, it’s more like a reality!

Yes! Exactly!

And yet they opened around 50 new coal power stations last year, and emitted more carbon than in any previous year.

Sadly their increased in renewable power are not keeping up with their overall power consumption, and their per-capita numbers, already higher than the UK’s, continue to grow.

It’s wrong to say pp is unbothered.
What realistically can the majority of us do?
And actually if the sun burns out life will end anyway. Why be more bothered by the suffering of your immediate descendants than hundreds of generations away? They’re all humans after all.

It’s all a huge worry. Everyone around me seems to live in their own little bubbles and don’t even take any notice of the news. So depressing.

https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/

This is quite interesting. No idea how accurate it is.

But it’s not new.

It’s been known about for, at the very least, the 500 years since its last eruption.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/naples-supervolcano-campi-flegrei-eruption-dangers-risk-caldera-italy-hot-zone-magma-pozzuoli-a7959046.html

I agree OP, it's terrifying

The ice age ended. Ancient volcanoes erupted. Seas formed. Rivers dried up.

This was all thousands of years ago.
Before nuclear plants.
Before diesel engines.

Before man had any impact on the earth. When we were still inter-gatherer cavemen.

This planet will continue to do it's own thing with or without us.

Don't be brainwashed into thinking humans are the sole cause. The earth is a living thing by itself.

Perhaps if we all stopped the over consumption of largely plastic products from China and other countries where industrialisation is booming, they wouldn't be incentivised to continue with fossil power and polluting industrial processes.

I'd love to know just what it is I'm supposed to do.

I'm not sleepwalking, but 99.999% of these issues are completely outside of my control, and nothing I can do will change them. My mental health is within my control, so I'm going to do the sensible thing and not worry about it.

Yes.

People understandably are over-awed, daunted and scared into passivity, denial or simply overwhelm and inaction from the scale of the problem, how complex and far-reaching it is, and the fact that any significant single actions can only be taken by major corporations and governments.

However, apathy and doomerism/despair only make our situation worse.

I'm desperately trying to do some local things - forming groups, researching, trying to set things up, etc., some in partnership with the council, some more independent, and the BIGGEST obstacle is peoples' lack of engagement and apathy. The biggest.

If everyone who cared (and I believe that the vast majority DO care) actually got involved, engaged and simply showed up, it would make a monumental difference.

I'm not judging, because I think the main reason people don't engage is because it's overwhelming, and there's a sense that it's too demanding of time and money in this current day and age of COL crisis, etc. It's not, though. Engaging can be as simple as attending a local group a few times a month. Just showing your face, being there, learning what's going on and seeing if there's any efforts you can put your shoulder to along with others.

I feel desperate, utterly desperate, simply to see some engagement from the vast majority of ordinary people.

Interesting thing I recently learnt from a friend who is a member of XR:

XR focus A LOT on wellbeing, MH support and counselling for its members, to address the anxiety and overwhelm the climate crisis, and activism, can cause. I was really intrigued by this and it made me re-focus on the fact that people don't engage because it's too much, too scary and it feels like engaging with it will worsen the anxiety.

In my experience, action is the true antidote to anxiety. And I'm more interested in XR now that I know they actually provide support to their members to cope with the fear and overwhelm.

this is utter rubbish. I have been studying seismic activity since my first degree at 18. If anything its volcanoes that will be effecting sea temperature not the other way around.