With forest fires burning across Europe and another heatwave on the horizon, how much are you personally willing to change your lifestyle for future generations?

[Chocolatefreak]

Genuine question for discussion purposes. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you believe tackling climate change and environmental degradation is a shared responsibility, involving not only governments and corporations but also individuals.

With that in mind, how much would you personally be willing to change your lifestyle if it meant giving future generations, including your children and grandchildren, a better chance of living on a stable, healthy planet?

For example, would you be willing to:

a) Dramatically reduce your consumption of meat and dairy, so that more agricultural land could be used to grow food directly for people rather than feed livestock?
b) Restrict air travel and most car journeys to occasions where they are genuinely necessary?
c) Stop buying more than you need, only getting clothing, gadgets, and other consumables only when they are genuinely necessary rather than for convenience or entertainment?

If not, where would you draw the line? What changes would you consider reasonable, and which would you consider asking too much?

Do you vote?

Been veggie for over 30 years. My kids are veggie.

have an electric car - it took a bit of getting used to but have got my head round it now. Very happy to be not paying for petrol. Charging at home is so, so much cheaper.

i don’t use public transport that much as I use a wheelchair and round by me they “aim” to send a wheelchair accessible bus which in practice means you can guess whether they roll or they won’t

trains are good though (although increasingly overcrowded. I am often happy I am travelling in my wheelchair as at least I have my seat with me).

flying is what lets me down. I really struggle in the uk winter so do do a winter sun holiday each January.

I don't want to go anywhere that means I have to get on a plane. Mainly because of the environmental impact but also because of the whole enshittification of air travel. I'm happy where I am and where I can go by train.

I already do all those things and and a lot more it's made no difference. It's industry and government that need to make vast changes, nothing I do makes any difference.

We're from India. To get there we have to fly. To see family in the USA we need to fly. When there's work in the middle East to get there we have to fly. It's just how it is.

We try, even in the face of the behaviour of governments and billionaires. So I'm not going to feel guilty about my biannual short haul holiday (we did long haul last year for the first time in 15 years). Electric car, mostly veggie, only new clothes are shoes and pants. We recycle, don't buy 'stuff', abide by water restrictions, save energy.

I dont eat red meat.........i dont like it.
Im childfree by choice (part of the reason i have to live where i do)
I dont drive. I dont go abroad Last time was a school trip to Switzerland in 1986

We don’t eat a lot of meat and mainly chicken if we do , don’t fly and generally don’t buy stuff unless we need it , mainly because we don’t like clutter / mess and that’s as far as I’m going . I’m certainly not giving up my cars .

It's exactly this reason why nothing will change and the planet will become unliveable.

There's a lot of places in the world you'll never be able to see then.

Yeah, I’m the biggest problem. 🤨

Like where? Most places can be accessed by boat - funnily enough that's how historically a lot of places became populated.

Don't feel bad about commercial aviation. It contributes to 3.5% of human global warming. You not flying somewhere won't stop the plane from going. Enjoy life a bit. See the world. My DC want to see Australia one day.

I'm really happy with that. I don't feel the need or feel it's my right to see everywhere.

Edited to add - I have traveled quite extensively in the past by train and boat.

I have relations in Australia. Global warming there is seriously impacting their lives.

A lot of our land isnt suitable for crops is it - marginal land. Its quite an efficient way to use it for meat (not if you dont believe in killing animals, but if your only motivation is eco)

If it made a difference, id not fly and walk more and buy less as I find that easy.

I think we need to get a grip on data centres more.

Not you but the attitude of I'm alright Jack. Change has to come from somewhere.

Do you think every aspect of travel for leisure is enjoyable? The queues, the crowded cities, the expense of hotels, the logistics of tickets etc? The superficial aspect of modern sightseeing trips?

I think we focus too much on sacrifices. How about the benefits?

I would embrace a slower pace of life involving more walking to keep me fitter and more emphasis on a tighter knit local community. I would love to see my DC being able to play with the neighbouring kids on streets with less cars.

I already have a warm, well insulated home that is cheap to run thanks to a heat pump, and I would love to get an EV and pay a fraction of the fuel costs I do now. As an autistic person who gets very disturbed by revving vehicle noises, I can't wait until they're all electric and near silent!

I would love to relinquish the expense and responsibility of driving as much as possible in favour of public transport. I already don't fly, and have lovely holidays by train where I can just relax with my book for hours- it's so much nicer than the stress of driving or airports.

The only thing I would miss would be dairy products- I'm already vegetarian- my guess is rather than completely banned they would just become rarer and more expensive- so I'd just have to savour my weekly cheese!

India (land of my ancestors), Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand etc. how is someone going to go there. Especially if they have limited time off

Agreed - and it wouldn't be necessary to cut meat out altogether, just to limit the quantity we consume. Farming would be less intensive, the land would be less stressed, and we'd be healthier.

Probably not a huge amount more than I currently do. I buy reconditioned phones when the previous one stops working, I don’t replace tech or cars until the previous one conks out. Use a library rather than buying books, drive a hybrid, try not to buy more clothes than I need, but I do buy new rather than second hand. I didn’t fly for 8 years, but now I plan to do much more flying in the next decade. I eat more meat than I used do because lean protein. I don’t plan to reduce my electricity or water consumption because any way you look at it, my impact is negligible compared to the addition of gigantic cities in China. So I would be happy to be required to do the right thing by my government, or support climate diplomacy and any costs that arose out of it; but I am not going to stop using my air con or tumble drier or hair straighteners any time soon.

I’ve been veggie for 40 years, brought the kids up veggie (one is now a complete carnivore), don’t have dairy, only flown long haul once.
i was talking to a friend today about this - how long haul travel needs to be a ‘big deal’ again, a real holiday of a lifetime.
i do fly too much in Europe, limiting myself to once a year now on.
we have an electric car but also a diesel Campervan (but then we go on holidays to Europe instead of flying, idk?)
I need to buy less, definitely

I do my bit to the best of my ability (although not necessarily all of your particular suggestions - I am disabled, so need my car for work), and believe that lots of people doing a few things is more impactful than a few people doing lots of things. However, this problem, like many in the world today, requires systemic changes. Even some of your suggestions require this - better public transport and/or safer cycle routes for example.

As others have said, 'blaming' ordinary individuals rather than governments and corporations (not saying your post does this) just ends up pissing people off.

If your only motivation was "eco", you'd set aside most of this "marginal land" for nature.