To think that people generally don't give a toss about the environment...

[poshsinglemum]

And certainly not enough to actually make a difference and stop the destruction of the planet?

I used to be really green but gave up because people just laughed at me for being veggie, not owning a care and banging on about green issues like a sanctimonious bore!

We can all do our bit such as recycling but noone is likely to give up their car and foriegn holidays and why should we? they make life so much more enjoyable and convenient.

I'd love to eat organic but it's too expensive and I love a bit of junk food.

Most people care about money, consumerism and being middle class whatever that may mean.

It's a real shame but I just think that humans are too selfish to live lives that don't somehow don't damage the environment.

It used to bother me but now with age, I am sadly apathetic about it too. I love nature and animals etc but I am too lazy to adopt a totally green lifestyle.
I was inspired about the thread on recycling.

I think it is just pretty low down most people's list.

And it's frustrating too! Our school used to encourage us to recycle and leave all their computers on all night, hundreds of them! Not even on hibernate or standby, just on. Most schools and businesses do this.

Businesses with all their lights on at 3am when nobody is there.

Makes you a bit cross when they show ads saying if you turn your TV off properly instead of on standby it will save polarbears. No it won't! Because of everything you are ignoring!

Like the fact that the deficit is only 20% public expenditure and almost all the rest is bank bailout.

I think people do give a toss, but when you are tired, stressed, have little kids etc, (personally) giving up my car would just make life much more difficult. Cars need to be made eco friendly in larger numbers - electric etc.

Likewise, with recycling, it is a hassle (but I do it). Then I get really angry when packaging is something like a plastic/metal composite that can't be separated by hand. Manufacturers need to address recyclability of their materials.

So much stuff needs to be addressed at source/by businesses (thinking of well known chemist landfilling tonnes of unsold produce for dubious reasons).

If I'm being honest (puts on hard hat) I don't worry or think about it much. Normal day to day worries mean that I don't have the time or inclination to worry about the environment. I do know about the consequences and how it will effect the generations to come but it's still v low down on my list. Don't know why really. However I've just got back from New York and after seeing Times Square at night I honestly feel that me turning out the light if I leave a room for ten minutes isn't going to make any tangeable difference at all. I'm prepared to be flamed but it's how I truthfully feel.

PS I do recycle because it's so satisfying to put it in the correct crates for the refuse collectors!!

oh stop banging on about how dreadful people are.except you,obviously.go polish your halo with non CFC aerosol propellants

Hello scottish mummy- you clearly didn't read my post properly. I did take the piss out of myself for being sanctimonious in the past you know. Which is why I no longer give a monkeys.
Because I generally got answers like yours sm. You see; people are very defensive about it, don't want to change and anyone who does care gets called sanctimonious.

I don't care what happens to the planet because frankly us humans don't deserve it. I'm no angel. I don't want to be.

Or rather I do care but can't be bothered to do anything about it coz noone else can.

I don't think there is anything we can do anyway. I don't even think it's a bad thing; it's evolution!

That isn't what she is doing sm.

posh - I am the same. It seems so unreal to most people (incl me sometimes) that it's too easy not to care. It breaks my heart to realise the destruction we are responsible for but it doesn't impinge enough on us from day to day to make a difference,

nah you are still coming across as you is big carer no one else 'cept you.and the hoi polloi are defensive...

Do you care sm?

I guess can't answer for the hoi polloi whoever they might be.

i dont care for sweeping generalisations

I think we're more likely to wipe ourselves ie humans off the planet, rather than wiping the planet out.

It was here a long time before we were, and it will be here a long time after we're gone.

I try and do my bit with switching things off but that's more to save money than save the planet. I recycle but the council doesn't make it especially easy, however I do what I can. I don't lose sleep over it and I have bigger priorities really.

I care - I'm vegan, refuse to own a car, recycle everything that can be recycled, never fly if there's a train or boat going the same way. But I admit, it's only easy for me to do these things because of habit. I didn't give up a car on principle and learn to do without one, I just never learned to drive. I've been vegan for almost two decades, so it's not a daily struggle to resist bacon and cheese and leather boots. None of this is really a loss in my life, just lifestyle choices I made yonks ago for different reasons which happen to be eco-friendly choices now.

I sit in my living room with its view of Canary Wharf, and at night when it's all lit up, I do feel the same as Durham - that my energy-efficient bulbs and efforts not to waste energy are a bit pants when it's really the Canary Wharf-type wastage that needs to be tackled.

I think many people fail to see a connection between climate change and their own lives: hurricanes and floods happen in far-away places; and it's difficult to feel a relationship between recycling tin cans and saving the planet sometimes, especially in the face of enormous industrial and commercial wastage and environmental damage.

i recycle

i think if the capitalist fucks who run the world wanted it so, they would make it so - but let them have their money, it will burn with them

TheWitch - I think I got that massively wrong. It has been being tweeted all day but I can't trace the source.

The best stats I could find was:
952bn total
772bn without finanical intervention.

Now that depends what they mean by fi, and if there is any hidden debt. But this implies 180bn bailout, which is 19% bailout. The reverse... interesting.

www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/18/deficit-debt-government-borrowing-data

Although this interesting article, also points out that our national debt is still currently lower than average! www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/opinion/22krugman.html?_r=1&src=tptw

Very sorry for thread hijack!

I think it is very lazy thinking to simply talk about the environmnet or green issues. Sometimes, what appears to be the right thing to do can in fact be more environmentally damaging or is not the whole story. Take recycling. If you drive to take your recycling to a bank, you are doing more environmental harm than good. Glass is more widely recycled than plastic, but uses more resources when being transported because it is heavier, so plastic may be a better environmental choice. Individuals can and should make a difference by their buying patterns and personal behaviour, but there is no simple green equivalent of the ten commandments. Different aspects of green thinking will appeal to different people at different stages of their lives. To me, my green rules are these:-

Don't drop litter and dispose of waste responsibly (most flytipping is as a result of householders paying cash to some dodgy bloke getting rid of waste for them cheaply).

If you have a garden, don't tarmac it over, reduce peat use and encourage wildlife. Reduce unnecessary pesticide use.

Buy less stuff. Less tat, less goo-gah. If you must buy, choose secondhand.

Food - think about the animals and people who are involved in the making and growing of your food. Are you happy wiht how they are treated? What are the environmental impacts of the processes? Find out more about suppliers and spend your money with the good ones. Encourage positive behaviour.

Be energy efficient.

Be aware of and very suspicious of "greenwash". If a company is trying to tell you they are green, ask your self why. Ask awkward questions.

Learn to understand how science is reported, risk and probability. This will help you to pick your way through the competing claims from different sources. Charities and environmental groups can have a vested interest in overstating risks and hazards so be politely wary of their claims too.

Be happy. It's a cliche, but true happiness does not come from endless consumerism.

Do voluntary stuff.

I care and I've implemented plenty of green measures like a good girl, but I know what you mean about some actions seeming like a drop in the ocean. The real problem of course is not people being 'non-green' but just too many people full stop. Human overpopulation is the cause of every environmental problem we have. It didn't matter that we hacked down forests and burnt them at will when there were only a few tens of thousands of us. So unfortunately, if like me you've gone and had a kiddie or two (quite likely for most posters here!) you've already done quite the most environmentally unfriendly thing possible. This is why the singing children on CBeebies imploring me to be green make me curl my lip rather. Apparently six billion of us just breathing releases the most ridiculous amount of CO2, and apparently the huge numbers of domesticated animals we keep don't help either, with their methane burps and farts. In the meantime, however, I daresay I'll continue recycling those bottles and tins to assuage my conscience.

I'm not going to lie, I just don't care.
I'm aware of how the world has changed over the last few centuries, I generally throw plastic bottles into the recycling bin, I turn off lights when nobody's in the room.
But I'm not going to go out of my way to 'Save the Planet' or get rid of my car/stop eating meat/use only the recycling materials.

"Is that true about the deficit?"... No.

I do, and people have been sniping at me for it since the mid-70's.
So I'd take more than a few snotty comments now to affect me, back in the day, you had to cycle for three miles to find a bottle bank and that was in Oxford, with its squishy little ecoheat all a-flutter. Now I stick my empties in the bin by the front door.
I can't polish my halo scottishmummy, it's made of free-range organically sourced beansprouts studded with lentils.

I do agree that manufacturers and supermarkets need to be the ones hit bigtime on packaging.

I just don't care either.

I agree with Sidge. It's arrogant to think we can 'save' a big ball of rock. We are actually trying to save ourselves and we should say so.

So not save the Earth. But save the human race.

And even then? I don't care.

If we do whatever it will take to destroy ourselves then we deserve to be destroyed.

I don't recycle. I only don't own a car because I haven't gotten a UK license (I'm an American Ex-pat) because y'all drive on the wrong side of the street and it scares me.

I utterly do care and do try to do what I can within my means. I'm not perfect by a million years and I don't expect others to be but I do believe that we all should do our best - that we don't have to give in to apathy. I believe that caring shows a fighting spirit. If us, in one of the wealthy parts of the world are giving up, what hope the rest of humanity who don't have a choice in their lives?

My pensioner parents probably have the lowest carbon footprint in Lancashire. Their combined gas/electric monthly bill for a very big house is just under £50... because they don't run multiple TVs, a tumble dryer, dishwasher, computers, games consoles etc., etc. They have one economical car that does about 1000 miles a year. They never fly anywhere. They don't buy fancy food from far-flung places but grow veg in the garden. They recycle every scrap of rubbish like old-age Wombles, make compost and donate to charity shops. I think those 'waste not want not' wartime messages are still working for that generation.

My generation is very reluctant to give up on labour-saving devices and other modern conveniences. If we've got the money we don't 'make do and mend' but 'buy a new one'. I recycle mostly because I think landfill is out of control... not to save the planet. And I keep energy consumption down because I don't like big gas bills. But beyond that, it's a lot of work to be truly green.