To ask what you think about global warming?

[deeedeee]

After seeing comments on other threads , I'm wondering, what do most people think?

Are you worried about man-made climate change?

Are you trying to change any of your behaviour because of it?

Or are you not concerned?

I find it's incredible that people have this "it's not going to effect me so I don't care attitude". I don't understand how anyone could think that there convenience and comfort is worth more than someone else's security and survival. And thinking like that is not idealistic and childish, belittle me all you like.

Amen. And you've got your head in your sand if you think it won't affect you and yours anyway.

Hysterectical you might think you sound worldly and cool and cynical and clever and stuff. You don't. You sound more sixth form than anyone.

Obviously the pandas' leaves are the main things that people are concerned about

The original questions were:

Are you worried about man-made climate change?

Are you trying to change any of your behaviour because of it?

Or are you not concerned?

People have answered, mostly, to those questions. I'm not concerned, no. It's not something that I am worried about, not something I think about, not something that I would write to an MP about. It doesn't mean that I'm purposely driving every 100yds, or buying plastic bottles to bury in my yard, or having 15 kids or taking my private jet to tescos and only buying 'foreign' fruits.

It just means it's not something I'm worried about. I have other, more pressing concerns that I think are more important, more relevant and more immediately 'dangerous' to me and mine.

You can find that as 'incredible' as you want, but a patronising attitude will turn people off quicker than a naked Bernard Manning in a hot tub.

oooh dallas, are you going to say I'm a hypocrite because I have children, and therefore have no right to think that someone who thinks thinks that living on a hill is going to protect them is a teensy bit daft?

how exciting. you've just completely won the argument!

It was actually probably having children and suddenly feeling totally responsible to the next generation that made me start to change my lifestyle and be concerned about global warming. Before that I never thought or cared about it really either. and I'm by no means perfect, I try my best like a lot of people.

Hopefully this next generation will be less selfish than their parents and will be able to make the changes we can't. Hopefully some of them will invent ways to adapt and cope.

No, I was wondering how you felt when the scientist said that the best 'defence' to global warming was for families to have fewer, if any, children. I remember reading about it in the paper quite recently.

But you go ahead. Be rude to someone who has been perfectly polite to you throughout the thread. Coz thats the way to win friends and influence people, right?

deeedeee - can you please come up with these examples of concrete changes that we have to worry about in our lifetime. I do think that blaming the current migration situation on climate change is absurd, the large proportion of migrants heading to europe now are not heading there due to climate change and the conflicts and poverty they are escaping from are not rooted in climate change. Your response to LtEve's question was childish and pathetic.

You have very low thresholds for rudeness.

and yes, i think you are right, controlling the world's population is definitely one way to control climate change. I certainly will not be having anymore children.

user147 there are lots of articles about concrete effects. This is just one of many. You can also visit the IPCC website to find out more.

www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-world-faces-food-shortages-and-mass-migration-caused-by-global-warming-a6784911.html

deedee- are you actually going to give any specific examples rather than generalised, war, famine, flood scaremongering?

How more specific do you need than "there will be food and water shortages?"

Well lots of us won't be having any more children after having one or two, so that's not really setting the bar high in terms of positive action.
Writing to my MP about other matters hasn't produced much action and tbf I didn't vote for him.
Haranguing people doesn't do much either. Are you vegetarian?
All renewables?
Cloth nappies?
Vote Green?
What?

Well we have food and water shortages now but they don't effect the UK in any meaningful way which was the point that LtEve was making, that she is not concerned as it doesn't effect her personally. I have no doubt were I living in micronesia on an atoll that is likely to be submerged in the next 20 years I would feel it a more pressing problem. So what are the impacts likely to be on the UK in my lifetime?

user147 as silent biscuit says, I already have! It's not scaremongering.www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-truth-about-climate-change-dangerous-2c-a7337871.html

There already are floods, famine, wars happening across the world that climate change has contributed to.

I'm sorry if I'm losing my patience a little and being a bit sarky with you and others. Dallas is right, it's not the right approach. sorry

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bob-ward/climate-change_b_8118748.html

news.trust.org/spotlight/migration-and-climate-change/

time.com/4024210/climate-change-migrants/

user147 but the point is that as drought and extreme weather events continue to rise in the developing world the UK's food supply WILL be compromised. The UK doesn't produce enough food on its own to feed the population.

This is an effect that will be seen during your lifetime.

Some of the ways the UK will be affected:

We import 60% of our food from abroad. The prices will rise, and there will be shortages. Of basis stuff like bread.

Flooding; OK for you if you don't live in a flood zone but lots more people will be affected by more and worse flooding on a regular basis.

As large areas of the world become uninhabitable, guess where everyone is going to want to move to?

These may happen in your lifetime (depends how old you are). They will very likely happen in your children's lifetime.

So you think there will be food shortages in the Uk? Given how much we currently waste, I would think it likely that there will be a sea change in how much and what people eat as costs rise and it may even lead to an impact on the current obesity situation. If we are forced to eat less and more sustainability that can only be a good thing.

I really hope so, user. Something insane like 60% of food is wasted from farm to plate. I hope it doesn't take a climate disaster to make changes in this area though.

I know I sound like a monger of doom but I find the way climate change has been relegated to a lefty side issue really worrying. If I'm wrong about the future I will be very happy indeed.

Large areas are uninhabitable already, maybe the world population will shrink to a sustainable level., be it through famine, disease or war?

Some consequences for the UK during our lifetimes (from 2015 Governement advisors)

Flood, heat waves, increased pressure on NHS, water shortages, risk to trade , water shortages, risks to food supply, increased immigration, increased risk of UK military action over seas....

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/12/uk-poorly-prepared-for-climate-change-impacts-government-advisers-warn

This article includes (near the middle) several paragraphs about studies on climate change, conflict and migration: www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/trump-the-first-demagogue-of-the-anthropocene/504134/

There isn't as wide a consensus on this as on the existence of AGW, but if you know a bit of history and how famines and so forth contributed to political unrest, it makes complete sense.

See also, map here (scroll down): www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n11/naomi-klein/let-them-drown
www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-hastened-the-syrian-war/

Specific areas likely to experience droughts and famines include the south-western US (i.e. a lot worse than the drought they've already had in California; dust-bowl type events), regions of China and the Indian subcontinent / Pakistan whose water supplies are heavily reliant on glaciers which are melting too fast, the latter compounded by increasingly uninhabitable levels of heat, like the 50+ degree temperatures that occurred in the Middle East this summer. Southern Europe will also get drier and have lower agricultural capacity.
Changed weather patterns involving weeks of dry weather, then torrential rain, and stronger storms are also bad for crops, including in areas where temperatures stay tolerable, such as the UK and northern Europe.

I'm at a loss when just talking about the facts about global warming is seen as patronising and haranguing people.
How should we talk about it without getting this response?

Yes deeedeee. You mention it and it's "preaching" and you risk someone saying something like "Well, you're on a computer aren't you" or "I assume you live in a mud hut". Ludicrous and childish.

How are we supposed to discuss it with people who are unwilling to believe it's a thing?

This was a thread about whether or not people are concerned, so it's inevitably going to involve some responses from those who aren't and who are unlikely to be persuaded.

In discussion on what to do about a specific issue, you could always just reply to the posts you found constructive.

It ought to be an issue on which there is widespread agreement, but there isn't; for whatever reason, it's not, say, drink driving (attitudes changed mostly by government campaigns), or [not] smacking (something that seems to have shifted at grassroots level, about which there seems to be a clear MN idea of what is right, although there is probably not such a majority in the country as a whole).

I think it's the lack of detail about yourself, what you're doing, the things you think would help etc. It feels like you're on a soap box not in a conversation.