To think climate change is THE MAIN issue?

[Hikernumberthousand]

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/27/world-on-track-to-lose-two-thirds-of-wild-animals-by-2020-major-report-warns

The headline of the guardian says it all, we need to take drastic action before it's too late for nature and so ourselves. I personally think there should be a huge push for vegetarianism and veganism and to restore lands used to churn out masses of grain fed animals. It's also, I think, this entitled 'attitude' so many seem to have, that we are the superior species, without a care that without the rest of the life of this earth we cannot exist. I've seen mocking memes towards climate change and veganism: 'For every burger you don't want me to eat, I want to eat 2'. That's so not funny it makes me sick. What appalling evolutionary meltdown has most of humanity had to make it so self-centred and blind to all around it? It's absolutely tragic.

YANBU. People are greedy, complacent fools.

YANBU

People seem to have no idea how closely connected our health and wellbeing is with that of the ecosystems around us.

The MAIN issue? No.
AN issue? Yes.

YANBU.

Exlt I think it's the main issue because without a place to live, things are going to go down the pan very quickly indeed.

And how long before we 'don't have a place to live'? 5year? 10years? 50years?

There are people who won't have a place to live TOMORROW.

So, not the MAIN issue at all.

exLt Tragically, there will always be people with no place to live, and we must support them but if we're always looking to tomorrow we'll look forward one day and suddenly no one's future will be there anymore.

Not got time to write more just now but glad to see more threads on this recently. I am totally being that annoying person who asks if you would consider signing some petition or other, but: proposal for a new MN topic board about it: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/2764769-Please-can-we-have-a-climate-change-topic

Even in a parallel world where natural resources were somehow infinite, I am not convinced there would be no poverty and inequality, because of the way different cultures organise themselves and have treated each other. People have, after all, been behaving as if these things were going to last forever.

It's an issue but, not the main issue.

I treat everything written in the Guardian in the same way I do the Mail.

YANBU. It is an issue with serious long term implications. Making any progress on this matter requires governments to make some unpopular decisions, and they are all too concerned with retaining power to do that.

www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-wars-global-warming-conflict-refugees-walls-wont-help-general-warns-a7381031.html

The syrian conflict began with a severe drought (and the inhumane response of their government to it).

Trouble is, business runs this world and business is not run by humanitarians.

if eventually we have a runaway chain of events (CO2 and Methane build up) we may end up with a climate which resembles Venus (have a google). I am not sure it will really matter about the people who haven't got a home now, or tomorrow... the planet will be sterile.

So I think it is definitely the main issue, but the other issues are certainly important too (no reason we can't deal with all of them if we try hard enough)

TheNaze Could you perhaps elaborate? The Daily Mail and Guardian are two very different organisations.

Thank you for the support so far- I'm really relieved to see there are some for who Earth is not just a toy to be played with and then thrown away.

You don't like mocking memes For every burger you don't want me to eat, I want to eat 2'. That's so not funny it makes me sick

But you don't mind a bit of passive aggressive mocking yourself relieved to see there are some for who Earth is not just a toy to be played with and then thrown away

exLt But I'm commenting on the mistakes of my own species- memes like those encompass the natural world and animals who do not deserve to suffer for humanity's mistakes.

And is passive aggressive sarcasam the best way to do that?

Hardly sarcasm, 90 percent of people I know have that attitude to using Earth's resources, whether realising it or just having grown up in that kind of culture.

OK, well good luck.

Talk about dodging the real issue exLT!

What appalling evolutionary meltdown has most of humanity had to make it so self-centred and blind to all around it? It's absolutely tragic.

These days with the amount of information people can access, yes, a lot more people should know better, and leaders should know better and do more. But a focus on relatively short term survival and advantage is what got humans where they are today, in messing up the planet for most other life on it, and in becoming the dominant species and evolutionarily very successful.
People are also bombarded day in day out with imagery and ideas about what it means to be successful, and the amount of consumption involved in that. For some it takes effort to keep resisting that, and a lot of people don't really know to try.

I can't help understanding the irreverence and humour in those memes. But they exist because of the political position the issue ended up in, with insufficient government involvement. You don't see a whole lot of similar things nowadays about not wearing seatbelts for example (though I daresay some, especially on the US libertarian right would appreciate those.)

and while we are at it can we curb population growth too? In ALL countries. In the UK I'd limited the number of children a man could have to two, forcing him to choose wisely. Not sure how it'd be enforced though...

@artiface: Compulsive vasectomies for all men, and if they want to have children, they have to go fetch some of the sperm that was put in a freezer when they entered puberty and got the snip. There would be paperwork to ensure that no more than two pregnancies are caused by one man's sperm.

What appalling evolutionary meltdown has most of humanity had to make it so self-centred and blind to all around it?

I personally believe most of humanity has always been like this. Sadly.