Climate change is happening, it is too late to prevent it happening. But we can still limit how bad it will be, and wealthy countries such as UK can adapt to a few degrees of warming. And buying time gives more time to try and develop technology to reduce the impact. So yes, acting now will make a difference.
Sadly the countries that are least able to adapt are those that are generally lower polluters. Poor countries, in sub Saharan Africa, low lying islands, already fragile water and food supplies. There will be mass famines and deaths. Our children and grandchildren will witness this.
The biggest changes you can make:
Write to your MP
Write to companies you buy from
Talk to your friends about climate change
(poster upthread said they don't talk about their experience living in affected countries- please do- people need to know this, and it isn't in the news enough. Can you say more about what you saw on this thread, I'm genuinely interested)
Don't eat beef, dairy, cheese, or drastically cut down. Beef, pork, farmed prawns are the most polluting foods.
The least polluting meat is more polluting than the most polluting vegetarian food.
Don't fly
Only drive when necessary
Switch to green energy supplier
Stop buying shit you don't need
I see weird focus on acts with tiny environmental benefit - such as my friend buying a bamboo toothbrush yet booking long haul holidays.
Even if individual acts don't make a huge difference, I see it as a moral imperative to reduce my own environmental impact. We are going to see huge numbers of deaths in the next fifty years, and I find it grotesque to carry on with unnecessary long haul flights, regular beef etc whilst watching this play out.
If we want to continue high energy lifestyles we can continue this with nuclear and renewable energies. It is nuts that we are still building fossil fuels power stations. I would rather live next to a nuclear power station than an air-polluting coal power station btw.