AIBU to ask that the last summer was a sign of climate change...

[Flyingfish2019]

...and that the Generation of our kids will see much more summers like this?

Bump

What?

How do we know? Wait and see. It will be very interesting be to see what this year's summer turns out like.

I wonder if the same question was asked after the summer of '76.

Yes, it will be interesting to see what the next summer will be like... but what IF it will be like that? What will we do then? I feel like we are sleepwalking into a nightmare.

Yes I think it was. Climate change is happening all over the world and yet we are still in denial about it. I dispair.

I am beginning to despair too. Have to say I never gave it a second thought until last summer... but that was scary... and I did some reading about climate change and it really scared me and what scares me even more is that nobody seems to care.
I try to buy organic but what else can a single individual do?

Actually more worrying than a slightly hotter summer (but not abnormal) is the March weather event this was a stratospheric event which shifted the weather (very basically) causing a lot of snow in the UK but also the artic to be 52C warmer which is much more worrying.

It's impossible to attribute a specific weather event to climate change. But it is the case that certain types of weather are more common as a result of climate change caused by greenhouse gases. The Met Office says that due to climate change, such a summer is three to four times as likely to occur now as it was in the 1990s.

There is no point despairing over it. There is nothing you can do. It's mainly caused (I think) by China, India, the US and the developing countries.
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I think that this is a pretty fatalist attitude. As a mother of four I want my children to have the same chances I had... I do not want them to life in a time when food becomes unaffordable.
I know China is one of the main climate sinners and that there is little we can do to make them change their politics but at least we can avoid to buy from China.

Saracen, can you tell me more about this?

I think pointing fingers at individual countries is not helpful as the world is so interlinked by global trade that everyone needs to do their bit to reduce consumption of fossil fuels that increase the global carbon footprint.

Consume less, use energy efficient appliances, use public transport, don't fly, reduce meat consumption, switch to green energy providers. These are all things that we can do to limit the damage.

It did not scare me, I remember the summers of the 70s esp. 76

Weather does not equal climate

No Op. FYI almost all summers were like that in the 70s, 80s and 90s 🙄

It's the frequency of the mild ones you want to be worried about as they show a bigger picture.

The Climate Change scientists will tell us that an unusual summer or winter is just "weather", and actual "climate" is a longer term gradual thing.
That does not stop some of them saying that a hot summer is typical of what will happen if their forecasts prove to be right. They hope this will be translated in the Popular Press as a Climate Change "scare story".
It is why the phrase "Global Warming" turned into "Climate Change", after we experienced some bad winters.

It was welcome up here in Scotland. It didn’t last as long as in the south butwe did get high20’s a few times. We stayed at home for holidays since Scotland is beautiful and especially in good weather. Hopefully we get a few more.

There's no point worrying about such things. I'm not saying we should destroy the planet intentionally but what can you or I do about it?

We are only here a short time, less than 100 years. In another 100 years, no one alive will know we ever existed. When the effects of climate change begin to create real damage to every day lives, we will have been dead for many, many years and do will our children, grandchildren, and many generations after that. No one lives forever.

That’s a pretty fatalist attitude... and some say climate change will lead to a explosion of food prices in only 20 years. I am planning to be alive then.

Saracen, can you tell me more about this?

Can't find the article I read in the autumn comparing the likelihood of a hot summer now with that of a hot summer two decades ago. But I did find this one:

"2018 UK summer heatwave made thirty times more likely due to climate change" www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/2018-uk-summer-heatwave

Doesn't anyone remember the Beast from the East? No-one was talking about global warming then, but it was still attributed to the all-encompassing climate change.
Yes, the climate is changing. But you can't assign every weather event as being symptomatic.

We have 12 years left (conservative guess) until climate change is going to cause catastrophic damage to the world.

There absolutely is stuff you can do that WILL help.

Stop driving so much, use public transport or walk. Better for everyone. Turn your car off if idling.
Reduce your plastic consumption as much as possible. Reuse household items instead of throwing them out.
Buy less shite.
Recycle everything. Clean it first!
Don’t use plastic bags. Try and buy loose fruit and veg etc. Take your own containers to butcher counters/fishmongers.
Compost your food, or use your councils food waste bins.
Stop buying water in bottles, takeaway coffee etc. Buy your own reusable bottles/cups and use them.
Download the Refill app - it shows you where local businesses have signed up and you can refill your water bottles free of charge. Really great initiative.

Do SOMETHING. Don’t just think someone else will fix the problem, we all need to do our bit.

If not you, who? If not now, when?

www.ipcc.ch - IPCC report on climate change. Read it. Educate yourselves.

As others have said, weather is not the same as climate.

Also re. China, whilst their CO2 emissions are the highest, that's partially because they have 1/7th of the world's population and are also the world leaders in investing in green energy.

If there's one country to boycott over climate change, it's the USA, which is one of the largest emitters, is the highest per capita emitter and also withdrew from the Paris Agreement.

Just to add, the Climate Change Performance Index currently has China middle of the pack. The worst ranking country in Saudi Arabia, second worst is the USA.

www.climate-change-performance-index.org

Yawn, 2% or no 2% the elephant in the room is poplutation growth.