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?

When the effects of climate change begin to create real damage to every day lives, we will have been dead for many, many years

This is incorrect. Earth will be 1.5 to 2 degrees hotter by 2040.
Predicted to be 3 to 4 degrees hotter by 2080 at current trajectory.
From the recent IPCC report.
Our children's lives will be heavily affected by this. Our grandchildren (if our children have them, knowing what lies ahead) will have very difficult lives.

More extreme weather, rising sea levels, mass famines across subsaharan Africa, water shortages, deaths of coral reefs, rising food prices, civil unrest, increased migration. It is avoidable which is the saddest thing. For the sake of a few generations having an unsustainable lifestyle, we have screwed the generations to come.

Doved you really need to do some real research into climate change. It’s going to cause irreversible damage in yours and your children’s lives. If you’re going to stick your head in the sand, at least do it with the facts.

@TeddyisaHe I heard it was 20 years. 12 years would be even worse. In 20 years my children will be young adults. In 12 years the younger ones will not even be grownups. I still do hope it is not true... but what if.

I think that you are right. We all need to do our bit or our children might end up hating unfortunately what we did to our future.

Thanks for your list which includes many things I already do.

I buy organic if possible.
I buy at the farmers market but it is only ones a week
I try to buy as little stuff that is a want instead of a need as possible
I avoid buying coffee in a throw away mug. Actually this was one of the biggest changes because it was so much part of my lifestyle

Family members and friends unfortunately still buy coffee in throw away mugs. I just had a discussion with my BIL who does this several times a day being a bit of a caffeine junkie. He does believe in climate change and he understands we need to do something, but he just believes that everybody else does it to and that one person avoiding throw away mugs does not matter... of course one person doing that has little effect... but if millions would do it.

This makes me despair a bit. Family members and friends do not seem to see my point. They say everybody else does it to and I do not want to be seen as a fanatic.

BTW, do you, too, find it very difficult to buy food that is not covered in plastic at the supermarket?

They may not see you point because you you are panicking about a hot summer.

Going back years and years and few hot summers in a row wasn't unusual. Nor was bad winters.

If that's what you are using as proof, it no wonder they aren't listening. I also don't think that buying organic is really going to help much. Organic doesn't mean it's not travelled.

The things people can do is as you suggested. Reduce your packaging usage. Especially coffee cups, take away food packaging, plastics, recycle where possible, shop for local produce where possible.

Really watch what you buy and think about landfill before you buy something. However don't let it take over your life.

I work for one of the countries top businesses and they have banned single use food and beverage containers from their offices and provided everyone with water bottle and mug.

We all work towards making sure things are recycled if possible and it's a team effort. We ensure that we all do it and gently point people in the right direction if they are using the wrong bin etc.

Getting people on board is a big thing. But hysteria over last summer won't do that.

Its interesting because in these discussions people make loads of suggestions on how to reduce Co2 entering the atmosphere but almost everyone misses out the current biggest driver of climate change, which is....

commercial farming (in particular, livestock) produces 1/5 of all Co2 released into the atmosphere.

www.lifegate.com/people/news/agriculture-and-climate-change-causes-effects-impacts

But FruitCider - one of the suggestions was eat less meat - surely that will have an impact on commercial livestock farming?

Of course the other thing that people can do is vote for politicians who believe that climate change is real and will actually do something about it.

We don't need to reduce meat consumption - we need to stop eating all meat and dairy.

I am very much in favour of reducing meat consumption. I did so but I do not want to go vegan because it will be very hard to offer our children a balanced diet. I know if is possible but very hard and they are picky eaters.

Yes my own diet is virtually vegan (though I do give in and have pizza from time to time), however my child is not, and I agree it's hard to give children a good vegan diet.

We might try to cut down on dairy for DS (always been veggie) but not eggs, until he gets less picky.

In my city one of the local coffee chains has brought in a policy where they will not provide any takeaway coffee cups. If you want a coffee from them, you bring your own reusable mug or you buy one from them. Hopefully this will catch on - I haven't seen any chain that doesn't offer at least a discount for reusable cups, so tbh if you buy coffee every day it'd pay back fairly quickly.

Personally - I think not. Whilst climate change has been well evidenced, it has been happening for thousands of years as the Earth warms and cools. It's all part of the natural order. I've not seen anything abnormal other than a hot summer and as someone noted, we've had worst in 76.

I agree that climate change is happening, I just don't necessarily buy into the reasons behind it. Even if the current change is mainly due to modern living, I am fairly content that we will develop a technological solution way before it becomes a major issue.

Quite happy with my thoughts and feelings and don't need any 're-education'.

Weather and climate aren’t the same, so while patterns of weather can be indicative of climatic change (for example, rising ocean temperature means more hurricanes) one warm summer is not the same as long term climate change.

That said, climate change will lead to hotter summers. It won’t be an idyll of ice cream and beer gardens though. Rainfall will halve, creating serious drought conditions, and rising sea levels will cause large areas of coastline to be swallowed up.

The U.K. itself I don't think last summer was a dire warning. It was just a lovely long summer. But looking at the rest of the world and their weather changes I'm not so sure. Trouble is I think the changes are insidious and we aren't aware of them until the media informs us or unless you go looking for specific studies etc.

OccasionallyIncomplet I am not trying to re-educate you. What a horrible word. Just wanting to discuss my concern with others.

OccasionallyIncomplet op is much more polite than me! I think you do need to re-educate yourself hugely. Your way of thinking - ‘something will fix it!’ is what’s going to be the bigggest hurdle to overcome. It starts with each and every one of us, we have to do our bit to fix this.

This video will hopefully change some of your minds. It’s 2 minutes, give it a watch.

We're currently 2000 years overdue for an ice age as the interglacial periods are not really the norm and are shorter naturally.

There will be a massive global war when it does return as I can't see the Africans, south Americans and Asians particularly wanting millions of northern hemisphere people landing on them. It'll be awful and lots of people will die.

Some say climate change in the long run might even bring an Iceage, because it might slow down the Gulf Stream which bring warmer weather near the equator but colder weather in the northern hemisphere. Also it might lead to more hurricanes. I am not sure how likely this scenario is but it sounds worrying.