So should we be worried, re: unusually warm weather?

[MotherToMany]

Should we be buying air conditioning units in preparation for the a 40c summer?

It was 25c in my car earlier.

I put the air con on in FEBRUARY!

Anyone else slightly freaked out?

I thought it just decreased power in the car but I'm happy to be corrected

That just means you rev harder and use more fuel which is bad for the environment.

It was 2C when I drove to work, after scraping the ice off the windscreen , at 8 am - and 20C, according to the same car temp gauge, in the way back at 3pm. Very sunny in back garden but now it’s 5pm, I’ve put the heating on. I’ve had a word with the plants to stop their reckless dash towards blooming. Outer SW London.

it's not the first time it's happened which makes me feel better

Today is the warmest ever Feb day on record - so it is the first time it has happened as it is today.

No I would much rather it was warmer, hardly anything to worry about.

Yes we should be worried!! It doesn't matter if it's been warm in Feb before or it will be cold next week, the planet is warming at an alarming rate and we'll all be suffering the effects in a decade

We should be worried about climate change and doing whatever we can to reduce our waste and energy consumption. This should be a wake up call to everyone to do what they can to consume less.
We absolutely should not be rushing out to buy a/c so we can use more energy and create more waste. Are you insane.

Ps why didn’t you just open your car window (unless you were on a motorway)

I had to put my aircon on this afternoon too and I’m in the North. The car said it was 18C outside, but the car had been sat in the sun all day and was absolutely roasting inside. I was on a 70mph road so no option to open windows really. I couldn’t believe having to turn the air con on in February though, it’s mad!

I also had to scrape ice off the car this morning, what a strange (but lovely) day.

Yes us too, the grass had frost on it when I was walking to school this morning. It’s crazy

I try to be mindful of global warming, climate change etc. but then I look at the USA, China, India and think what’s the fucking point? Will me not having my aircon on to drive to Tesco really make a difference?

It will if everyone has the same attitude

PlatypusPie I hope you mean you had a word with your plants in the literal sense and it’s not just me
A couple of mine are looking a bit too spritely for my liking, so I told them not to jump the gun while I was out cutting the grass this afternoon - my neighbours already think I’m a mental hippy, so talking to plants won’t have been too much of a shock for them

Also, on the topic of global warming: I had an interesting chat with a friend of a friend in the pub a few months ago. He works for a company which makes the panels for those solar power farms, and he asked me if I knew what the biggest contributor to climate change was. I said the obvious things like fossil fuels, but apparently not! Apparently, scientists are now thinking that cows might actually be a worse contributor because of their massive carbon footprint Something to with the gases they produce in their four stomachs take more oxygen to break them down in the atmosphere or something than the emissions from cars do 🤷🏻‍♀️ So if cows were wiped out, according to these scientists he talked about, the effects of climate change would begin to reverse pretty quickly. Interesting train of thought, but not sure how true it is!

We are having record COLD weather here in the North western part of the U.S. There's deep snow on the ground, massive drifts & high winds. Forecast says it will be single digit temps through the first week of March. We use F here not C, so we're about MINUS - 15 C at night.

Our cows will start calving any day now, and I'm so worried. We're all open range cattle here.

Usually in a few weeks we start to have fertilizer applied via air applicator (crop dusters) but right now it looks like bloody Antartica out there.

I've had hay fever the last two days. I thought I was coming down with something until I realized how itchy my eyes were. It must be the trees pollinating early or something?!

But I suppose I got off easy last summer with everything dead in the heat for months...

Yes MyBreadisEggy, that’s why it’s been all over the news that people should cut down on meat eating. Even if people went veggie on one or two days a week it would help considerably.

Why can’t you crack a window open on a motorway? I do all the time.

Honey I thought there must be some truth to it, even if Operation Cow Wipeout isn’t the cure to global warming

True eggy they produce lots of methane. Cutting down on beef and dairy is something everyone can do to make a difference

shakeapoo I’ve just told my DH this, and he’s come out with: “So you’re telling me that cows farting is doing more damage than the American down the road with his 6.5L engine truck?!”

And dairy is already a no-go in our house thanks to DS who has an anaphylactic cows milk allergy! Nice to know something I didn’t even realise was a factor might be helping to reduce our contributions to climate change, as well as the obvious things like recycling, reducing the amount of plastics we use etc

Yes I have heard that about beef farming being a huge contributor. I have actually hugely cut down on my meat consumption generally, as it does seem like something that might actually help. As long as people who don't eat meat then don't eat things like bloody quinoa instead!!!

It does feel a bit like a lost cause. I mean if you look at the Flight Radar app, at any one time there are literally thousands of aeroplanes in the air, all outputting so much CO2. And then you think about countries like China and India (and you also think, well why shouldn't developing countries have everything we have?) And look at the threads right here about laundry and bathing!!

The fact is, most people, even the ones who shout the loudest about climate change (the Hollywood slebs etc), probably wouldn't be willing to make the sacrifices required to actually make a change beyond virtue signalling. It feels like we are too far gone to turn back?

Warm weather at this time of year means a cold, wet summer

MyBreadisEggy I’ve heard that too and also heard that people should go veggie or vegan to be more eco friendly. I suppose it depends on what kind of veggie you are though, as manufactured meat replacements like Quorn etc must surely also add to pollution as they are produced in factories