To think it's no longer good enough

[Vio112]

To think that the climate crisis is something that politicians will magically sort out and they we can just carry on with the status quo? Too many people I know either deny the problem all together or just simply cba to do anything. We need to start taking responsibility and making sacrifices on an individual level. That means eating less meat, only flying when absolutely necessary, only putting the heating on when totally necessary, having fewer children, stop buying single use plastics and stop buying as many clothes. Surely, we just can't carry on the same way anymore? I have family members who are so tragically complacent and blase about the whole thing. It makes me despair.

You cant' force people to act a certain way.

You can put pressure on manufacturers and inform people so they start making their steps, but giving a list of the things you have decided they can't do is not going to achieve anything.

Giving a list of advice and things to think about is much more effective.

Oh god, not this again.

Go pontificate to China or the US

I think as individuals the impact we can have is only ever going to be minimal. If the bigger manufacturers and companies don’t make changes globally then the situation won’t change

Who said anything about forcing? Surely we should want to do our part? "oh god not this again" - I think this is my point. I don't think big business is going to change because someone is advising them to. They'll only change if they start to lose money.

Your thread hasn't convinced me one bit so far, that's my point too.
Educate people and try to put pressure on the manufacturers, that would get you further.

Take the example of flushing wipes or tampons: people explain and show exactly what the consequences are. Much better than ranting "you mustn't do this" which only brings one reply, which is "mind your own business".

There isn't a single day when climate crisis isn't being discussed in the media. Those aren't my ideas, they've been drummed in by the government, by activists and by newspapers. And yet most people are too proud and stubborn to do anything that isn't in their own interests. I guess a lot people don't flush wipes so that they don't have to spend money on a plumber at a later date. It's easier not to care and to stick to status quo but apparently IABU and should MMOB. Thoroughly depressing.

As approximately 25% of global co2 emissions come from heating, and another 24% from agriculture your best bet for reducing CO2 is to make heating your house illegal and make growing food illegal. Then, when everyone is either frozen or starved to death, the problem will be rectified. Boom. Brilliant solution.

YABVU to expect people to curtail basic necessities- there are some things like single use plastics and fast fashion that could be reduced, but telling people to turn their heating down is ridiculous when it’s cold. YOU turn your heating down when it’s cold, if you think it matters so damn much.

Better by far to invest in green ways of producing base load energy that have zero emissions. Imagine if the UK built 10 gen 3 nuclear reactors each in the 6-8GW range- we’d have sufficient base load energy production for the entire country and emissions would be zero, and in-fact we’d have lots of spare capacity for people to start using electric cars! Double win!

How much better to invest in technology than to try and control people’s behaviour. Make green cheap and people will adopt it anyway. Try and make basic comfort more expensive and all you do is fuck the poor. The usual scummy thing that British politics opts for when it gets carried away with itself.

Yes wish people would do more to help the environment but I’ve come to the conclusion people are just to selfish. They like to recycle a bit of plastic to do heir bit but tell them to have less kids - the best thing they can do, oh no that will never happen it’s all China’s fault. Interesting I went to listen to a talk by one of the exec producers of blue planet 2 and he was fairly optimistic about China.

People need to have fewer kids, cut back flying, walk/cycle rather than drive etc.

But people don’t talk about the right things. First thing we need to do is stop eating fish unless we dramatically change fishing. Fishing debris accounts for 50% of ocean plastic, modern fishing techniques including lines (which could wrap twice round the world if you ties together all the lines laid out each night) decimate fish stocks and ocean floors, prawn farming takes all the nutrients out the ground for 50 years.

People shoot you down in flames if you mention rationing flights, having fewer kids. People aren’t willing to voluntarily do what is needed. There needs to be (undoubtedly unpopular) legislation

I only buy clothes on ebay or in charity shops and get sneered at for it. I refuse to buy a car and (according to a recent mumsnet thread) this makes me useless at life in general. I only have one child and apparently this makes me selfish.
We live in a shallow materialistic society that would rather destroy itself than go without a 4x4 to drive around numerous children whilst decked out in the latest fast fashion.

I'm trying to do my bit at home. Attitudes and behaviours are changing... just not sure it's fast enough to make small domestic changes such as those described... I won't stop though.

China/ US aside - manufacturers are next.

But ... how do you put the brakes on the way our economies are designed?
That has to come from government and there's insufficient impetus coming from the tories.

I will take it seriously when govts make manufactures and business owners sort out their own issues.

Why are shops allowed to have their doors opens when it’s freezing cold outside. They are basically heating the bloody street.

Why are supermarkets allowed to cover everything with plastic?

These are just two examples which could be stopped very easily, yet nothing is done. Stop putting the onus on us little people and make the big boys take the lead.

I think many consumers are waking up-myself included-and I think that will galvinise the manufacturers. Not sure how fast that's going to happy thou..

Can just ask a question. If we reduce meat consumption what’s going to happen to those employed in that area, farmers, production companies etc? Where will they get new jobs from? We have eaten meat for thousands of years, I am not stopping now,

If we don't reduce consumption there won't be any jobs either, as the planet will be dead.

You can see this here in Australia, cattle and dairy farmers are in big trouble, they can no longer make a living as their farms are completely dried out from drought - there is no food or water for the cattle. Many of them have had to slaughter their herds or in some cases the herd has just starved to death.

Drought in Australia isn't a new thing. One of the worst droughts was in 1895.

Why aren't councils being forced to improve recycling services for domestic waste? I live in a flat with communal bins, the only things we can put for recycling are plastic bottles, glass, cans & paper. All other waste goes to landfill or to be burnt to heat council homes on a communal heating scheme. If 1 yoghurt pot gets put in a recycling bin the whole bin full gets rejected despite the pot having symbols that say it can be recycled. Why arent manufacturers being forced to go back to glass bottles for drinks with a deposit scheme like the old days? I often think we did more recycling years ago when we used to have rag & bone men collecting old clothes & broken appliances, the old metal dustbin wasn't half the size of a wheelie bin but we never managed to fill them.

If 1 yoghurt pot gets put in a recycling bin the whole bin full gets rejected despite the pot having symbols that say it can be recycled.

I don't believe this urban myth. Never have my bin men fingertipped through my rubbish checking it. We have segregated bins, however after a bank holiday they come round and it all goes in the back of the same lorry. Its double sorted at the recycling plant. I don't buy into the urban myth of washing all your jars/tins/plastics either.

Never has my council ever sent out flyers or done any publicity about the cost of either rejecting ins or whole lorries being contaminated by one unwashed pot.

In the "old days" people had bonfires; they didn't consume so much (bath once a week therefore less shampoo used) soap came in bars not a pump; there wasn't a need to carry water everywhere, buy a Starbucks, eat on the hoof ; meat and veg were bought direct not pre-packaged. Clothes now go to the charity shop and appliances are picked up by the totters just as they ever were.

YABU. You do as you please. Suit yourself. Get depressed over something you have little control over.

OP I do get where you're coming from.

Depressingly, big Global Corporates, industry, manufacturers have such a significant role to play, but they are so often favoured by governments and given an easy ride, because manufacturing brings wealth to a country, gives employment to people and supply will always be fed by demand.

Who is going to stop ordering off Amazon, now the genie is out of that bottle?

Who is going to stop buying cheap clothing from Matalan, New Look, Primarni etc

Who is going to stop having their takeaways, their convenience "value-add" food, their throw away crap presents at Christmas.

If you look at the buying habits on MN it's all about consumer goods and fast food (anyone for a "treat", we all "deserve it") - people buying their Partner 40 presents for their 40th, all those ways of thinking are destroying our earth.

Depressing.

So OP, tell us how you do it?

Incidentally, I don't fly, haven't in 20 years, and have been recycling for longer than that because my parents were ahead of their time. I rarely use the heating unless it's winter, in which case I'm not going to freeze because of global warming, I'm going to put my heating on.

Even if I minimise everything I do, it's going to make fuck all difference when you've got companies and very rich individuals causing more damage than one average person could make up for in a lifetime!

I do a lot and change my behaviours all the time, but know it will never be enough, it's just pissing on a giant fire unless government and huge company level changes happen.

Re having children- yes there are too many people, but the simple fact is if no-one had children the human race dies out in 100 years anyway. So the question is, who should have children? It's not a simple problem with a black and white answer.

One issue is global education, countries where people (and girls in particular) are well educated have fewer children. Once you get more countries average -2 children per woman the population will decline.

Also, when there is talk of a zero carbon economy, there is very little detail as to how that would look in terms of people's daily lives. We need to know what it would look like in detail - I suspect it would look pretty unpalatable and most people would rather bumble on as they are towards disaster.

Very few people are going to be a total climate martyr and live in a straw hut with a composting toilet. It's not realistic. But I guess we can all do at least something to help without being impractical. I have an issue with this defeatest attitude that says "little me is not going to make any difference so I'm just going to carry on as if nothing is happening". Sure, I miss the taste of beef. But it's not like there aren't other tasty things to eat? Doing something is better than doing nothing right?

@hiddenmnuetter rest assured I am not advocating making old grannies sit in sub zero homes... Merely the idea of heating to 17 or 18c rather than 21 which I find is perfectly fine as long as you own a jumper or 2.
With regards to nuclear power, it's not the silver bullet that people make it out to be. Nuclear waste is permanently polluting and is very expensive to deal with. Perhaps it would help with reducing coal powered energy but in the end, we need to start using less energy overall and not more.