I am terrified of the climate emergency but more terrified by how ambivalent others seem to be about it!

[CopperPatch]

Just that really, I see people sharing things on social media, commenting on threads, talking about climate change etc but actually changing their lives very, very little - or finding ways to justify not taking action.... it is not scaremongering, it is not a fear project, our planet will no longer sustain human life because of us but so, so many people seem to not care, or only care on a surface level - great click bait but changing their lives in any way seems a step to far. Yes we need wide-scale political and economic shifts but we also need every day action from every day people - and that is EVERYONE'S responsibility!!!! AIBU to expect more of everyone?!

Recycling and having a meat free Monday is like saving 10p a day and thinking you will have enough for a car in a year.

I’m sorry you face challenges every day, Ghana but that does not change the reality of the environmental catastrophe we are all facing.

It kind of irks me when I see all these children doing protests etc, I know it will affect them but I’ll be interested to see if they are willing to give up all the luxuries teens have, new clothes, newest gadgets etc

China has been quite serious in re forestation. It’s a step down n the right direction, unlike Brazil, where the Amazon is being decimated.

Everyone making small adjustments will do nothing what-so-ever unless the whole world is similarly engaged.

That won't, can't happen with the capitalist model based on competition we have now. It just won't. But its the best we have. No workable alternatives.

The economy has to keep going. It's not going to stop. We really would have to consume massively less, and that's not going to happen.

We are massively wasteful. Christmas is coming and the adverts to BUY, BUY, BUY!! will start rolling. I just think of all the plastic tat that children are going to get this year. Mini-plastic playtree house or fake plastic kitchen with fake plastic fruit etc. Christmas wrapping paper for one thing, the amount of travel and emissions rising etc etc. Extra food being flown in on extra flights.

I do massively regret having children when I think about it all.

Blaming other nations is bullshit.

We invented capitalism. We exploited the land, resources and people of other nations around the world to funnel in resources to build our wealth. We then exported our capitalist culture back to the countries we exploited so those people who broke their backs producing for our economy would also act as consumers and pay over the odds for the things they used to produce for themselves.

This system suits the most wealthy people very well and they would suffer a loss of comfort and wealth if it was disrupted.

I can't afford to swap my diesel car for an electric one.
My recycling bin is always overflowing but if the supermarkets insist on selling everything I buy in plastic then what can I do?
If China and the USA refuse to accept their share of the responsibility, then me not buying fizzy water in a plastic bottle isn't really going to make a dent, is it?
Also agree that children getting angsty about this issue is fine if they are prepared to give up their gadgets, luxuries. etc. But are they? I know most girls my DDs age aren't interested in an eco friendly capsule wardrobe. They're more than happy to buy a shed load of crap from Primark, then winge about climate control and not realise the irony.

@ChardonnaysPrettySister
I’m not having a “challenging time” just more focused on issues that impact on my children on day to day basis.
So if me and my family’s recycling and Meat free Mondays is not doing anything very interested to know what you and @CopperPatch are doing that’s so world changing.
I’m sure you won’t respond as it’s probably just trying to make others feel guilty with your “virtue signaling”

@GoodBoyGhost
How would ending your life about climate change help your children?

@Ghanagirl I don't want to make this thread about me but I don't think anything I can do will help my children. The necessary changes need to come from global powers and that just isn't going to happen. There's nothing I can do to protect them and that is incredibly difficult and frightening.

I said sorry you are facing challenges every day not having a challenging time.

I walk or take take public transport, I don’t do long haul holidays. I don’t buy anything that’s not necessary or won’t replace something broken. I don’t do piles of presents for the sake of it, and lots of other things. I don’t buy products with palm oil, I always carry my reusable coffee cup.

Is it enough? I don’t know, probably not, but I don’t bury my head in the sand thinking ‘ poor little me, I can’t be arsed to do something about it’.

I care a lot but I just don't know what to do. I have to keep going to work. I'm so tired at the end of the day. I recycle, reduce meat, take the bus, avoid plastic, sign petitions .. but then sometimes I make bad choices too like our friends invited us on holiday and we said yes. We need friends. I will carbon offset it. I feel bad. I'm tired. I don't know.

Nobody with any wealth or power takes the bus.

We all waste so much energy fretting and feeling guilty about whether we are doing our tiny, tiny ineffectual little things correctly because we have literally been told that if we don't the world will end and it will be our fault.

It's a very effective strategy for sapping our energy and stopping us directing our anger at those who could change things but won't because of their investment portfolio.

@ChardonnaysPrettySister
I walk or take take public transport, I don’t do long haul holidays. I don’t buy anything that’s not necessary or won’t replace something broken. I don’t do piles of presents for the sake of it, and lots of other things. I don’t buy products with palm oil, I always carry my reusable coffee cup.
You sound incredibly smug.
I walk on the days I don’t work but I have to drive for my NHS clinical job.
I travel long haul to see my grandparents in a developing country that was colonised by UK.
Also travel to another developing country to ensure my children get to know their paternal grandparents.
I’m not taking advice from some over privileged hand wringer.

Whatever.

The elephant in the room is overpopulation, humans breed 400,000 new consumers every day and their futures are going to be awful. Climate refugees, extreme weather, food and water shortages, but no one would consider this in their desire for more and more babies.

Yep and people living well beyond natural expiration, I work in nursing I see it everyday and I will be putting measures in place so that I won’t be kept artificially alive

This might be going off track but the PP regarding BULB energy: they might come across as being green but I found them to be the greediest suppliers as they want you to pay in advance. They have your money in their bank accounts earning them interest. Fat Cats with a "green" face.

@Femodene

Isn't this mostly due to improved living conditions and advances in health care as opposed to increases in the amount of children being born? Most countries in the western world have a diminishing birthrate. Some vountries are actually giving incentives for people to have more.

So (Im being devils advocate and a bit purposefully goady) if we really want to change things maybe we ought only to rely on natural methods of healthcare like homeopathy, and stop treating the elderly beyond the minimum and stop trying to cheat death all the time.

I'm asthmatic and natural selection would have meant I would likely have died from one of the frequent chest infections I had as a child. Medical intervention has meant I've lived thus far and had children some of whom may pass on my faulty genes.

Instead of saying lets have fewer children. If we let natural selection take it's course population growth would not be an issue. It could start having a real effect today. But none of us, least of all me is willing to make that sacrifice.

Telling people to 'have less children' won't work without massively intrusive legislation partly because the current model relies on population growth- less children means more immigration to fuel economic growth, and indigenous populations don't respond well to large scale immigration as we can see, so for now at least its a non-starter.

People have more pressing priorities. I’d be over the moon if the worst thing I had to worry about was the environment

People cannot see the effects of this in their every day life, and will not in this country for some time.

Thing is, that probably wouldn't help. I'm in Australia and we can already see the terrible effects of climate change in front of our eyes, on our farms and in our rivers. At the recent election we voted in a party of climate change deniers.

I think you have to actually be at the stage where sea water literally covers your entire country (for example Kiribati in a few years time) to believe. Even then, people would be probably be standing in knee deep water where a mountain summit used to be, saying "this is fine, I'm sure it was always like this".

I don't understand the ignorance but I totally understand wanting to forget it and give up.

I don't want to give us humans excuses but I suppose the bottom line is, we are animals. For all our supposed smarts, we are just animals who only want to eat and breed as long as possible and that's what we are going to do until it destroys everything.

To think we might stop would be like expecting an overpopulated rabbit colony to realise and to start abstaining from sex or perform vasectomies on themselves.

I’d be over the moon if the worst thing I had to worry about was the environment

Really?

ChardonnaysPrettySister

As another poster said you do just sound smug.

Yeah you do all of that. And you know what? You'll end up in the same place as the rest of us, fighting for survival. Well no realistically you'll probably die from whatever major event happens like the rest of us.

Might as well live while you can, hence why I will keep driving my lovely 1.9tdi car because its fun to drive. You may as well have fun in life before it gets destroyed because it will.

But yeah keep using your reusable cup for coffee. It makes such a big difference when the next 100 customers don't do the same. The only difference it makes is it makes you feel good. That's literally it.

News flash

We are all going to die.

The End.

I think what tippexy is trying to say is that when you are worrying about how to pay your bills, working all hours, tired or dealing with health issues there's very little headspace to concentrate on the environment. At least I think that's what Tippexy is saying.

It's hardly fair that people at the bottom struggling with everyday issues should also be made to feel guilty for stuff governments and big business and are largely responsible for.