Backlash for bad environmental choices?

[OnceUponARiver]

Has anyone ever faced backlash for your choices in real life?

For not recycling, for taking many holidays abroad, having what some consider too many children? Or even not believing in man made climate change or inevitable disaster?

I have not which makes reading this forum very interesting. It seems environmentalists are only online...

Do you think it would ever happen/become more frequent?

What are you hoping to achieve by starting this thread? A pat on the back or a bit of the flagellation you've been missing?

Or option 3, finding out if anyone has had their choices critiqued by those not using an online forum.

No because people don't actually care. They like to pretend they do, but they don't.

Only ever on social media. And once for driving a 4x4 (we have horses, it's obligatory) but she was just a fucking nightmare woman who'd have found fault in me no matter what I did, so I don't count her.

I’m very judgemental of acquaintances who are hugely preachy about their local suppliers of organic produce and their scathing remarks at children’s brightly coloured, plastic toys but who regularly shovel coke up their snouts with apparently no care to the consequences in its country of origin. Likewise wang on about their vegetarianism but snaffle down fish in some kind of misplaced wholesomeness

I think people care up to a point but few people are going to say to someone else in real life 'you shouldn't do that' because they don't want a slap in the mouth. Which is what you would most likely get if you eg waltzed into Tesco and started berating strangers for buying disposable antiseptic kitchen wipes.

My recently vegan brother tried to start a bun fight about me killing a fly and eating dairy. I’m a life long vegetarian, was a vegan too for a couple of years but didn’t bloody bang on about it, so I reminded him that until a year ago he was happily chowing down in blue steak and said I was happy with my choices. I didn’t eat the fly but they’re disgusting things with no right to come into my home so I zapped it. The dairy industry is grim but for various valid reasons I’m still a lacto ovo vegetarian and okay with it.

If he starts on me again I’ll bring up his biking leathers and ozone murdering motorbike and frequent cheap holidays abroad.

OP, are you saying you don’t believe in man made climate change?! What, really? Are you Donald Trump?

I can’t say I know anyone even slightly as concerned as the eco warriors online.

No because people don't actually care. They like to pretend they do, but they don't.

It's not that. I care, and I'm vocal on here during discussions, but I'm not going to start chastising people on the street at random.

I care about the environment and do a lot more than anyone else I know but most people I know don't care so there is no point in saying anything to them.

No and if anyone started on me, I’d tell them to fuck off.

I have preachy siblings who evangelise about their 'sustainable' lifestyle choices
Without realising that some of us do lots of sustainable things without labelling them and telling everyone else how wrong they are.

I’ve had heated disagreements with people about Diesel engines. Funnily enough not about mine which is new and low emissions, and as a rural dweller deemed acceptable. But about people that drive older diesel cars and vans. Because I don’t buy the idea they are all massive twats giving no fucks about the environment, and have the far fetched view that not everyone can afford a new environmentally friendly vehicle, and that the entire country doesn’t live in London so it’s not sensible to suggest public transport as a viable alternative.

I’ve also been criticised by people that are holier than thou vegetarians because I’ll eat free range meat, and don’t buy the idea that vegetarianism in it’s current mainstream form is anymore environmentally friendly.

Oh, and for producing straw when the same land could apparently be used for cereals or wheat. Naturally I encouraged them to share that far and wide because it would definitely prove how knowledgable they were about farming practice.

I’ve also been lambasted for growing hay, because instead of hay seeds I could have planted vegetables or something. They genuinely seemed to think it was the same process, no concept that hay comes from grass and isn’t remotely the same as deciding to farm veg.

It’s just as I suspected... all this bother is just online for most people.

I don’t preach at people but I do judge people who are profligately wasteful like the person I know who chucks out all her Xmas decs every year and buys new.
None of us are perfect though and it is better to be doing something than nothing. What i really hate is the people who go why are you doing recycling if you drive a car or why are you a vegan if you have kids etc. Etc. We all need to make compromises not everyone can give up everything.

I had a man tell me to turn my car engine off whilst stationary.

As it is, I work from my car essentially (community midwife). My engine sometimes isn't charged enough to let me run the electrics because it may only be a short journey between visits. So sometimes I need the engine on to be able to set the sat nav up. New estates mean sometimes I have to search on my phone and then re-programme my car sat nav. So I can be there 2/3 minutes needing to run the engine. No other way. I can't do my job otherwise!

He was lucky I was in uniform because otherwise, I would have been less polite to him.

He went off with his tail between his legs regardless.

I think most people care but in real life we're busy juggling making sustainable choices within our budget and the available time we have. Ie as soon as I went part time i was able to get to our nearest refill shop, which is only open mon-fri 12-4, to refill my existing bottles of shampoo, washing up liquid etc. This wasn't possible when I was working full time.

However the nuances of the discussion often get lost online. So I might list all of the low impact things I do but forget to mention that I have an SEN child who will likely be wearing nappies into adulthood which will obviously create a huge amount of waste. Similarly in real life, I wouldn't berate someone for buying a carrier bag in Tesco because I appreciate that they are trying to achieve a balance in the same way I am but have just made different choices.

Also more importantly, we have moved past the days where an individual's small choices can have any real impact. It's the greed of multinational companies playing fast and loose with the earth's resources in the name of profit which have led us down this path, so I'm not going to tell my nan off for not composting when Maccy Ds are burning down the fucking Amazon.

Vehicle idling is an offence against the Road Traffic (Vehicle Emissions) (Fixed Penalty) (England) Regulations 2002. The law states that is an offence to idle your engine unnecessarily when stationary. If you fail to turn your engine off after being spoken to you may be issued with a fixed penalty notice of £20
thismustbemydream to be fair you’re not supposed to idle the engine although if it really is only for 3 minutes to program your sat nav that’s a different issue.

It's the greed of multinational companies playing fast and loose with the earth's resources in the name of profit which have led us down this path, so I'm not going to tell my nan off for not composting when Maccy Ds are burning down the fucking Amazon.

I'm the same with my friend who owns 3 cats, she ignores the fact she is vegan and the Amazon is being burned down to also provide her cat food and some of her meals as Soy is second on the list of why the Amazon is being burnt down.

It's almost like you tried to end your comment on a win.

I'm not entirely sure what you're hoping to achieve with this but surely you can understand that it is entirely possible to:
A) Take steps to be more eco friendly
B) Be vocal about this online (which often means anonymously)
and
C) Bite your tongue in day to day conversation?

We do the following for the environment:

• use reusable nappies, nappy wipes and face wipes
• use cotton cleaning cloths
• use reusable sanpro and make-up pads
• use bamboo tooth brushes
• buy less in general and always look at buying secondhand before buying new (DS only has one plastic toy that was bought new; most of his toys are from the charity shop and/ or wooden), especially for clothes
• don't have a tumble drier
• use the eco setting on the washing machine
• do our utmost to reduce food waste

I don't bang on about this face to face because I don't want to be a bore/ preachy. And there's the ick factor - I do feel self conscious about reusable sanpro and judging by the recent thread on reusable nappies my house smells of shit and my kid stinks of piss I don't want to lose friends over making different choices - just mentioning the fact that we use cloth nappies has led to apologies/ justifications from several mums who don't for example. I am also aware that there are many things we do that are distinctly not eco-friendly (drive an old diesel car, have multiple flights abroad a year (to see family, not to go on holiday), buy cheap meat, buy cheap toiletries). I have a feeling that any conversation would be derailed and only focus on what we don't do. So I bite my tongue and cringe inwardly when colleagues talk about shopping sprees and multiple long-haul destinations. And I have enough empathy to realise that doing washable everything just isn't feasible for everyone. HTH.

FWIW, I had a lady tap on the window whilst I was sitting in our stationary car with the engine running, telling me it was very bad for the environment. I told her I fully agreed, but that I was seven months pregnant and would faint without air con, seeing as it was 30 degrees out. She understood you'd almost think being eco-friendly is compatible with being a decent human being

I never say anything even when I want to because people are so defensive and nasty about being questioned about these things I'd be afraid to say anything.

I wouldn't claim to be particularly virtuous when it comes to environmental issues. But in some ways I am a lot more environmentally conscious than a lot of people. I try to avoid fast fashion and prefer to buy something that will last. I don't fly. I used washable nappies for one child (but not the other because we had problems with them leaking and we were just too tired to deal with it), I have re-usable cotton pads etc and I use a mooncup. I can't say I ever talk about it to friends though.

Recently when I was in the family bathroom in my friend's house I noticed that they all have bamboo toothbrushes, so probably behind the scenes she is doing loads of little things too and has never chatted to me about it.

Yes Gamerchick - uneccessarily being the key word. Mine is necessary.

The end of rule123 in the highway code states:
Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults.

Additionally, it isn't up to the general public to police this. It is down to the actual police.

That man did not need to knock on my window, I expect he may have thought twice if I'd been a big burly man. Not a woman in an NHS uniform.

I have a feeling that any conversation would be derailed and only focus on what we don't do.

Probably because they would be doing the equivalent of you buying the odd bamboo toothbrush and running your washing machine on the recommended level as the new chemicals work at a lower temp.

People can point out flaws in those wanting to preach, you runnoing around in an old diesel and not owning a tumble dryer could be offset for someone owning a hybrid and would still be more green than you.

It's the new ivory tower fashion of pretending they are 'green' and wanting to be better than others thats becoming a problem.

Sent from my smartphone that uses rare earth metals mined in Africa/China that has no semblance of environmental concern.