I would like to know what the supporters of XR do themselves to lessen their environmental damage to the planet. Its mainly urban based people who know nothing about farming and plant production. I lead a very environmentally kind life, and I would really love to see car use restricted as it would suit me personally (super fit cyclist), I work nearly all online, I litter pick along my local grass verges, I keep items for a long time and cherish them, and so on. I only rarely eat meat. I rescue animals. And so on. But I would never start telling other people how to lead their lives, or join a "movement", based on some woolly premises and lambasting people who are quite possibly also much more environmentally friendly than themselves.
Jillyhilly you put into very articulate words something I’ve been thinking for a long time in terms of the rise of a new anti-human doomsday cult.
There are some very gullible people around, people who are easily led, who have no idea how crazy they sound. Europe is doing very nicely on taking measures, which are expensive for all of us, on improving the environment. What we really need to do in Britain is to do existing things better, such as encouraging people out of cars by providing viable alternatives and punitively punishing littering (you can see I've spent too much time picking up other people's donut containers, beer cans and McDonalds boxes). And we need to stop throwing up new build housing estates in the countryside.
Jilly It gives people some very definite rules and a doctrine to adhere to unquestioningly, provides structure, meaning and purpose and there are very punishments for those who don’t toe the line. Ultimately I think humans like that kind of thing.
We should never forget Hitler, David Koresh, etc who were very successful in getting plenty of people to follow them.
CatherineOfAragon you were very gracious to me and I was very rude to me, but I was really disturbed by your portrayal of nuclear contamination as a good thing. To me, that's only a few steps away from some fanatic getting hold of a nuclear weapon and using it to obliterate a sizable sector of the human population, and justifying it by saying its good for the planet ultimately to have less people.
Morningbird1 And yes it’s possible that some humans will survive what’s to come. It’s very doubtful however
MustardScreams But climate change will mean we ALL lose our home.
1300Cakes If one person not getting to hospital on time upsets you, how do you feel about no one ever getting to go to hospital ever again. The old people will have a lot more to worry about than headaches, like starvation.
Now, this is where it gets really silly. We are not all going to die in 11 years exactly. The planet will struggle on. Damage is being done but earth is remarkably resilient. All records indicate that we are actually in a cold phase. No XR supporters have ever given me a logical explanation for the flourishing Norse farming settlements in Greenland 800 years ago that thrived on ancient farming techniques in land which is only marginal now. A cooling climate put paid to them. Human history was based on it being warmer than it is now, as we did not have the techniques to farm and to survive in what are now marginal climates.
We need to tackle plastic and despoliation of the countryside. We don't need people living in cities telling us how to farm when they are mostly ignorant of what widescale arable farming involves, of different soil types, yield and what you need to do to make a country like Britain which has a high proportion of upland produce enough wheat. We really need to stop building new housing estates in the countryside of materials that will last 120 years at best. And so on.
But none of that involves joining a bunch of new friends and thinking yourself newly important, when you don't have enough going on in your life otherwise.