To think that people are waking up?

[1980Gal]

Something has changed in me. I can't stop thinking about how everything I do affects the environment. Is it just me or have others experienced a real shift in thinking and feeling? Yes there are loads of people who have already been especially conscious of these things, and I'm sure most of us do the obvious like recycling where possible, but this feels different. DH feels the same, like something has 'clicked'. Last week he said he's only going to eat red meat once a month due to environmental impact - very out of character. I keep thinking of Greta T travelling for days/weeks by boat when a flight would have got her there in hours. Are others feeling the same? Do you think something might be happening nationally to people's mindsets? Is there now more hope than ever that we might just not f**k up the world?

@Jillyhilly - I hadn't thought in terms of religion but you are right and that would explain the unquestioning Greta T stuff

I definitely think this is the most (positive!) pressure I've felt to act on the environment in my adult life, but I do think as a PP said that lots of people are paying lip service. The irony was not lost on me when a colleague started berating me for taking a largely unavoidable internal flight, on the very same day he'd just landed back in the UK from Brazil.

Never mind the bamboo coffee cups, give up Costa and Starbucks!

How much energy is wasted used up in powering totally unnecessary coffee outlets?

Also, as a PP has pointed out, tech and the internet uses a ridiculous amount of electricity. I once read something like that what we use today, just to power the digital world, was enough to power everything in the whole world twenty years ago! I can't remember the exact figures, but it was in that league.

link

I couldn't agree more. Just joined my local XR group. Time for action.

I've been an environmentalist for over 25 years, and have definitely noticed it becoming more mainstream in recent months. Obviously I see this as a good thing. The key reasons I think this is happening are:

1. David Attenborough's Blue Planet
2. Extinction Rebellion
3. Greta Thunberg
4. IPCC report - 12 years left
5. Our government declaring Net Zero by 2050
6. Media coverage of Amazon fires

Any action, however small, that people can take, will help. We are in the anthropocene age now, and it's up to us to take responsibility for the impacts our choices are having.

I don't use them. Would only tend to use cup in Waitrose when shopping.

Those people saying the little they do doesn't make a difference unless big business do more etc....are being silly.
If millions of people do 'a little' of course it makes a difference.
If millions and millions of people refuse to buy goods that are over packaged or boycott stores that aren't doing more, then industry and business will have to make changes or see their profits fall.
Of course you can choose to be apathetic and not make any effort because others don't.

Yes.
I was at a pro Democracy demonstration yesterday where anti-EU and pro-EU were walking peacefully together, with Extinction Rebellion too.

It looks like after all the damage that’s already been done people are realising it’s not just going to effect ‘others’ but themselves too.

Yep.

I don't give any thought to any of it. I just carry on my daily life.
When the politicians give it some serious thought, then I will too

And that's precisely why the won't and don't have to.....because of people like you.

Completely agree OP. I think (hope?) 2019 will be the shift in public consciousness the planet needs. I guess it could be my bubble I live in with like minded people, but there has been a noticable change imo.

HEres a question- when I was at school the biggest environmental issue was the hole in the ozone layer and CFCs. With education the hole is now closing and no longer as much of a threat. Is the recent environmentalism potentially going to have the same effect? There are some wild claims about at the moment that remind me of the aeresol dangers of the 90s

When the politicians give it some serious thought, then I will too

What about the Paris agreement?

The UK government's commitment to Net Zero by 2050, and all the local councils declaring Climate Emergencies?

There's still a long way to go, but politicians do seem to be waking up at last.

I suspect that the Chinese, who are responsible for 33% of global emissions as opposed to the UK’s paltry 1%, aren’t currently up for the shift on public consciousness the planet needs. Their industrial revolution is lifting millions out of poverty. They want the same standard of living that the rest of us have enjoyed for decades as a result of our own industrial revolution. And they should get it.

Are the USA following suit. When I used to go there in the 00s I was always shocked by the lack of recycling and wastefulness.

Weary I agree that many of that generation are much more frugal and careful, much less wasteful. . However, not all are. My MIL heated her home to greenhouse temperatures, always used the tumble dryer and never thought twice about the environment. My mother is looking forward to the world heating up so there will be better Summers! She doesn't recycle and has her heating on all year round. I think it's probably people in their twenties and the older generation who are the least thoughtful.

Small example @Limonsoda.
In my home country, all the supermarkets have a recycling facility which you can take your plastic bottles back to.
You get between 20 and 25 cents per bottle. This is given to you in a receipt that you redeem against your purchase in said store.
As a result, people return their bottles. I save mine till I have a decent amount, kids love it cos they can return the bottles and buy some sweeties with the refund.
Poorer people actively look for bottles to return.

A couple of stores in the UK wanted to do it here a couple of years ago. The government said no.
Why? For what purpose would they say no?
Double standards, so sorry, when the government takes it seriously, I will too.

China is the world's biggest investor in renewable energy, followed by the USA.

Although, it is going to be hard to change the US mindset on overconsumption - especially meat and gas guzzling cars.

Is it just me or have others experienced a real shift in thinking and feeling?

Yes, but that change of thinking is for the worse. We now have a bunch of middle class people in Western countires who think that if only they don't eat red meat, and if only the people they hector don't eat red meat; and if only the oiky working class stop going on holidays to Benidorm and Tenerife (no sign of the middle classes stopping going to Tuscany); and if only we get on the backs of people who want to have a child and call them selfish, it will do fuck all for climate change.

Meanwhile, as I've said before, if the British economy shut down tomorrow and Britain stopped using any fossil fuels tomorrow (which would mean no street lights at night, and we go back to cooking food on fires a la the Regency) then China in 18 months will make up the CO2 emissions Britain no longer makes.

If you care about the environment, support the West making war on China, removing its communist dictatorship, and imposing a climate-sensitive growth regime on China. What's that? Too complicated? Prefer to virtue signal instead about how the proles shouldn't go on holiday to Spain? Then piss off, you're not serious about it.

Grow the fuck up, wokesters!

I see where @Jillyhilly is coming from with Greta T and religion, but I think it’s the other way around. It’s not that people believe in taking action on climate change because a saviour (Greta) came along, rather that having realized that climate change is something we need to take action, the saviour has become the best vehicle for that message. Most people aren’t convinced by facts and figures

Although I agree that it is not being caused by the same things, climate change has been happening ever since this planet was born! Sometimes an ice age, sometimes a global warming, but it has happened for millenia. I don't think a few people not using straws or becoming vegetarian is going to change very much. It will all swing back again in thousands of years to come.

And you only have to look at the sheer amount of heat lost through the roof in the house of parliament. They go on about everyone else insulating their property and turning lights out etc to conserve energy but don't put their own house in order.

Still, that will be mainly due to the hot air that politicians tend to blow out I suspect.

The trouble is that people have no idea how to live the 1960s lifestyle that scaling back requires.

We need another body shop type business. People gave a shit then because the latest big bucks trendy business said we should

Do not drive your car anymore.

Do not fly abroad for business or pleasure anymore.

Do not use oil or gas for heating or hot water.

Little changes are good. Big changes are not so easy are they?

We are only as good as the entire world is. Look at the Amazon fires in Brazil.

I am afraid I am a bit of a sceptic sorry.