AIBU to think that saving the planet is more important than Brexit?

[nellodee]

We're reaching tipping points all over the place, insect populations are in fatal decline, we're widely believed to be well into the sixth mass extinction event and this term of government may be our last chance as a nation to meaningfully take preventative action to save life on this planet.

So am I unreasonable to be frustrated by the lack of focus and interest in environmental issues in this election?

YANBU - it is more important to save the planet.

Absolutely.

David Attenborough on C4 News.

“It’s too late to reverse it. Not only in my lifetime, but in the next lifetime.

“I don’t think you can reverse it. I think the best we can hope is that we will slow it down and slow it down considerably. If we can do that.”

He predicts "civil unrest on a great scale and mass migration on a great scale”.

He criticised Johnson's no-show as "shameful".

We need to tackle this at source, and Corbyn is right to target the oil companies producing 70% of CO2.

I would go further. It's all very well the consumer recycling plastic, but again we need to tackle the source - food and drink production, bottled water and supermarkets.

Sadly the Tories don't give a fuck.

Yanbu....people should forget Brexit, pull together...not just as Europe but as one planet and reverse this.
However, as we as a species are intent on isolationalism, Brext, divisiveness and obsessed with selfishness and greed i suspect we will get our comeuppance.

And voters should blame themselves for voting for our current state of affairs rather than passing the buck...onto corporations, governments etc. Vote wisely in December and also vote with your pocket...dont buy planet wrecking goods such as plastic junk and palm oil products.

It just makes me want to scream. I sat listening to the environment debate, and I almost felt hopeful, and then I remembered that none of what was being promised there will ever come to pass because people are worried that these promises will wreck the economy.

We are putting short term money concerns above the air that we breathe and the food that we eat. How stupid are we as a species?

We need to be on a war footing over this: planting trees, rolling out new energy solutions, genuinely recycling plastic waste.... not in twenty years time but NOW and instead, we're arguing over a trade deal that will be totally insignificant in fifty years time.

I'd love to hear from the 3 people who think that Brexit is more important than mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss, and why they think we have five years to waste on this issue, or what they think the Conservatives would do to solve this.

Yanbu. People often mention them in the same sentence as if they are similar, like "all this stuff with brexit and climate change is very concerning", but they aren't anywhere in the same league. Brexit is worrying but it's on the scale of normal political events. Climate change is on a whole new scale.

YANBU

We need to all go vegan and save the planet & starving children who can’t be fed because their meals are feeding imprisoned animals.

YANBU and YABU. On the one hand, of course that’s true. But on the other hand, it is relative to the actual influence our politicians have. The next PM has the power (potentially) to stop Brexit or lead us out with no deal. However, not one of them can stop climate change

It is the most important issue. Though Brexit will make it easier for the Tories to avoid continuing those few actions we now do towards reducing the impact of climate change.

All you can do is look at how each decision will impact the environment and climate change.

Brexit, for example, will mean that the removal of a lot of environmental protect regulations. The green movement has had more influence in the EU parliament because the voting systems used to elect members mean that votes for greens aren’t wasted as they are under our first past the post system.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/02/european-parliament-election-green-parties-success

Brexit will also push us closer to the US who currently have a president who is removing every environmental protection he can find.

Doubts grow over UK environment protection post-Brexit www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50192337

YADNBU - I think about this a lot and I can’t fathom why some people care more about what trading bloc we are in than the actual planet we live on.

We have become a greedy, selfish, consumerist race and the fallout for a planet is devastating. But is it too late to turn back the clocks? All government leaders would need to work together and come up with some radical ideas to halt the climate crisis and in the current political climate I don’t see it happening. Leaders in the West are too obsessed with Brexit and businesses and capitalism. Leaders in a lot of developing countries see the immediate need of getting their people out of poverty as more important. It’s all very well a few middle class British people eating vegan a few times a week but any real change now needs to be top down and many people won’t like it. Severe restrictions on the meat industry = many job losses, the same as any consumerist industry. Stopping mass producing anything, even useless plastic tat, will have a knock on effect on the economy and nobody wants that.

Our world leaders need to be collaborative, creative and they need to give a damn and none of that is true right now.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/12/uk-accused-silently-eroding-eu-pesticide-rules-brexit-laws

But they are both linked, I think.

If we leave the EU there will be less 'bloc pressure' working on us to ensure we keep trying to reduce carbon emissions. My worry is that we leave and Twatchops Johnson and his band of merry millionaires will think they can rip up the rulebook and do what they like. I don't trust him not to make decisions based on what will make him richer rather than what's good for all of us....

Yanbu but we're not going to be in a position to do anything coherent about climate change until we're settled this bloody brexit mess once and for all.

We don't have time to sort out the shit show that is brexit. It is wasted time and energy
It should be scrapped so we can focus on the environment

But scrapping it would be a political process in itself.

It would be the quickest and most straightforward option

Vote Labour, 2nd referendum, cancel Brexit, go for the green New Deal. It's a pretty straightforwards road map and it's the only one that gives us a fighting chance.

Even if you think there is a 50% probability of Labour screwing up the economy, it's still a worthwhile risk. If you were diagnosed with terminal cancer, and there was a treatment that had a 50% chance of an unpleasant side effect, but it was the only treatment that could possibly save your life, would you not take it?

Erm, it’s a 100% probability of Labour screwing up the economy

Why not vote Green if the Environment is your top concern OP?

I live in a Labour Tory marginal. A vote for the Green party would effectively be a vote for the Conservatives, who have by far the worst record, and the lowest interest in environmental issues.

And even a 100% chance of messing up the economy (which is a ridiculous statement) is worth a shot at saving the entire population of the planet! Do people not realise that when experts say we are on course for 3.5 degrees rise by the end of the Century that this will mean a huge risk of world war? And that the graphs at this point will still be going up? And that 6 degrees rise effectively means small pockets of humanity living round the poles?

Do we really not think its worth taking a risk to give the human race a life span longer than 100 years? If you are below thirty, that means your grandchildren may be alive to witness the destruction of the human race. This is not a joke, this is happening and we need to do something NOW. There is a massive time lag on anything we do to solve this.

I would say that ultimately Climate Change is more important but that at this moment, [stopping] Brexit is more urgent.