To think that cars are the biggest cause of climate change?

[malificent7]

I didn't learn to drive till I was 30 as I was concerned about the effects of cars on global warming. Everyone thought I was mad...however now that climate change is a hot topic i wonder how many people still feel that driving isn't damaging to the planet?
Then there are the car accidents, roads are an eyesore.
I mean I drive as I live in the country but I kind of hate it too.

I’ll stop driving my car when the rich stop flying around the world on a whim. Us peasants can’t be held accountable for the damage caused by the elite.

It's well known that transport is one of the biggest causes of climate change. That cannot be disputed. I also only recently got a car, when I had kids and moved to a region with limited public transport. People, especially better-off people, always have excuses about why they shouldn't do anything. However you may find these of interest.

ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-worlds-richest-people-also-emit-the-most-carbon
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51906530 "The rich are primarily to blame for the global climate crisis, a study by the University of Leeds of 86 countries claims.
The wealthiest tenth of people consume about 20 times more energy overall than the bottom ten, wherever they live.
The gulf is greatest in transport, where the top tenth gobble 187 times more fuel than the poorest tenth, the research says.
That’s because people on the lowest incomes can rarely afford to drive."

@PickUpAPepper That may be true but there is still the 8/10ths, the vast majority and we consume, fly and drive.

But unfortunately, as post after post shows, its always someone else's fault, no one, from Johnson down, is willing to change, as we all saw at the G7 meeting and if he can't limit the number of children he has, why should anyone else change their lifestyles?

Too true I fear. It's worth emphasising that the impacts are already here. Not to be feared in a hundred years, or even 50, but now. news.sky.com/story/climate-change-the-people-forced-from-their-homes-by-floods-wildfires-storms-and-sea-level-rise-12355533

@Frazzled2207 people need to stop driving their cars for pathetically short distances

Yes I agree, but people also need to stop flying for short breaks, especially weekend stag/hen nights in European cities. There's just no need for the pollution that causes.

[quote Badbadbunny]**@Frazzled2207* people need to stop driving their cars for pathetically short distances*

Yes I agree, but people also need to stop flying for short breaks, especially weekend stag/hen nights in European cities. There's just no need for the pollution that causes.[/quote]
I am pretty sure lots of that places would happily support this 🙈

Not sarcasm!

@PickUpAPepper It's well known that transport is one of the biggest causes of climate change. That cannot be disputed.

Yes, that's true. But "transport" includes public transport, lorries, coaches, ferries, container ships, etc - it's not just cars and planes. Car journeys are probably a very small proportion of "transport" as a whole.

[quote Badbadbunny]**@PickUpAPepper* It's well known that transport is one of the biggest causes of climate change. That cannot be disputed.*

Yes, that's true. But "transport" includes public transport, lorries, coaches, ferries, container ships, etc - it's not just cars and planes. Car journeys are probably a very small proportion of "transport" as a whole.[/quote]
"probably"?? You haven't checked that excuse then? Let's try now.

www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20190313STO31218/co2-emissions-from-cars-facts-and-figures-infographics
Gist - Cars cause 60.7% of transport pollution.

ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-transport
45.1% caused by cars and buses.

It was very quick to find those figures. Maybe I should start printing out some of the stories of those millions displaced by climate change and leaving them on the chelsea tractors.

Do those figures for cars include taxis?

Population growth is a massive contributor. The earth cannot sustain all these people.

If anyone's good with and has the time for ONS datasets, there are relevant ones at www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/ukenvironmentalaccounts/latest#greenhouse-gas-emissions
and
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/roadtransportandairemissions/2019-09-16

I'm being called away but these leap out ' "Households and the energy, manufacturing and transport sectors accounted for 72% of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2019." from the first link

and "In 2017, 89% of all petrol and 40% of all diesel use for road transport in the UK came from households. A larger proportion of all diesel use for road transport comes from industry due to its use of heavy goods vehicles almost entirely fuelled by diesel." from the second

50% of car journeys are under 3 miles and 75% under 5 miles

it pollutes and causes premature death along with causing climate change

but it doesn't apply to any individual car driver as its not there fault - its everyone else.

cars should come with a sign, its not for every trip

@malificent7

I didn't learn to drive till I was 30 as I was concerned about the effects of cars on global warming. Everyone thought I was mad...however now that climate change is a hot topic i wonder how many people still feel that driving isn't damaging to the planet? Then there are the car accidents, roads are an eyesore. I mean I drive as I live in the country but I kind of hate it too.

Driving does damage the climate but it isn't the biggest cause of damage to the climate. Plastic is the biggest cause

@duckyla

I don't understand the not learning till you were 30 thing, what did you do before to get around?

I didn't start Dr diving until I was 43, before that I walked, cycled or used the bus

Nope it’s not cars, it’s meat, and beef in particular. The best thing you can do for the environment is stop eating meat. (I not lecturing you, I’m a meat eater, but I read something on it the other day)

Cars, planes, heating homes and all that hot water you use, possibly meat eating but surely that's a relatively recent issue, the huge American and S American cattle parlours would only have really taken off when you could get the meat to markets via planes or trains.
Huge global population, everyone living longer thanks to medicine. People wearing t shirts in winter cos heating is up so high. China has a huge population so bound to be producing more- it's -16C in Beijing in winter should they turn the power stations off and let everyone freeze? You would need much more time if you walked or cycled instead of driving.
I spose they could tax oil to raise its cost so people are forced to cut car use. Tax people with big houses? Tax flights more. Tax people per flight, increase tax with each extra flight per year. Problem is the rich will be much less affected.

Its basically the sheer number of people on the planet.

If we replaced all rich people with poor people we wouldn't have a problem

@midgemagneto

If we replaced all rich people with poor people we wouldn't have a problem

Yeah but we’d be miserable. Life is so much better post industrialisation, it’s not even close.

If we replaced all rich people with poor people we wouldn't have a problem.
The rich would be rich again in a year whereas the poor would have a huge dent in the money they've had, with tons of unnecessary online shopping.
Not my personal thoughts tony robbins
As an experienced poor person it is the truth.

I do love a diagram. (While it says 2016, it was produced in 2020 and it’s the most exact numbers we have as of now; takes a while for exact numbers to trickle down in every industry). So people saying “it’s cars,” “I think it’s deforestation?”, “it’s cows farting,” (I did appreciate that one), here are your answers.

All road transport (not just cars but every vehicle: buses, lorries which are huge polluters and heavy travelers): 11.9%
Cows farting (they called it livestock and manure): 5.8%
Deforestation: 2.2%
And so on.
It includes just about every industry you can think of that contributes, from aviation to cement to crops burning.

AND THE BIGGEST CONTRIBUTOR?
Energy use in industry*: 24.2%

So. It’s not driving. It’s driving to the store, buying things, and the industry that makes those things.

*includes industries of iron and steel, chemical and petrochemical, other metals (probably producing the stuff in cell phones), and “other industry,” which would include things like the factories that make fast fashion or plastics

RightYesButNo But you haven’t including manufacturing of the vehicles, only the literal transportation- so I dispute your figures. If you don’t manufacture the vehicles 🚗 then you’d have a 0% for transportation as they wouldn’t exist

Manufacturing of the vehicles is included in energy used in industry- like manufacture of gas boilers etc

Still no split of road transport between domestic cars, taxis, buses, delivery vans, lorries, etc then.

And even if there were fewer domestic car journeys, there'd be more taxi journeys, more buses needed, etc., so you're just replacing one type of vehicle transport with another.