If it’s that bad, why aren’t we panicking more??

[Nightgardenisodd]

Climate change.
I keep reading posts about it and it’s scaring the crap out of me for my DD’s future.
How bad is it? Anyone have any positivity about it?

[quote SlipperyDippery]@adeleh there’s an app called Klima where you pay a direct debit to invest in tree planting or solar power and stuff to offset your personal carbon footprint. I pay about £5 a month.[/quote]
I've just signed up to this, thank you for the suggestion.

The thing I find most depressing is that a lot of the solutions are out there in terms of land use/agriculture, transport, heating, building requirements, but our politics is just not stepping up to the challenge. In construction for instance we had a target for zero carbon houses by 2016 - subsequently dropped by the Conservatives as a target - so of course it's only a tiny fraction of the houses built today, whereas if it had been kept as a mandatory requirement, by now it would be all new builds.

Some positivity and ideas here:

www.drawdown.org/

If panicking could stop climate change I would keep panicking. Sometimes I do. I go through periods of campaigning on the issue as much as I can. But I can't solve it alone, and I can't stand to live my life focusing on constant fear, so other times I try to avoid thinking about it and just carry on with life. Even though I know intellectually how bad climate change is.

I wish there was a better solution.

And a lot of the solutions would mean a genuinely better quality of life for us all - e.g. pedestrianised town centres with lots of cycling and less air pollution (how much nicer does Paris look now following Hidalgo's changes?) - but again, we seem stuck.

We aren’t panicking because the responses that humans have evolved to danger are flight / fight / if you can’t do either, ignore and hope for the best.

Most people can’t fight or run from climate change, so we’re ignoring it. This instinct is normal but is a massive part of the problem. That said panic is rarely a helpful emotion.

I’d like to see stronger government on this. Less “what do the people want us to do” more “by the way you can’t have X anymore because it’s bad for the planet sorry it is now banned.” Unfortunately we don’t elect competents though.

Also, the government that most needs to lead on this is China and they’re too focused on their economy to lead on climate :(

My goodness this thread is depressing! Way to make probably a lot of people with poor mental health even worse.

I also follow many of the individual level actions listed here. Hardly ever buy new clothes, cycle everywhere, use the car once a week, recycle etc.

But none of that will make a spot of difference. So why worry? What’s going to be, is going to be. People considering not having kids due to this are crazy... refugees and populations at war still have children- and they’re in far more precarious situations. In history, human kind have faced worse threats at an individual level. They just got on with it.

Seems to me we’ve been really spoilt in the last 50 years. Work on your resilience and ‘make do and mend’ skills. But don’t waste any time worrying about this or freaking your poor children out.

The reality is you have no power in changing the course we are on, unless you’re one of the very few in a position to do anything that will make a difference.

Jeff Bezos is one of those people. And he’s pissing off into space

I feel so guilty, the floods in Germany, wildfires in Greece and Turkey. This isn’t normal and I feel so sad for all who have lost their lives, homes and family members.

Snow in May and June in England! It’s bizarre and happening at such a pace, there is not even a choice for the most to be more socially conscious. I would love to shop sound and buy organic, less packaging etc, but I am in a rat race - we all need to do better

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

I like many feel reluctant to change our personal lifestyles when you see India, China and Russia do what suits them- we’re fucked anyway

It’s hypocritical to have a go at those countries when the UK is also set to fail it’s climate goals.

www.carbonbrief.org/ccc-uk-will-miss-climate-goals-by-huge-margin-without-new-policies

its

Maybe being optimistic but the majority accepted curtailment of what they wanted to do due to clear and present danger of Covid. Sadly we need a similar hard line to deal with climate change. Problem is humans adapt and we love our warm houses steak and 3 foreign holidays a year. Some companies were testing flying like getting a bus. We can’t all carry on living like that though. Blaming “big corporations” and “government” is pathetic- who are the consumers and the voters? You can’t abdicate responsibility like that.

Jeff Bezos is one of those people. And he’s pissing off into space

Yup. If you want a bit of light relief, read Stark - written by Ben Elton in 1989. It tells the story of a small number of billionaires abandoning the Earth because it's dying due to their own greed.

Irony, huh?

It’s really pretty bad. I avoid watching anything or reading news about it. It’s just too depressing. Living in Australia through the recent fire emergency and heatwaves made it very fucking real for me.

I see friends having babies in the middle of a pandemic with climate change hanging over us and wondering how they can do it and bring a new person into this world. Then again maybe having children is their way of telling themselves everything is okay. A bit like me not wearing a mask unless I really have to because maybe Covid isn’t that bad (I have been vaccinated.)

@MsTSwift Good point about flying becoming like taking a bus. Remember 1p Ryanair flights? Also flying can still be cheaper that the train - which is mind boggling.

John Kerry, US climate secretary, is currently being rightly criticised for having his own private jet, which has taken 16 flights this year. It's why I am not mad keen on billionaires telling poor countries to sacrifice.

Human life will continue through all sorts of adversity. Until our natural environment stops sustaining us. Maybe by then we will have Mars and various artificial environments on Earth. In 200 years humans will have an entirely different reality anyway, due to AI.

Complete waste of time worrying about it. Faffing around with your recycling etc. won’t make any difference, just makes people feel useful. The U.K. could be wiped off the planet tomorrow and it wouldn’t change a thing. Until countries like China change their ways, it doesn’t matter what small countries do.

It also means stopping developing countries having what the West has enjoyed over the years, so that’s a pretty colonial attitude.

@PlanDeRaccordement

It’s not that bad. It’s been worse. Things have been improving for past sixty years or more. But humans always need something to doomsay about to whip up fear in the populace to back various political or social movements. Climate change is just the latest fad.

all driven by the globalists, follow the money

I am gravely concerned. So are most people I know.

But I think a lot of people are either burying their head in the sand or are just completely ignorant. I can't think of any other reason why some people still vastly over consume- huge cars, multiple far flung holidays, constant renovations etc.

@PlanDeRaccordement

It’s not that bad. It’s been worse. Things have been improving for past sixty years or more. But humans always need something to doomsay about to whip up fear in the populace to back various political or social movements. Climate change is just the latest fad.

Do you live on a different planet?

It does matter what we do though. To take one example, it matters that we burn our grouse moors and don't plant trees on our uplands because it leads to downstream flooding when we get the - now inevitable - more extreme rainfall.

@VariantL1130

I'm just not sure what good panicking will do.

I walk to the shops and to school.
I drive an electric car.
I recycle more than what is collected by the council by composting and taking other items to collection points.
I use reusable water bottles.
I use washable masks.
I buy second hand a lot.
I repair and mend if I can.
I wear an extra layer before putting the heating on and dry washing outside whenever I can instead of using the drier.
I am not veggie, but I have veggie meals regularly and only eat red meat once of twice a month.

But seriously, none of that will make any fucking difference to what is happening because the powers that be are making too much money polluting the planet to ever stop.

So what's the point in panicking, or indeed doing anything at all? We are utterly helpless against the oncoming tide.

We do all this too pretty much.

I do remember growing up in the 80s and all the doomsday talk then, especially re deforestation (specifically caused by McDonald's chopping down the Amazon at a rate of 5 football pitches per day).

I think we all need to do what we can but totally agree that panic achieves nothing, so want to live our best lives possible.

I also agree that the planet naturally recalibrated, so sadly we do have pandemics, tsunamis, horrendous fires etc. Humans can and do adapt and will continue forward (just likely not so many of us).

@Guineapigbridge yes you’re right there. AI will change humankind in ways we cannot even imagine. Technological change will speed up at an incredibly rapid pace from now on. The future is so impossible to predict, at any level we have NO control over what happens. It’s just not worth thinking about the future. Live in the present.

We are little people temporarily occupying our small piece of this planet. Covid has shown us we have no control in the event of a major shock. We will just have to adapt and get on with the new reality.

Personally I am thinking about climate change adaptation. So when I replace my external doors I will purchase flood doors and also get all the holes in the masonry sealed. I had these doors in my old house and they weren’t mega expensive and operated like standard doors except had a really strong flood-proof locking mechanism.

I’m not panicking because I have no control over it. I HAVE to drive to work. It’s not within my power to change that. It requires governments or companies to either manufacture environmentally friendly cars, or change the economy so my job can be done from home. When I buy stuff I can only choose an environmentally friendly option if manufacturers have produced one - again out of my control. You try buying a non-plastic recyclable tv - it doesn’t exist. I HAVE to eat, and I can only choose from the options in my local supermarket, even if they’re not locally produced and have been flown in from other countries. I see lots of terrible things in the news but personally I can do fuck all about them. Addressing climate change requires action from the top, from governments and big corporations, because consumers and citizens have little to no power.

I was on a date with a climate change scientist this week. Based on what he was telling me, we really are well and truly fucked.
I never managed to have children due to infertility, something that devastated me at the time but that I am now actually glad for.
Knowing what lies ahead, I don’t really understand why anyone is choosing to bring more children into this bin fire of a situation