People more concerned about doing their washing quickly than the environment.

[Starryskiesinthesky]

AIBU to think it is totally depressing that people arent willing to make even small changes to try and stop the environmental crisis that is here. For example, not wanting to use an eco programme on machines because it takes longer, not prepared to dry clothes outside rather than use a dryer, driving everywhere rather than walking. If people who could, made small changes, it would all add up and we might be able to halt some of the damage we are doing to the environment and childrens futures.

There's a really good book called 'Atomic Habits'

jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

about his tiny changes can yield immense results.

I think that message applies here.

Even though as an individual, you can't fix the big stuff that is down to other nations or industries, but you can make a 1% change to your habits, and those added up will make a difference

I couldn't agree more! I do all these things & more, but I 'm always amazed when I see people, just sticking recycling in the rubbish bin, because they cant be bothered to spend an extra minute or so sorting. I have neighbours who regularly drop their kids to school (15 min walk away) because 'their kids couldn't get up early enough to walk'

I use my tumbler dryer once a week for towels only. Everything else either goes outside if its dry on on the airer & I just wait for it to dry. If something is really urgent, I'll pop it on the radiator in the winter, or in the airing cupboard. Sadly I think we have become a society of not waiting for anything & having instant gratification.

Its like people who upgrade their mobile phone/tablet etc...every year...needlessly & not having any thought that their old tech is very likely to end up in landfill.

Sadly I don't think thing things will change. I will continue to do everything I do as I want to set a good example to my child and I want to leave this world knowing I did everything I reasonable could.

There are so many small things we can all do, I take all my old carrier bags/crisps packets etc.. to Sainsburys to be recycled, they take used make up containers also. (I believe Tesco's does the same) I take them when I'm going anyway so I'm not using any unnecessary fuel. I take used pens that have run out to my local stationary shop (Rymans) where they are recycled. I use re-usable sanitary products. These are all really simple things anyone can do, just with a little thought.

@Cosyblankets

When we all have to switch over to electric cars, where is the electricity going to come from? How are we going to generate all that? Where are the charging points going to be for terraced houses with no parking? Who is going to pay for all that?

I'd worry more about where all the lithium for the batteries is going to come from. There isn't enough (able to be extracted) lithium on the whole planet to replace all vehicles with battery electric - even if there wasn't a growing demand for batteries to power everything else.

Hydrogen is the future - for both powering vehicles and for storing the energy produced by renewables.

@grasstreeleaf

If people stop having children, the need to protect the planet goes away.

Erm and the human race dies out....

It's never going to die out but we don't need as many of us. We need half as many to have any chance of this planet continuing. Bearing children is an inherently selfish act and just creates more and more consumers that have a detrimental impact on the planet. We need more people to have much fewer of them and reward them for not churning out more consumers rather than the other way around.

@Starryskiesinthesky

Oh sorry, I posted then went to work and was in a meeting until now.

I have to say I know I’m not perfect but I do try and I feel guilt about the things I don’t do. Every time I buy something in a polybag or buy a snack in plastic bowl I notice it and I agree it takes governments and organisations to make changes. I have a car, I have children, pre-Covid I even went on holiday by plane so I am bad that way but I do still try to do what I can. Today I walked to work when I could have driven but I know it is hard if you have to make multiple journeys. But if we had a Will public transport would be better and then we could use it.

But I do still think we can make small changes and we can support govts who want to tackle the environmental crisis.

The thing that depressed me about the washing machines was just all the folk who said I don’t care I want my washing done ASAP and so to hell with the environment.

Your kids are way more environmentally unfriendly than my washing machine

@sst1234

Hey if you want to lecture, go ahead and lecture yourself. Before you do though, consider that UK accounts for less than 1% of global carbon emissions. Perhaps lecture the Chinese or American if you want actual results. If not, then you just want to virtue signal.

It would be nice to live in a country without litter all over the streets and breathable air. The U.K. aren’t exactly Saints when it comes to progressive environmentalism. I really don’t understand why people are willing to die early from respiratory diseases or heart failure for the sake of a Daily Mail sound bite! Or alternatively living with dementia caused by partical pollution entering your brain because you lived on a main road. Green technology by the way is going to drive the economies of the future (in the same way that IT science and financial services have driven the economy over the past twenty years) and if we don’t get on board we will miss out financially too!

@xprincessxjanetx

I am currently pregnant with baby number 6. I have about 2-4 loads of washing per day depending on bedding changes, towels etc so if I did long washes on everything and hung them out to dry then I would never stop doing washing.

FFS.

Bearing children is an inherently selfish act and just creates more and more consumers that have a detrimental impact on the planet. We need more people to have much fewer of them and reward them for not churning out more consumers rather than the other way around

Who should have children then?

If humans are bad for the planet surely the sooner we end their demise the better for the good of the planet and other animals. Ergo conduct the opposite of that advised is probably better.

I was thinking about this the other day when the topic came up before re eco settings on washing machines. My eco setting take about 4 hours. I am not in my home and conscious for a 4 hour stint. And you shouldn’t put the machine on to run when you are asleep or not at home. So when would the washing happen? Do I need to give up work to enable longer wash times? Not going to happen.

Instead I have reduced how often I wash things like bedding and some clothes. Another hot topic on MN. I now wash bedding every 2 to 3 weeks. Saves water, detergent and time. It’s a brilliant solution.

I change my bed once a fortnight ish and reuse the same towel 3 times (ish) it gets hung over the bannister to dry between washes.

There’s different things you can do.

I run mine most washes on 30C for an hour. I can't see how running it for four hours would be better.

One It is not a crisis, or an emergency. It is a nuisance.
Two We have made great strides over the past 25 years to improve efficiency and so reduce energy use.
Someone wrote about the more mpg from modern car engines which also reduce pollution.
Stop frightening yourself and other people.

This thread does illustrate why we are basically screwed though.

Everyone has a reason for waste and why they can't possibly make changes. Everyone expects someone or something else to make the change, beit science, government, business whatever.

The fact is, we are in this mess because of the gradual cumulative impact of everyones actions and the only way we are going to mitigate further issues is for everyone to make a change in terms of attitudes and expectations.

And that is why the planet and humanity as it is today is totally fucked.

^I change my bed once a fortnight ish and reuse the same towel 3 times (ish) it gets hung over the bannister to dry between washes.

There’s different things you can do^

I don't change bed linen or towels on any particular schedule and just do it when I notice they are dirty, so the bed linen is certainly on for longer than two weeks.

There are different things you can do.

I wasn't being negative it was a genuine question. I don't have solar panels. I can't afford them. How much does it cost to have a charging point fitted? We are a two car family so I'm not sure if one would suffice. My friend lives in a house with no parking and where she has to park is not near a lamp post and there isn't enough room on the pavement because it's narrow there wouldn't be enough room for a wheel chair or a pram to pass. Another friend lives in a flat with allocated parking across a big main road in an area without lighting. How would they charge their car?
None of these are negative comments? They're practical questions. This kind of thing needs to be in place before people are forced to buy electric cars

@Cosyblankets , we factored the charger in with the total cost of the car which was so much cheaper to run than our previous second hand cars we were saving money. I'm not saying everyone would find out it works out cheaper for them, you have to do a use case for each purchase but for many people it does work out cheaper. I'm pleased you weren't being negative, but as an electric car owning family we get a bit tired of the hostile attitude many people have towards electric car ownership. It's hard to discern sometimes whether people are asking genuine questions out of interest or whether they are just blustering off the back of a fear mongering article from The Daily Fail.

AgathaX Fri 01-Oct-21 08:11:11Is that you Meghan?

lol

I suppose we all make choices.

My good ones:

• No children
• Eco settings on washer, dishwasher etc.
• Dry outside where possible
• Don't wash clothes until they need it so I usually do one load a week on average which also covers bedding and towels
• Recycle
• Mindful of utilities and keep heating low
• Garden has hedges, pond and wildflowers with wildlife feeders and habitats
• Have a lodger to increase housinh capacity (and help with bills obvs)
• Buy mostly second hand clothes and furniture

My bad ones:

• Own a petrol car
• Eat meat and dairy most days
• Have two cats
• Have holidayed abroad although rarely and use Eurostar where possible
• Own a fair few fancy electronics

Not sure how 'virtuous' that makes me by OPs standards.

And no one is forcing anyone to buy electric cars.

Deciding who does and doesn’t have children is a very sinister form of eugenics. The whole children argument seems to be used by people who don’t want to tackle the bigger issues like economic policy and global poverty. There would be much lower populations in places like India and China had they had similar quality of living standards as us over the past century. Some places it is a case of having five children in the hope that one survives into adulthood. In China for example, now that living standards have improved to an extent, people are sticking to one child despite being encouraged to have more.

@HarebrightCedarmoon

Bearing children is an inherently selfish act and just creates more and more consumers that have a detrimental impact on the planet. We need more people to have much fewer of them and reward them for not churning out more consumers rather than the other way around

Who should have children then?

I don't know. Who cares? Very few people realise that the planet is seriously overpopulated and pointed remarks by some people about reusable coffee cups and eco cycles on washing machines when they have produced 3 more consumers (and all clad in disposable nappies for 3 years each) is frankly hypocritical.

I'm still of the opinion that each adult human gets a x tonnes of carbon allowance per year. Have a kid and you've used up 5 years worth in one go so no flights, limited energy use, limited car use in that time while the child free get airplane travel, car use etc.

Perhaps you could save some elecricity by not logging in to lecture people?

So much hostility and "stfu" on this thread ... it makes me think that maybe what we need is a change in the way we think about the issue. So that altering our habitual way of life comes to be seen not as a big sacrifice, but as a positive thing.

Like the way they try to shift people's thinking when they're trying to quit smoking, so that skipping a fag break is not "oh poor me I've lost out on a smoke", but "well done me I've boosted my own health by doing that - I've benefited".

How would it be if, every time someone considered a holiday abroad and then decided to take the train to a local holiday destination instead, they didn't see it as a sacrifice, but as something positive? Like you've banked some money in your Earth-health-deposit account?

And of course people can use their tumble-dryers when they need to, and they shouldn't beat themselves up about it ... but if there does happen to be a hot day and you can line-dry, give yourself a thumbs up?

@Feelslikealot

The media are doing a great job of making the little people think that if they recycle more, we can solve global warming. We can't. We need serious and drastic change at the top across the whole planet and that's never going to happen. Too many men in charge destroying the planet so they can hoard money.

More importantly, too many countries that don't care one fig and any reductions we make are totally irrelevant until they come on board. Maybe that Scandanavian child needs to go there and lecture them.

@sst1234 my thoughts exactly