To ask if the red weather warning will now make you take climate change seriously?

[YetiTeri]

Now you know what impact this heat will have (schools closing, travel chaos, threat to life) will it make you take climate change more seriously?

Eat them?

Well okkkkkaaaay then, teensy bit unreasonable but I can get with the premise if not the eating part.

Shein is the epitome of fast fashion. If you can buy a t shirt for £2, how much has the person who made that t shirt been paid? What about the person who made the fabric? The person who grew the cotton? The retailer can sell that t shirt for £2 and still make a profit. How?

The fashion industry is the second most polluting after the oil industry. It takes 8000 litres of water to make ONE pair of jeans. That water will be then so contaminated by chemicals it's no good for anything else. Cheap clothes are poorly made (by pretty much slave labour) to be worn a couple of times before they're out of fashion, and suddenly there is a new trend out that is the new must have item. Pretty much all fashion retailers, even traditional high street retailers encourage people to buy tens of items at a time which are then returned if they don't fit etc.

Most clothing that gets returned to retailers is dumped in landfill, because it's not cost effective to resell it.

@DenholmElliot1 yes I agree and HS2 is going to be a massive white elephant doing untold damage to the environment. That money could have been so much better spent on local transport infrastructure. It might have made sense when it was originally proposed but technology has overtaken it in the time it taken to get kicked off.

Something else that bothers me is that when it's winter, if someone should [rightly or wrongly] point out that it's minus 10 outside, it's blizzarding, pipes are bursting and people are dying from hypothermia and so on. So how does that square up with global warming? Warmists come back with: the weather outside is irrelevant. It's about changing patterns of temperatures over measured periods of time'. Yet now it's summer and we get a few days of very hot weather, the news media, alarmists and bandwagon jumping slebs start proclaiming that armageddon is upon us.

So which is it?

I've read all kinds of opinions, studies, theories, seen all kinds of charts and analysis on the matter of climate change, in the pursuit of finding out in particular what the man made part of it is.

I'm still unconvinced either way and probably more confused than ever.

I think it’s going to be very hard to drive down consumption

It’s easy to say it’s terrible on SM for example (not directed to you op just generally) but harder to cut holidays and driving etc

Spot on!

Cynically though I feel that there’s more than a little connection between various big players within the “green” agenda and the “transgender “ movement. Lots of people making money from both.

no media scaremongering is not going to make me think any differently OP but you do you!

I have taken it seriously for years. But I won't change any of my habits going forward.

Until governments, industry, and the fawning over celebs who fly in private jets, summer on yachts etc stop what they are doing, it is pointless.

I have reached the pathetic point of resenting paper straw enforcement.

I don't fucking care anymore and won't be preached to either.

@Bubblebubblebah We can’t eat them; Op wants us all to go plant based.

To answer the OPs question; no.

@Sugerfree China and India are not going to exponentially increase their use of fossil fuels, what on earth led you to believe that? Also the Indian pc CO2e is than the UK..

I took it seriously before. But it's made me far more aware of the potential impact of higher temperatures

You suggest you are addressing people who don't take it seriously. I think a lot of people do these days. However, I also remember heat waves live this in the 80s. We have to keep things in perspective. Clearly burning non-renewable resources is a bad idea. The work being done to change that has brought about some phenomenal innovations in recent years and a non-fossil fuel future is beginning to feel possible. Equally, the Green Levy is not a good example of a policy to tackle climate change. It is just another tax at a time when people are struggling to pay bills.

Tell me you’re privileged, without telling me.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in a cost of living crisis. Some of us can only afford ‘cheap/fast fashion’. Sometimes, individuals have to prioritise the ‘here and now’ over the bigger picture.

No.

You beat me to it! Absolutely spot on.

We can all take it seriously (and many of us already do) but unless most governments do - and forever - we're fucked.

Yes. Unfortunately, what we do on this small island will make no difference at all. The U.K. could sink into the ocean and it would change nothing. China, India and the USA are the biggest polluters, and Africa has the highest birth rate.

This in spades.

My impact on the climate is very minimal - I don't fly, don't have kids, drive as little as possible, limit food waste and so on.

It's the corporations that are the problem. Individuals' impact is miniscule compared to them.

The UK government seems far more aware than many other countries which are the major contributirs to global warning. Unless all countries make an equal effort, worldwide, it really is pointless trying to control pur relatively small contribution.

You blame “the corporations” they don’t exist in a vacuum - who do you think their customers are?!

I have taken it seriously for years along with over population. Me and DH chose not to have children for those reasons and we are both so glad we made that decision.

I could not live with the worry or guilt if I had brought yet more humans into the world. I dread to think about the future for them and, selfishly, am glad I will almost certainly be dead before things get much worse

50yrs is not long enough to measure climate change, that’s merely recent changes in weather. Besides, it was a degree warmer in Britain than it is now 700yrs ago (medieval) and also 2,000yrs ago (Roman). So if medieval peasants and Romans could survive it, think we can safely not panic.

What all countries need to do is support more local food production, more focus on real food rather than factory processed nonsense.
How many polluting and carbon producing factories do we have creating crap food including all the ultra processed plant based 'meat'?
Develop greener energy.
Use cars and planes less (and that includes all the rich people travelling everywhere in their private jets and big cars)
Produce more environmentally friendly products including clothes.
Plant more trees and plants.

By seriously what do you mean? Will it make me do anything differently? I don’t think my carbon footprint is particularly big to start with. Will it keep me up at night worrying? No. I’ve accepted we’re fucked. If a virus doesn’t get us first.

Utter bullshit. You can get cheap better quality clothes in charity shops.

@YetiTeri

• Vote for politicians that have climate change at the core of their policies.

Buy seasonal and local.

Use trains rather than plane/cars

Stop buying disposable fashion (Shein...)

Switch to a plant based diet even in part.

Don't post vacuous posts saying it was hot when you were young when the point is these days are no longer anomalies.

That stuff. But mostly the first.*

Whilst we might well be facing emergency stages with the environment as a whole , I really think the issue here is that voting on a single issue is not a sensible option given the range of challenges we currently face.
Policies from the Green Party etc don't sufficiently extend to these challenges any way enough to win enough voting power.
Whilst many of your points might be great I think they overlook what many here are most concerned about regarding our potential costs of living and just general inability to "afford life" right now.
People relying on food banks won't be adopting vegan diets (I don't really agree with you on this one but that's another thread). And some folks are just eat meat out of preference/need, neither are "wrong".
Train journeys versus planes are not feasible for many who are time poor and not blessed with affordable/reliable options.
Buying "seasonal and local" may feel virtuous but in real terms in no way guarantees better impacts upon the environment... it's also ridiculously often more expensive, especially for food.
"Disposable fashion"/(SHEIN is really no better or worse than many UK retailers when you research their ethics. ) None of these are especially palatable but again sustainable fashion comes at a huge cost.
We need to find and develop ways of making our daily living, consumables and habits far more considered of course. The fact is these retailers exist because they meet a growing demand-until affordable alternatives exist it's a tall order for the majority to make ethical choices.
Dictating to people on threads like this and ridiculing the comments others have taken the time to post is, if you don't mind me saying unhelpful to your cause. It's this type of tone which puts people ill at ease with the very point you're trying to get them on board with. If somebody here remembers living through hot summers why on earth is it vacuous to say so? Any positive discussion and change ones from drawing comparisons, identifying what shared factors exist and looking at different impacts. The important thing is that somebody is prepared to gauge in thought here, belittling them is rude and unhelpful. Sadly this is the case on so many forums where some clearly show such blinkered and closed thinking.

I live in the North West of England. I very rarely experience heat. But I can read and watch the news and what happening in the world. I don't need to have my finger chopped off to know it would hurt.

I do the best I can and whatever I can. I follow as much of the advice as practicable. But I fear it's a losing battle. In the west we've had years of being profligate over heating, and travelling, and using energy and polluting how we liked. We now recognise that was a mistake. But developing countries are now wanting to have the same opportunities. Its seems totally unfair and hypocritical to deny them the way of life that we've been having for years. And they're not going to listen anyway. So really, I'm happy to do all I can but I doubt the small efforts we make will counteract what's happening in the rest of the world.