To think that no one will give a shit about climate change when they're freezing this winter?

[Turnandfacethestrangechanges]

Just that really. When we have a choice of spanking out £650+ in January for gas and electric or slowly freezing, will people will be less sympathetic to 'green' measures?

Will net zero go out the window when we realise how bloody miserable it is to live without modern comforts and there is civil unrest as a result?

YABU - Don't be ridiculous, climate change is the most important issue
YANBU - How true, I predict a riot

Personally I would be happy for them to get the fires on and bugger net zero.

I think a majority of people do not give a shit about climate change. To really care, you would expect to see several indicators;

Not a passport holder.
Car used for maximum 3,000 miles per annum.
House at least partly run by renewable energy.
Holidays locally and uses public transport to get there.
Walks to the shops and buys refill container food and products.
Recycles equipment and furniture, rarely buying new.
Rarely on social media.

So the majority of people will put aside their veneer of caring over the winter, but that's all.

People won't sit in the cold due to climate change. They'll sit in the cold because they can't afford power!

People won't be willing to suffer a lower standard of living due to climate change. They all want "someone else" to save the planet, as long as it doesn't inconvenience them.

What has social media got to do with it?

I did read some of the comments around the 'heatwave' with bemusement because people moaning that our houses are built for heat and we need to look at designing them to cope with heat.

We are a predominately coldish country, although I live in the south and I wouldnt say we get 'cold',, the south is not the majority of the UK and our houses of course need to be built for cold, its what we have most of the year

Some people were claiming their flats or new builds were 'too insulated' but of course insulation works both ways, it can keep heat in but keep heat out too.

How've you settled on 3000 miles a year?

Sure, but what I'm saying is that the government decided to produce more energy for cheap home consumption and that these methods were not green, most people would support that.

Sending emails and surfing the web uses energy. A typical thread with a low few hundred replies creates 4-5kg of CO2. Then there is the cloud storage that threads from 1997 are stored on.

People underestimate the climate cost of emails, texts and cloud storage. Partly because they do not know. Emailing etc might seem quite clean but it is not.

Exactly - well insulated houses are great for cold and heat. I think the problem was lots of people opening windows and doors during the daytime heat and letting the heat inside!

Sending emails and surfing the web uses energy. A typical thread with a low few hundred replies creates 4-5kg of CO2. Then there is the cloud storage that threads from 1997 are stored on.

People underestimate the climate cost of emails, texts and cloud storage. Partly because they do not know. Emailing etc might seem quite clean but it is not.

Oh come on. That is a drop in the ocean.

Over 1/3 of the pollution on Earth is caused by just 20 global companies. People buying things with less packaging and surfing the net less is not going to be what changes things. It requires global Governments to take action against these companies.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions

I care and am paying higher energy bills for a 100% green provider. I am lucky that I can afford to but I would make this a priority even if it was tough.

Why? Because I like not having 40-50c temps as standard. I like not having my house burn down in a wildfire. I like not having kidney issues, heatstroke just from going outside. I like having our native plants and trees, birds and other wildlife as opposed to bare desert. I like eating food and drinking water. I like thinking we have a chance to survive.

What does being on social media have to do with climate change worries?

I fail on 3/7 myself, just wondering why social media is alleged to be climate-worries-hostile.

Does this mean Greta Thunberg is strongly in the "do not give a shit" camp?

Yep, and they are also built for central heating. I would imagine that the majority of houses no longer have open fires etc. They are built to run on gas and electricity, which is going to cost as much as a small mortgage each month this winter.

You care because you can afford to care. Most people can't.

And many of those companies ^^ are state owned...

Lots of info here
There are links to the underlying sources of data.

Guardian article on CO2 and emails

Still not making sense. I know people who send tonnes of emails but aren't on any social media.

Is phoning, writing letters or meeting in person better for protecting climate than sending emails and using ZOOM, now?

Why is no one mentioning crytpo-currencies for being climate-disasters.

Humans will survive, but adaption will be necessary in the same way it was millions of years ago. People migrate, grow different foods, hunt different foods.

Lots of other species wont survive and some will.

There are places in the world now which are uninhabitable due to the cold, they will open up and people will move there

Not in my lifetime but over thousands of years in the future.

There will be 40 degree heat, there already is in a number of places in the world and no one is looking to move away from there, parts of India for example have been inhabited with temperatures like that.

Over 1/3 of the pollution on Earth is caused by just 20 global companies. People buying things with less packaging and surfing the net less is not going to be what changes things. It requires global Governments to take action against these companies.

What do these companies sell? Who do they sell to? Why do they sell what they do?

Always start with the market - always.

Given that the current price crisis is entirely driven by fossil fuel prices, I find the positioning here really weird.

Renewables are by far the cheapest sources of electricity currently. And if you think European gas is going to return to cheap, abundant and reliable anytime soon, you're deluded.

Energy security and energy independence mean mass electrification and a huge increase in nukes and renewables.

What @TurquoisePterodactyl said, with bells on!!

People pay far more for renewable energy so something isnt right

Not a passport holder.
Car used for maximum 3,000 miles per annum.
House at least partly run by renewable energy.
Holidays locally and uses public transport to get there.
Walks to the shops and buys refill container food and products.
Recycles equipment and furniture, rarely buying new.
Rarely on social media.
Limit email use for all purposes to only what is necessary.
Limits, phones, post, etc for only what is necessary.
Does not engage in or support crypto mining.

For sure we can keep adding to it. Nobody has clean hands.

OP is right that climate change will not be a concern in midwinter.

I will have no sympathy on the cost of living however for any SUV driver or anyone in a large car, and none for those who cannot be bothered to walk journeys under a mile.

Green measures would reduce the cost of energy though. Energy costs are dictated by gas costs. If we want cheap (very cheap infact) energy we should move away from household dependence on gas (to electric heating and cooking) and move towards renewable energy sources

Generally ‘going green’ reduces costs for consumers in many aspects of life. Now ask yourself why we’ve been so slow to move towards it. It is entirely about profits for shareholders. The rich are getting rich at your expense and they’re happy for you to freeze and erroneously blame ‘green measures’ while they are rich (and warm)