To think most people are concerned about climate change... but

[hopewithoutpanic]

Don't know what they can personally do to make an impact?

We can see the fires, floods and impact climate change is having in both near and far places.

It has to be a concern, right? This is something that could make our planet dramatically different within our and our children's lifetimes.

Would I be correct in thinking the issue is that is individuals just don't know what (aside from recycling / trying to reduce meat etc) they can do to make a real difference?

Debatable? In what way?

The UK per capita emissions are on a par with China and 3x those of India.

I was wondering about the debatable part too

'per capita' is the key word.

67 million against a few billion polluters

I think there’s too many factors, it’s not one problem.
people don’t want to make sacrifices, and we’ve become used to the convenience of things that generate so much waste - and a lot of that is lifestyle. We are busy. Of course people rely a lot on plastic packaged convenience food and single use plastic bottles and the like. Persuading people to stop that when they’re out of the house 10-12 hours a day is unlikely.
Persuading people to do that when they see the super-rich with their private jets etc is unlikely.
Persuading people to save energy when massive companies are leaving their closed shops lit up all night, advertising lit up all over the place etc etc is unlikely.

we can see from the recent energy price hikes, with people buying jumpers and blankets and only heating one room, that people can make those sacrifices, but they seem to only be prepared to do it for their own sake, not for the planet. It needs to start with big business I think, and that will never happen.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/14/cop26-last-hope-survival-climate-civil-disobedience

That's a pretty naive nationalist agenda - see my post on discourses of delay.

I'm getting really fed up of this "I'm not doing anything till................. do" fill in the gaps according to your bias.

Who is "big business"? It's people like you and me, ordinary folk. And in my experience big business are spending billions on sustainability. I'll post this again
CDPs A-List

Just ignore the super rich, stop looking for excuses, it really really isn't that hard to make a meaningful change. There are 28 million households in the UK, if even half made some kind of change think of the impact that would have.

I'm going to post this again:

@Daftasabroom I agree with you. I’m not presenting it as a reason why I don’t do things, but why more people don’t do things.
Personally, I think everyone cutting back a bit can only help so I don’t agree with the idea of not doing anything as it won’t make any difference.
But people clearly are using super-rich /big business etc as a reason for them not to bother so something needs to happen there. But it won’t, because you’re asking them to regulate against themselves. People have made considerable efforts to reduce energy use since the cost-of-living crisis, the boards on here are full of talk about that, doing things that have been talked about for years in terms of climate change but most weren’t bothered about doing them before. So it is excuses or why-should-I-when-they’re-not, or a feeling of it all just being a bit futile, or they’re simply not bothered by it - all these things need addressing if things are going to change.
I also understand that there’s a lot being spent on sustainability but there’s also a lot of waste that could simply be cut but they’re not doing it - why not? High street shops could all be in darkness after hours. That doesn’t take investment into sustainability, or research, or regulation, they just need to flick a switch - so why don’t they?
The biggest change we as individuals can make is simply to stop buying all this stuff. But you’ll need a lot more people on board for it have an impact. That’s not a reason not to do it, in my opinion, but I can see why people feel it’s a bit futile.

@Daftasabroom "There are 28 million households in the UK, if even half made some kind of change think of the impact that would have."

I would guess that at least half of households have already made some sort of change, for example, reducing plastic usage or not buying as much "stuff" or taking as many flights and it really isn't making any difference at all.

Daftasabroom you can post as many diagrams as you like and shout until you are blue in the face

People will continue to say NO

NO when farmers are being threatened to get their land seized because they dare use fertilisers so that we can have food to be adequately nourished

NO when plant based food and electric vehicles are polluting more than the existing alternatives

NO when elites continue to fly, eat meat and pollute while the masses are being lectured

NO when we are forced to live within 15 minutes cities as if we were a herd of sheep in a pen

NO when whether is cyclycal, ever heard of the ice age?

It's all about control, and people are saying NO

Thousands of teenagers can come up with angry faces telling us what we should and shouldn't do. It will not make any difference

Why don't 'they' work on overpopulation which, if climate change were to be real, would be the true issue to address? Does anyone talk about that?

@Upwardtrajectory Generally I see big business doing huge amounts, and while there is a lot of waste, regulations are becoming increasingly stringent. Look up extended producer responsibility 85% of the material content of cars in the UK are required to recyclable. There is a whole raft of Environmental Legislation here.

I totally agree waste is just daft (and trust me I know a bit about daftness). High street shops and office blocks absolutely could turn off their lights - why don't employees become environmental champions? This is our planet, our children's future, every single one of needs to take some responsibility for that.

Yes it is, our CO2e emissions per capita have fallen from 11.74 t in 1975 to 5.15 t in 2021.

Our emissions have halved in the last fifty odd years I'd call that a pretty big difference.

I think people abstractly know what to do, but choose not to do it if it’s difficult / boring. Eg, not driving and taking more public transport is ENTIRELY possible for almost everyone, but it seems the whole MN “lives very rurally” (which I take is code for “can’t be arsed to walk to the corner shop”). We should be eating less meat, buying less fast fashion, flying less, and having fewer children. Most importantly we should VOTE for people who will invest in green energy, tax big corporations properly, and say sensible things in international meetings like Devos.

Unless you have peer reviewed evidence every single one of those is utter garbage.

Farmers are not being threatened with land seizure - prove it.

Electric vehicles on standard north European energy mixes overtake ICE vehicles at around 100,000 miles.

Forget the mega rich they are irrelevant.

You don't know much about sheep farming obviously.

You don't know the difference between weather, climate change, and global warming. The truly ironic thing from your post is that if current climate change were dependent on natural effects such as solar cycles etc the earth should be cooling. It isn't it's warming

Unpick this - if we get to net zero population size is irrelevant.

Have you actually watched any of the meetings? Most of their plans and commands are downright scary and they speak as if they owned the world and all of us are mere peasants who should comply.

Have they been elected? By whom?

Absolutely right.

Unpick this - if we get to net zero population size is irrelevant.

What's the point of having unlimited population numbers if we are not free, burdened with endless limitations and malnourished?

Who mentioned lack of freedom, burdensome limitations and malnourishment? Certainly not me.

If there were no cars on the road, I’d happily adapt but right now I can’t manage without one because the roads are unsafe (tight, windy, fast rural roads with no footpaths and visibility).

If plastic disappeared from the shops tomorrow I’d be delighted. But in a choice between the supermarket I can walk to, and the refill shop that’s a car drive away, which one is the better option?

I’m on several Facebook groups with a strong US base, and it’s demoralising reading all the suggestions for plastic tat instead of Halloween candy, plastic tat instead of valentines candy, plastic tat teacher gifts, plastic tat party favours.

Walking through the shops here, the green washing is demoralising. Ooh look fast fashion made from recycled bottles. Brown paper gift wrap in a protective plastic wrapper. Primark’s faux natural home decor range.

We do what we can, but without brave leadership and global awareness, how much impact can any individual have?

Not at all, they can see perfectly well that the problem is not solvable until we actually run out of fossil fuels, we can do all we like and grind ourselves into the dust but because china, India, Russia and usa mostly don't care we will never make a difference

Who mentioned lack of freedom, burdensome limitations and malnourishment? Certainly not me

This was said on the thread

We should be eating less meat, buying less fast fashion, flying less, and having fewer children

Forget the mega rich they are irrelevant

No, we absolutely should not forget about them. Why should we? We are not expendable peasants who should be bearing the brunt of all the effort. You wouldn't be saying this in any scenario.

I think the problem is not so much people don't know what action to take, they are just not willing to accept the drastic fall in their living standards that are required.

Radical, extreme action is required. No more flights at all. All food you eat is sourced locally and grown yourself where possible. No more private cars or bikes. No internet, no central heating. The ending of employment that exists for any other purpose than the basic sustaining of life.

And do you think it's a life worth living? Just because the world is overpopulated?

Those who are already here shouldn't have to suffer so that others can continue to reproduce, making the situation worse

No thanks! Would rather the earth burn!