This isn't our heat wave, but the next one could be

[orangeleavesinautumn]

Or if we mess up the jet stream, arctic winters.

We have really messed up horrifically, haven't we.

I am scared its too late to put right

I was listening to the news, the subject was smart motorways. A government spokesperson said that there are more and more cars on the road, the government has to do something, and smart motorways are the way to deal with that.

It got me thinking. Are there more and more cars on the road? It certainly seems so. Shouldn't the government have been aiming at reducing the number of cars on the road year on year. Then we wouldn't need smart motorways. Also there would be less particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide which are killing kiddies. Less noise, fewer deaths and most importantly less carbon dioxide to warm our atmosphere.

We were told instead that all cars will be electric sometime in the future. Now the Daily Mail is saying we shouldn't and indeed can't be doing that.

There are many things we should be doing anyway, even without global warming. Wind turbines and solar panels make us less dependent on the Middle-East or Russia.

@SuePine69

That's the classic line of weak thinking, isn't it?
"We must do something, this is something, therefore we must do this"

Smart motorways were a dreadful policy that has cost lives.

What we actually need is fewer cars and better public transport. And more flexible working patterns and support for WFH, to reduce the size and spread the timing of peak traffic flows. Yes, that takes money time and effort, and the results won't show immediately. But it's the way to fix things properly, not just patch them.

In the ten years I've been living where I live now, the cars have got out of control. Three cars minimum per house, sometimes more, even if there's only one or two adults. There are no garages or drives. The whole village has got like that - it's one big car park. Even down here in Cornwall in the winter, it's very busy on the roads. Yet the solution seems to be dualling everything.

I understand that part of the problem is that kids can't afford to leave home but they need/,want a car when they grow up. This seems to happen as soon as they learn to drive though: they get their own car. I didn't own my own car until I was 25 and I needed one to get to a job 15 miles away.

Centralising everything contributes hugely to the problem. Health services, for example - rather than small hospitals, services are concentrated into a regional hospital serving almost the whole country. You have to travel to everything. Yet when five minute cities are talked about, people squeal in horror about the curtailment of their freedom.

Our local council have a net zero pledge plastered all over their internet page.

The same council approved 34 houses to be built on fallow land, which happened to be an AONB up until 12 months ago, when it was declasified.

There were hedgerows destroyed, and a tragic picture of badgers looking for their destroyed homes.

All the procdures were correctly followed (and no brown envelopes)......

My point is, no matter what we do, the social posturing of our government and local councils, means nothing, without action.

and more affordable public transport.

To visit family in London it costs me about £60 return in diesel.

The same trip on a train would be pushing £500.

We need financial incentives to change our behaviours, as much as I want to do the right thing, I physically can't afford to.

Did you go to any of the planning meetings? Did you stand for election? Did you give feedback for the local plan?

Yes, No, Yes.

Local outpouring of objections, letters to MP's, meetings with planning. All futile as it was a done deal.

@Keykat
Yes completely agree, inaction is shocking, but just wanted to point one little thing out. Gov did try to introduce tax on ebikes from China. Do you know what happened? They went to set up a fake business in Poland, and starting routing it all from there into UK as Polish goods. Very hard to trace and fight the fraud.

Fair dos.

Presumably the local plan incorporates new build zones and limits, I know our does.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea Very different to my experience. The generation that raised Boomers were very frugal but all the Boomers I know certainly aren't! They are much wealthier than the following generations will ever be and they naturally like to shop and go on holidays as a result. I imagine that by 75-80 most older people feel more nervous to travel very far - so there's that. I stand by what I said, with the younger generations getting smaller and smaller, we simply won't be able to support the older generations as well going forward. A potent version of Covid could mean that the remaining people from the older generations could receive a decent level of care and support. It's cold but true.

We obviously aren't going to agree though, so I'm just going to leave you rofl. Good day! 😅

I stand by what I said, with the younger generations getting smaller and smaller, we simply won't be able to support the older generations as well going forward. A potent version of Covid could mean that the remaining people from the older generations could receive a decent level of care and support. It's cold but true.

I don't know how true that is. As the proportion of elderly people increases versus working adults pensioners will have more of a say when it comes to elections for instance. Governments will have to implement policies that help older people at the expense of workers if they want to keep power. This already happens to an extent, that's why pensions are triple-locked and so on - politicians can rely on people voting for things that benefit them at the expense of others.

In a few decades the tax burden will be much higher and working age people will have to pay much more so that older people can live in relative comfort.

I thought the issue with over population wasn’t people having kids, in fact I thought this continued to be in decline. I thought it was people living far too long that was the issue and keeping population numbers up? So how do we address that then?

Well obviously you can't really. Other than just not giving healthcare after a certain point but no one will ever be the one to say what that point is.
Eventually however the problem of too many older people will correct itself naturally. But then you get people saying we need more young people to look after the old people so they need everyone to be having more kids again. Unfortunately I think realistically we're going to need to go through some awful times in the coming decades with older care being problematic from that respect. But we really can't keep having more and more children in order to support them as it'll just be one big endless pyramid scheme. Population control needs to be dealt with more urgently than caring for older people. (I am aware I will likely BE one of those older people in a few decades)
I think people need to decide what is more important. The planet (and the young and their futures) or the older people and their care.

@PaperSheet i absolutely agree but I do think conversations will start to be had very soon (I work in nursing) and the effects are being felt already in my rural area of Scotland where the retired an elderly population totally outstrips the younger generation we have people waiting 18 months for care packages which the nurses are currently plugging the gaps it’s not sustainable so I think conversations will soon be had on what the NHS will continue to treat etc

Councils talk about climate change and then keep chopping down trees and hedgerows.
personally I feel that the decimation of the Amazon is the biggest threat but nobody talks about that anymore

greek I've complained about hedge cutting in nesting season to our council but they just give me a waffly excuse about it being maintenance and they did a visual check for birds. It does my head in they're allowed to get away with it.

Not just the Amazon but the thawing of Perma Frost, these store billions of tonnes of CO2, all released into the atmosphere.

@megletthesecond Yes the EA mowed a series of hedges on one their wetlands/flood prevention schemes in May, no explanation given, destroyed many nesting birds, our council is very good though, rarely use a hedge trimmer, cost cutting but it has its benefits!

Our local council chopped down a whole road of well established trees for a cycle track, that is dangerous, un used and ends abruptly at the start of a narrow country road.

Ticked a box though.

That's because it isn't the biggest threat.

What your local council does certainly isn't but the destruction of the worlds Rain Forests is up there.

I don't think there are actually more accidents on smart motorways than on normal motorways with a hard shoulder - you are told to get out of your car and get behind the barrier because people are stupid and will drive into you, even on the hard shoulder.

However, I agree with your post and I think I said above - we need a fundamental rethink but we seem to be doing the opposite. People are being forced back to offices, there is no investment in cycling/active travel, tax on air travel is reduced, the railways are being attacked, bus routes cut and shops in town centres disappearing at the expense of those which can only be reasonably reached by car.

Yes, it is. And it is another case of going backwards, why on earth are councils cutting down thousands of trees?

By the way I have the most useless MP in the world so I can't write to him. He did have a Cabinet post on Liz Truss's government which tells you all you need to know!

I wrote to him about brain tumour research and got pointless platitudes back.

No it isn't. I'm absolutely not defending or condoning it, I find it abhorrent, but to claim it's the biggest threat or "up there" is factually incorrect.

Making things like this up and posting untruths deflects from the really simple message that we need to stop burning fossil fuels.

Well of course, burning FF 's the number one cause, which is why i didn't say it was number one!

But we aren't going to stop burning them any time soon and Rain forests help regulate the worlds climate, with them gone, which we are heading towards, climate change will be worse.

Its not making things up, the Rain forests are vital to the planet.

I think aiming for things that will not happen & then having silly arguments over things like this, does show we've a long way to go to convince the population we really do need to make drastic changes & very quickly.