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 really have no idea, Sunnyegg. All I am thinking is that people fleeing wars etc in their own countries at the moment, are not being treated very well, and there are only hundreds of thousands of them. Imagine if there is serious flooding like there was in Pakistan, in other countries, along with temperatures that make life unsustainable in vast swathes of the world, and hundreds of millions of people try to move to cooler countries en masse. It would be unimaginable chaos. I just wonder if the government have thought about this or if they are burying their heads in the sand as per usual.
i am not optimistic.

I often wonder if our dedicated recycling efforts are actually recycled. Even if they are, surely it takes energy of some sort to make it into something else?

I have just recycled 4 yogurt pots, 2 fresh cream cartons and 2 yogurt drink bottles. I used a good bit of water to get them in a fit state to go in the recycling bin. Should I bother washing them, or should I just use up water every day? I hate wasting water, but I like to think it's not waste it is helping the recycling effort, but is it?

Tbh I think it’s exactly what they’re thinking of when passing laws and trying to get more isolated

When I listen to people who oppose in HoL I think this will not age well

Post war unhindered movement is a luxury that will end

It won’t be nice, far from it. But citizens will demand defence and security even if they are not currently.

There has always been global warning, how do you think the ice age finally warmed up.
Its all to do with even more taxes, getting the gullible to buy a useless electric car. How is electricity made, it doesn’t just appear from out the ground.
The powers that be are putting bus lanes everywhere which will make congestion worse, a great time to introduce ULEZ. You’re being misled.

Yep I do like a light moment. Light and very dry.

😵‍💫🙄

It way hilarious @A303 , cheered me up a bit!

Poster upthread...^.......

and then they talked about invasive insect species moving here from the continent.

But remember. You heard it from me first. Big, really huge Ants. Even higher up thread ^^

They are going to get so huge and immune from the heat that we can use them. Harness them and bend them to our ways. This is God's gift to the world. Or Gaia's if you prefer. Enormous heat-resistant drought-resistant covid-tolerant private-medically trained Ants. But not just any Ants, but Ants with a little twist of AI (and a hint of salted caramel).

A replacement for the Horses of yesteryear that we captured and trained to work for and with us. But this time it is the Rise of the Ants. I can see it now. Vast motorways of 8 foot Ants scurrying at 140 kmh down our ancient road networks, carrying us to far flung destinations. Scurrying under the Channel Tunnel to emerge in France with our holiday baggage, kids on top, our partners carried gently in their pincers. Just one slip and DH is Ant Jam.

Plug in, rechargeable Ants, part AI and part JCB. And part something else with a three letter acronym.....like JLS or something.

And we mere humans are just one flicker-flame of the 15 billion year Fire that is the whole era of Earth. We are merely just dust particles in the Wind.

To look at it another way, if we think our planet can continue to support us, we are living in Fantasy.

Earth, Wind, Fire. And we are just Fantasy.

😱

This reminded me of Honey I shrunk the kids! when they tried to ride the "giant" ant.

Agreed. Although I'd still rather not starve/ freeze to death during our short time here, ideally.

Some recycling is more worthwhile than others. I squeeze plastics into the corner of the dishwasher or rinse them out with the last bit of the washing up water, but it's unlikely to be worth the expense of washing them with a sink of fresh hot water, so if that's the only viable option I bin them.

Aluminium and steel cans, and glass bottles however are always worth recycling - it takes an astonishing amount of energy to produce them from virgin rock and far far less to melt them down and recycle them.

Joking apart.

The reason we are not doing enough to limit climate change is because the vast majority of us do not really believe climate change is serious enough to disrupt the quality of our lives, let alone wipe out humankind.

Let me ask a question. Who here has given up all of the following in the last 10 years:

• Meat
• Passports
• 'Sunday' driving

Anybody?

I feel awful throwing the plastic stuff in the standard bin though. I just use cold running water (should perhaps fill a basin doh!), but I often need to scrub them too to get the dregs off. I live on my own and don't need a dishwasher (yet!), so it's the sink/basin/under the tap or nothing.

No matter what I always recycle cans and bottles. I do wonder though how much if any of our efforts are actually recycled (or sent to another country on a boat using loads of energy to be dumped), and how much energy is required to recycle them anyway. I'll still do it, but these questions often lurk..

I dont believe we need to completely give up those things

I now eat meat once and week and don't drink milk - about 5 years

Sunday is about the only day of the week we do drive out , and one extra day a month to get heavy stuff from supermarket - last 2 years

I have a passport. The last time I used it (2018?) was a ferry and drive. The time before was a train journey

There is still more for us to do but if everyone was at out level or lower the world would be in a better place

Recycling is important but not as urgent as sorting out

Home heating - insulate , wear more jumpers and keep the heating low
Transport - walk or cycle , bus or train
Agriculture - less meat and diary

This is also a tragedy of commons problem. If no one else changes, my altruistic action won't matter, do why shall I. Everyone takes the same opinion, nothing indeed changes...

Gave up meat 3 years ago

Still have a passport but have only ever flown to Glasgow and back twice (from Gatwick) and not in the last 10 years - keep as a form of ID now

Sunday driving - nope not in the last 10 years

Not sure if I qualify as I still have the passport but there's probably loads more I should change - I'm not complacent about any of it

Uk meat consumption down about 20% in ten years

Half the milk compared to the 1980s

So change has already happened
Just need to speed it up !

We have a mixer tap, I use an old fabric conditioner bottle to catch the water until it runs either hot or cold. The water is used to wash recycling or to water the garden or to soak dirty saucepans

I nicked the idea from another thread and have a bucket in my en-suite which I put under the shower to catch water until it runs hot. I have a jug which I put under the tap to catch water when I wash my hands and that goes into the bucket. I have medical equipment I have to wash every day, again I use the jug to scoop the water into the bucket. Bucket is used to flush the toilet

Yes its a faff and I don't expect anyone else to want to do it but I'm in the routine now and don't even think about it. Yes it is a "drop" in the ocean but I feel I'm doing something - and I need to feel I'm doing something no matter how insignificant/pathetic it seems to others

Great post

FFS

There hasn't always been global warming, where do you think the little ice age came from?

Most electricity is made by electric magnetic induction, the rotors can be turned by a wide range of sources, wind turbines, tide turbines, gas turbines, steam turbines etc. Solar panels and fuel cells obviously use different physics and chemistries. Electricity can indeed just appear out of the ground, this occurs naturally as lightning but countries such as Iceland use hydrothermal sources. Obviously wind turbines effectively pluck electricity out of the air and tidal turbines out of the sea.

40,000 people die every year in the UK from preventable dieses linked to pollution. We need more ULEZ and more buses.