Does this weather change your attitude to climate change?

[Allotment123]

It seems like everyone is taking about the weather but no one is thinking about their own personal responsibility to climate change as a result, AIBU to think we are all abdicating responsibility while we can see the dramatic effects all around us? I feel sometimes like in the only one concerned

And if everyone reduced their consumption of “stuff” by half it would make an enormous difference so nobody should be put off by twats trying to say that if you can’t be perfect you shouldn’t bother doing anything at all.

@MotherOfDragonflies You are working class? You have woodland, an orchard, drive an electric car and have chickens and bees!
Your parents may have been but you are certainly not and if you believe you are you are so deluded it's nto even worth debating with you!

I think a lot of people couldn't give a shiny shit, i got called greta thunberg on another thread for pointing out that over use of cars isn't great for the environment

I do think a lot of things are done out of convenience. For example, I probably wouldn't add an hour and a half each way to my already long working day, to commute on the train which would also cost me more than if I just drove, and inevitably be delayed. I would be late, 3 hours down per day, stressed and out of pocket. Maybe I would make the sacrifice if celebrities weren't getting private jets to fly to the other end of the country and big corporations weren't dumping oil into the sea. A years worth of me travelling to work in my 1.2 liter car probably wouldn't offset the Z lister private jetting for the Instagram vibes.

@MotherOfDragonflies Why should poor people reduce their consumption by half? Why don't you reduce yours by ninety percent?

“Climate change has always been cyclic.

We are still warming up from the last ice-age.

Chill out, peeps.”

^This is your problem OP.

Most people just don’t care, it’s their dream to live in a warm country (I can see why).

Also (and this isn't me, just what I've heard from other people) A lot of people seem to be burying their head in the sand about the high temperatures. There's a lot of shoulder shrugging about the 40° temperatures, when in England we've had constant rain and no proper summer for weeks. People have a very 'not my problem, still raining in England' attitude and seem to be bitter we are not having a heatwave.

I thought you weren’t talking to me anymore?

but in any event my 90 percent is probably less than your half..

besides it was simply a figure pulled from the air to make my point that people shouldn’t feel that if they can’t be perfect they shouldn’t bother trying.

Anyway we get it, you don’t care and you won’t do anything. Well done you.

Fortunately there are others who will.

Many people are too dumb or selfish to give a shiny shit about people living in African countries which are being rendered unliveable by the increase in temperatures. Or Oceanic islands threatened by rising sea levels. Or the havoc being wrought on animal populations. Or indeed anything that doesn't effect them. No changes will happen voluntarily, only legislation and fines seem to work

I don't have a car. I don't eat meat. I am doing a lot more than you in that sense but you want to feel good about yourself so that's fine. I am saying that resources are finite on this planet. If cuts have to be made in people's consumption then it must start with people using private jets/private heated swimming pools/second homes and so on. Not the poor. Do you disagree with this and if so, why? If not, maybe we are more in agreement than you think. I'm actually not a twat; I care about working class people though and this climate crisis seems to be being used to widen the gap between rich and poor even further, to push ordinary people down into serfdom while the elite continue to burn up the earth's resources.

I think the bottom line is that it's natural selection! If we are dumb enough to pollute our own home then we won't survive.
It also is natural if the population of anything gets to big it will fail.
Perhaps that is just how nature is.

Well the rich are the culprits. Most working class fly economy which is more eco than the rich who fly in private jets.
Just saw a programme about Dubai. Who needs 12 bentleys or a ballon arch to greet you as you get on your private jet and goody bags for the flight? They do of course. It's obscene.

If Africa is being rendered 'unliveable' one might wonder why they are aiming to double their population by 2050.

There is a really interesting episode of the chef Anthony Bourdain's series where he is in Jamaica. He is talking to locals who are campaigning to stop their beach being closed to the public as rich people want to have private sections of it for their villas. Anthony Bourdain says to camera in the future gorgeous places like this will not be for you or even for me. They are going to be for the ultra rich and they will jet from one to another, you won't even know.
The journalist John Pilger has also done a documentary about this and how a global elite has developed who have no allegiance to any country but flit from place to place enjoying luxury we can only imagine.
I see the climate issue being used to reinforce this. Shut down the working person. Take their car. Stop them flying. Keep them in their locality. This is what I am against. I am for equality. If we must cut back as the earth is being destroyed, surely individuals cannot be allowed this sort of excess.

Exactly

It's never been any different

Tbh it's a way to exhort money out of people

However I do try to do my bit

Totally agree with you Lazyusername 👏

I don't think people in the UK are at all bothered because they seem to be obsessed with the heat. I get that this country is often cool and wet, but I think they'd still flock to Spain if it was 52C. They never seem to get too hot. Sunburned yes, but not actually finding the heat unpleasant or dangerous. People don't seem bothered about the rest of the world suffering, they're just happy that we might be warmer 🙄

@stbrandonsboat

Thats a ridiculous generalisation. think I posted upthread we don’t leave the UK during summer now as it’s too hot in Europe. No idea who your friends are but maybe everything your read in the red tops isn’t reflective of the ‘whole of the UK’.

I heard on a Podcast today that heat kills
more people than any other significant weather event. Apparently last year there were 60k excess deaths in Europe due to the heatwaves.

I feel like if it’s cold you can at least attempt to heat yourself (not withstanding the cost). Very difficult to cool down at 40+ degrees with no air con.

A peer-reviewed study of 74 million deaths, across 384 locations and 27 years, published in The Lancet a few years ago, showed roughly 17 times more people die of cold than heat.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62114-0/fulltext

I’m not getting into a ridiculous reference off as I don’t engage with climate change deniers. The paper you are referencing was published in 2015, so research completed in 2013/14 latest. Given we’ve had record years since that I’d question its usefulness.

The person who said it is Elena Myrivilli the UNs Chief Heat Officer. Go look up her research papers if you wish to pick it apart.

0.008083283122223 excess in Europe, hardly earth shattering and in what context as Elderly and Co morbid terminally ill patient is far different from healthy 20 year old.

Arabians managed for centuries no internet or AC

I do wish people would stop pissing on each other over small changes already made, regardless of how tiny they might be in the grand scheme of things. Yes, we all could do more, but everyone has to start somewhere. Perhaps it can then be built up over time without becoming a huge inconvenience.

My lifestyle is relatively eco-friendly, not always by choice, but often due to monetary issues. I buy a lot of things second-hand, including furniture, toys, books (we use the library weekly, too), my car is second-hand and old enough to almost count as vintage. Old clothes and bedding get put into a sewing box and get made into one-off costumes for silly things like princess parties and whatever else kids get invited to that normally has people buy polyester costumes, which get thrown away after one use. I'm lucky that I am a reasonably gifted seamstress, albeit self-taught and not always picture-perfect. I cycle or walk to the shops unless I do a big weekly shop. I line-dry, even in winter.

I cook from scratch and seasonally where feasible, buy wonky fruit and veg, I do eat meat but never throw any out (e.g. my duck roast lasted 3 meals) and have taught my kids to respect the animals we eat by not wasting any meat.

My garden is attracting an awful lot of wildlife, partially because I planted consciously, but also because I often don't have the time to weed and maintain it to manicured standards.

And yet, no doubt plenty on here would slate me for my lifestyle. I drink tea and carbonated soft drinks, my battery use is high because we use console games and don't have a charging cable (yet), I colour my hair, drive a petrol car, keep small pet animals (not carnivores), heat my home, buy the odd trinket for the hell of it and plan on a big holiday some years in the future in Asia. Oh, and I have kids.

The point being, there is always more that can be done and no doubt we will all be forced to make big sacrifices in the future. But allow us a tiny bit of life, in the meantime, while we get to grips with what is and what isn't reasonably easy to do. I am sure, over time, many more people will be forced into the kind of money-conscious lifestyle that the poorest (of which I am not one, I might add, just very careful with money due to being a single mum) already lead.

43 degrees for a beach holiday is manageable (Stay inside for the hottest period of the day / Hydrate frequently) - and will become normal.

But when it becomes normal, the extremes will be 45 / 48 / 50 degrees - and rising. That's what's concerning.