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

Part of the solution is in building international agreements that will reduce global emissions. Every reduction is beneficial. I'm very happy for the UK to be a leader.

It doesn't matter what I do. I'm one person in a country which has a relatively tiny impact on world emissions. If we want to tackle climate change we need to go to the source of the problem and force countries like China to stop polluting the planet. We need to go to countries which are worst affected by climate change (or will be) and force them to stop reproducing. None of this will happen of course because it's easier to walk slowly down a street wearing an orange vest.

I don't think it really matters though, these sorts of problems resolve themselves. If the world gets too hot humans will die out, we'll stop producing emmissions and over time the climate will stabilize again. It's no big deal, plenty of species had gone extinct before we arrived and plenty more will do so after we're gone.

It's the sheer arrogance of climate protestors that gets me. Their basic assumption that humans are somehow "special" and that their idea of what we should be doing is right, everyone else is wrong, and we all need to live by their very limiting rules. It's all very totalitarian, the population must do and think as they're told by their unelected betters.

Humans aren't special. We're a species that has grown to dominate this particular planet due to our exploitation of the resources it provides.

For those saying "it doesn't matter what I do if millionaires still do x", well, it kind of does. There are very few millionaires compared to the general population. If, collectively, we all did our bit, then it would have a huge impact.

By the way, the reason why China is such a big polluter, apart from its huge population, is because we ship our waste there and most of our manufactured good are made there. Nothing to do with their lifestyle and all to do with ours.

I suppose if we stopped buying our economy this stuff would fall apart.

I try to limit my purchases to some extent

Sorry I don't see any "arrogance in climate protesters nor do I think that they see humans as being special (the damage that humanity has wreaked on the planet is clearly in the forefront of their minds).

I really don't think it's unreasonable or arrogant to be asking our governments and our industries to do more, to prioritise action to address the biggest catastrophe that mankind (and many other species) now face.

In my world, that's simple common sense.

"Force people to stop reproducing in countries affected by climate change", seriously?
why not enforce that in the countries that created global warming instead of the ones suffering from it?
Also, when people say they worry about the planet, they usually mean they are fond of its current inhabitants, people, animals and living things alike... We're hardly going to be reassured by the thought that when we all go extinct, the globe will still spin.
What a depressing thread.

"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."

I don't think anyone would criticise you for living the way you describe... We can possibly all do more, but we're also human. The goal is Net Zero, not Absolute Zero. I want to fly soon, and found out I could offset it through donating to a charity. That will have to work for me.

I want to fly soon and didn't want to ease my guilt with a charity (look at most and eye-watering cost of administration).
Instead I looked at third world pollution and other non G7 countries - realised the questionable situation and decided to spend my money on family.

After years of trying to be honest, fair and equitable- it has affected my income, lifestyle and career.

So in conclusion:- boomer lifestyle and if it becomes an issue adapt at that point.

Woke, climate change brat Greta, WEF- its all tedious in the pursuit of profit.

We landfill everything apart from valuable metals as its tax deductible and annoying to sort for no gain.
I also landfill household rubbish as recycling centre is far to much nonsense and same site it all goes in commercial skip.

Blaming climate change on the developing countries we use as a manufacturing base really is the take 🤦‍♀️
But maybe not as bad as the "it's not climate, it's the weather"?
No doubt everyone will be amazed when climate refugees start to turn up...
And deeply sad when there is no coral reefs to swim to when they reach their destination, power cuts, flash floods...

It's the take because in the case of China it's true. Choosing to buy from them is another issue.

No, it's because they keep building and using coal fired power stations. The idea that it must be the Evil West [tm] behind everything is really infantilising jsyk

I know waste to energy is a thing over here now. When I worked for one of the world's biggest commercial waste hauliers they were building plants to burn the general waste that would've previously gone to landfill. The idea was to power local communities with the energy produced.

I must check where they got to as covid delayed the completion of the last one and I left around that time..

@BreehyHinnyBrinnyHoohyHah love your bingo card! And yes, given some of the eye-watering nonsense posted already it’s pretty much full now. Bingo!

Am in a place suffering from higher than normal temperatures. Spoke to a resident who in one breath complained about the heat and in the next whined about “the Greens” because construction to expand local public transport was slightly complicating his day. So yeah, people generally have difficulty connecting dots, and are even less willing to act.

Change en mass is always slow, but I think the message is getting through and the more educated ok the matter are making changes, albeit small but it is turning. For example attitude to buying new clothes, things in the home are changing. My daughters attend 3 different private schools and each of those now have popular and well used second hand uniform shops, would have been frowned on 5 years ago.

Food waste is reducing, partly helped by cost of living crisis partly new enterprises springing up to aid companies making the change.

In my sector there has been a massive re-education in attitude towards existing buildings, and a real push rather than lip service to reuse things.

Messaging on recycling has started to change from good to recycle to better not have made in the first place.

I presume the weather and climate has been changing for millions of years, If humans have created more damage then not sure what we can do about it now just hope the human race doesn't go an damage any other planet

I also think humans need to do as much as they can personally before blaming everyone else/the government as in 'well I demand the right to have central heating on 24/7 but the government should be making it environmentally friendly and cheaper"

This is an interesting thread; thanks, OP & PP. I'm by no means a "denier" or blind to the problems. I'm just here to superficially comment that I keep seeing the title in Active and snorting slightly, as I sit in a jumper & woolly socks waiting for my electric blanket to heat up! Welcome to the far more typical British summer ☁🙁

How is it a different issue if the plastic, steel and textile stuff we buy from them is powered by those coal stations? They need power to make the stuff that we in the West consume. Each time you buy something from China, the carbon footprint is added to their country, but really, you can consider it yours. While 85% of China's emissions are to power their own needs, it does mean that we in the UK are responsible for more than the 1% of global emissions some PPs mention. If you think about consumption-based CO2e, you can add some of India's and Bangladesh's emissions to ours (textile), the EU (car manufacturing), South Korea (anything made by Samsung)...

There's carbon production, and carbon consumption. Our government is very keen to emphasise our production emissions for which we may (or may not) be on target for net zero, but obviously keen to ignore our consumption emissions.



Nope. I think an increase in hot weather in this country can only be a good thing 🤷‍♀️

FFS we really are screwed if people are this thick

@Fawful

Does no one else buy from China apart from the Uk?

Yes I see the West but is the Middle East not also a consumer?

don't think it really matters though, these sorts of problems resolve themselves. If the world gets too hot humans will die out, we'll stop producing emmissions and over time the climate will stabilize again. It's no big deal

Can you imagine the immeasurable human suffering that would take place over centuries of global heating to the extent that humans died out?! No big deal? Are you a psychopath?

The last sentence of your post is daft, unless you think that the cycling industry is going to doom us all. There is negligible environmental cost to cycling.

I'm saying that people should walk short distances, cycle medium distances, and use public transport over longer distances.

Life’s too short to be a mug and waste time doing all of that rubbish.