Climate lockdowns

[Jbrown76]

As seen in the media recently, Europe is experiencing extreme heat, fires ect caused by climate change and global warming. It's terrifying. what sort of things can be done, will climate lockdowns help?

Do you think we'll have voluntary or mandatory climate lockdowns? Aka banned from travelling, no flights, cars ect, no red meat, encouraged to walk or cycle,15 minute cities?

When do you think it might or will happen? What will it look/be like? Will you voluntarily lockdown and reduce your carbon footprint? Or does the government habe to mandate climate lockdowns?

I’m not a clairvoyant so not really. I can’t imagine the world will be that much different and if it is, me stopping shopping at shein or the odd balloon arch won’t have changed much. And she’ll be a lot more educated having travelled far and wide 😄

Europe keeps going on fire - people are going to travel to it less.
Other places are flooding - people are going to travel to them less.
Fuel is getting more expensive - people will travel less, prices for airfares will rise so people will travel less.

General societal pressure will continue to encourage less meat consumption, more plant based foods, more walking.

The next generation will grow up with this stuff more normalised so will so it more.

I don't think they'll ban air travel for 6 months a year or bam eating beef or cars on a weekend.

No.

but I absolutely think there will be periods (like last summer) where the weather will be so hot that we’ll be asked to just stay at home.

Banning cars from a town during summer works at a local level. It works when ozone is high but this isn't the same ozone up there in the sky.

Ah ok, so you don't believe in human-made climate change still.

Fair enough. I fear for your kids though.

In an ideal world I could certainly envisage - would even welcome - a fair rationing system for carbon/resources where people got x credits and could choose to use them for whatever was most important to them but with the overall total being much lower. So everyone would 'suffer' a bit but not too much and it would be fair - the current situation where the top whatever % (which in global terms, includes many of us) more or less do what they like leads to exactly the kind of attitudes displayed here. So you could choose to use x proportion of your budget on one return flight per year but because of that can only eat red meat once a week or will have to cycle rather than drive to work. It won't happen of course because people want freedom above all else, even if it kills us, because its socialism, because because because.....The reality is that we all in the Western world harness the equivalent of the power of thousands of slaves in the age of oil and we do it so cheaply and easily that we scarcely think of it. The only thing that will shift this is either the price signal (and it would have to be dramatic, think 1000 for a single flight from London to Paris) or some sort of world government type scenario with carbon rationing etc or of course some semi apocalyptic scenario where things break down completely and not having our break in the sun is a distant memory and where survival is our main goal. I predict a combination of the first and third, even if the second is the most rational.

Whatever!! I’m sure your life is amazing, concentrate on that!!
😄

We’re we asked to stay at home? I don’t remember that, and I actually loved the hot weather

When I used to attend the APPG on climate change, we saw lots of different options.

One was a carbon tax - each adult received a carbon budget that they spent over the year. If the wasn't enough, you could buy someone else's surplus.

This is still a possibility.

Asked to stay in out of the extreme weather is relatively normal now - 'don't travel unless you have to. Roads, shipping, air and rail are all suffering significant delays....' Also being asked to leave your home if disaster strikes is rare but normal - every single local authority has an emergency plan that just this.

Introducing a system like Athens where cars use alternate days to enter the city etc is a possibility to reduce emissions too.
But climate lock downs for the sake of reducing CO2 are unlikely imo. Firstly because being at home doesn't necessarily mean less carbon impacts and secondly because its fraught with knock on effects eg furlough for those who cannot work from home.

I kniw lots of commentators are saying g climate locations are on the way, but honestly other than introducing rules like the examples above, noone is going to introduce rules that effectively cage people unless those people are in real danger.

Not in my lifetime, but I can forsee a madmax type world where people live below ground, but that's way into the future assuming mankind survive climate change in this century.

@notahappybunny7
I meant weather like the 40+ we saw.

we weren’t asked to stay at home but we were asked to minimise unnecessary travel IIRC. Imagine breaking down in your car in that heat. But the 40+ only lasted two days last year.

People 'lived' for the great majority of human history without takeaway coffees and sitting into a car for every blessed thing. I'm probably as wasteful as the next person but let's not pretend that to go back to even living as people did in the 1960s or 70s would be some dreadful fate which meant our lives would be bereft of joy or meaning. People have always found ways to enjoy themselves, to connect with each other, to live good lives - one could argue that a fair proportion of the consumerist lifestyle which has exploded in the last 30 years especially has not only not made us greatly happier, it has in fact increased levels of disconnection, unhappiness, etc. We could probably all easily reduce our own personal carbon/resource footprint by 25% with minimal impingement on our quality of life. That would be an amazing start.

Weird how the kill your nan squad now want the right to kill their kids too. Seems counter intuitive and almost as if its being orchestrated via social media by bad faith actors but maybe I'm the conspiracy theorist.

Meanwhile, back in the real world - or Germany anyway.

Yeah you'd think that this forum might be full of people with a good enough reason to want to preserve a livable planet for future generations...

But nah, it's ok, I guess an elderly heat death is preferable to the kind of carehome your kids would sling you in for all this🙃

Thinking about the practicalities, I could probably manage the everyday stuff without a car. Cycling to the supermarket, to the railway station if necessary, but DS wouldn't get to school. It's 7 miles to the school bus stop. Oh my God, I'm just imagining the moaning 😃

Switching to fish, chicken or veggie would be fine for me, but ds would not enjoy it - more moaning.

We haven't flown anywhere on holiday since 2019 anyway, so that wouldn't make any difference. And if necessary I can heat the house with the log burner. I'd cope in an emergency if it was unavoidable, but it would all be a bit joyless.

Well there's a Japanese movie about the government encouraging people to kill themselves to lighten the load of society. Maybe that could work? Less people to eat, less food needed...*! It's called Plan 75 if you want to watch something different.
*I was being ironic! Let's not off our nanas. They're needed.

Why exactly? Would any change I make actually make a difference ? I’d rather they actually enjoy life that be a martyr

From that article:

Skea expanded on why.

"If you constantly communicate the message that we are all doomed to extinction, then that paralyzes people and prevents them from taking the necessary steps to get a grip on climate change," he said.

"The world won't end if it warms by more than 1.5 degrees," Skea told Der Spiegel. "It will however be a more dangerous world."

---

So, he's saying that because he wants people to be motivated to act against climate change. Because that's the real world now.

I’d rather they actually enjoy life

Would you? Because if we don't try to stop climate change, their lives will be very difficult to enjoy.

Until they sort China out, this country has very little to feel guilty about. We only produce 2% of the damage to the environment, we are producing most of our energy by green methods & are leading the way in green engineering.

^^^
We didn’t get a choice during covid.

There's no way I'm doing lockdown ever again. Ever.

Same here. The one thing that never gets enough of a mention on threads like these is the impact of having children, especially families of 3+ DC. Funny that.

The environmental impact of flying long haul, driving etc is dwarfed by having children, lets not forget that.

Scientists with weather control technology may help.

Yes, China. Lots of things can be improved there, but let's blame the Chinese for wanting the same sorts of home comforts that those of us in the West have taken for granted for years. Like fridges.