AIBU to think that the Tories are utterly wicked to drop net zero?

[Upsizer]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/rishi-sunak-planning-drop-net-zero-policies-pre-election-challenge-labour

I think this is genuinely wicked but I guess it was inevitable with the easiness of drumming up a culture war over environmental issues to win votes. Environment is the new Brexit.

Fighting climate change is going to cost all of us thousands of pounds. So we won’t do it - to get votes.

Our children will live on an island suffering extremes of heat and fighting off refugees from uninhabitable parts of the world.

But it will save us some cash I guess.

AIBU to think this is wicked?

This shows a recent increase and that we started going the wrong way

Hmm, they also cite 2019 sources at the bottom.

There are 2020 figures available here too:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/carbon-footprint-by-country

Regardless of the exact period, the point is the same - there is in both datasets a LONG tail of 5% or less countries of which the UK is one who, if they all said “well, no point taking action”, would result in over 50% of global emissions not being cut.

The 5% or less countries all have to do it too.

I posted the latest figures from 2021. It’s another poster that is using the old figures.

I have never voted for the Tories. I am not defending the Tories.

This is an issue that supersedes all political parties.

It doesn’t matter, I have already posted and linked to the latest 2021 figures

No. The recent increase was only due to the larger than normal drop caused in 2020 by the pandemic lockdowns. That wasn’t a sustainable gain.

Are you saying it doesn’t matter if the 5% or less contributors fail to cut their emissions?

No, I’m saying your link to 2020 figures do not matter. They don’t. For one they are a blip because the pandemic lockdowns skewed them downwards and secondly because I have already posted and linked you to the later 2021 figures.

Here's a graph of the Antarctic sea ice extant. Very recent. Pretty shocking

OK yes - and the 2021 figures also show that all countries responsible for 5% or less add up to >50% of all emissions and therefore need to take action too, and can’t shrug it off with “ah it makes no difference” like some posters in here have.

It really wasn't. I looked back beyond 2020. Please learn to read a graph

We have been taking action, if we had gone the same way as Canada, we would have more than triple our current CO2 emissions.

I can read a graph thank you. Ok, beyond 2020” is 2021. There is a slight increase from 2020 to 2021 and this is because 2020 dropped more than it should have due to the pandemic lockdowns. This means, in 2021 as things reopened, we had a slight increase as we got back on our usual down trend.

My point is, people were unjustifiably claiming there is no need for the UK to take any action and that net zero is “pointless”.

We do take action and should continue to do so despite those posters claiming it’s pointless because “China”

This is a simple bribe to climate change deniers, much the same as Brexit was Cameron’s last ditch Tory rescue plan. And judging by most replies on here, the same people will fall for it again. Bravo!

So yes, we should keep up our good work. But it is also true that whatever we do will have no impact on global climate change because our CO2 emissions are now so tiny, and getting tinier on the global scale.

China isn’t the big problem though. It’s the Middle East and our former colonies and neither of these are going to listen to us, they haven’t yet.

Net Zero will never happen if all countries aren't in, so no, the Conservatives are not being wicked. Climate changes happen, have done for an eternity, yet somehow we are still here, time to stop being neurotic about net zero in my opinion.

Hopefully someone somewhere will invent/polish the technology that reduces emissions/captures carbon/delivers fuel cells whatever - that allows us to halt and then reverse global warming.

Without hard targets like 'net 0' it is certain that the "somewhere" will not be in the UK - meaning the industries of the future will not be in the UK - we will just continue on our decline as a tired old theme park.

Technology to take CO2 and convert it to oxygen has been invented and tested on Mars. This only needs to be scaled up to work on Earth.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56844601

Haven't read the whole thread. I'm not denying climate change caused by the Industrial Revolution and beyond. But there has been climate change before that - romans growing wine grapes in England, and the Thames freezing over for example. So instead of arguing who caused it and who is causing it, what is our plan to deal with it? We had no plan in place when the Uk surprisingly voted for Brexit, there was no plan in place for a pandemic ( well there was, but thanks Jeremy Hunt et al, we ignored your practice run) and we have no plan for climate change. Just suppose a tiny country like ours pushes on with banning gas boilers and non electric cars etc - all at our cost. But the world is still heating up....outside of our control. What plans are there to ameliorate this? None from where I'm sat. We still merrily build on flood plains and are surprised when they....er, flood. And we still act surprised when climate change stuff - which we have been warned about for decades - turns up some iffy weather. Our politicians, past, present and future only pay lip service to this issue - they're only interested in getting elected next time and how much they can cream us whilst they're in power. I fear for my kids and grandkids, they are the ones truly inheriting this mess.

Two things can be true

There has always been climate change

Climate change has exponentially gone crazy since the industrial revolution and even my more following oil

They can both be true

Science shows they are both true

And they'll listen to us if we don't lead by example?!?

Beyond as in backwards in time

By the way, if climate change is such a threat to humanity, why do the Americans and Chinese continue to emit 45% of global emissions without it trying to race to net 0.

What secret insight do posters on this thread have that the two largest, more powerful countries don’t. Why do they supposedly continue to drive the world towards catastrophe? Are they stupid, or perhaps they don’t believe it to be the same threat that the hysterics do.

If the Chinese and the Americans believed that climate change was a threat, they would cut their own emissions - faster.

Do as they do, not as they say.

YABU.

Your question should just have stopped at, 'AIBU to think the Tories are utterly wicked?'

You keep posting about china based on past assumptions rather than current progress

https://about.bnef.com/blog/report-shows-way-for-china-to-meet-climate-goals-10-years-early/

The us is taking massive steps too.

You're posting misinformation. Yet again