Can we talk about the elephant in the room?

[NeptunaOfTheMermaidBattleSquadron]

I feel like as a society we need to start talking about the elephant in the room when it comes to climate change.

All these green measures being put on individuals are surely being wiped out because of all the bombing. Everywhere. All this war and conflict. No one is looking at the impact on the climate. Everything we're doing seems so trivial and pointless because in the same breath we're sending weapons (often called international aid) thousands of miles.

Then there's the manufacturing for it. The weapons testing. All the jet fuel to send the RAF USAF etc all around the world on bombing sprees. The supplies we're sending all over the place, weapons, medicine, rations... it's mind-boggling to think of the sheer scale of this.

And while we're acknowledging and working on fast fashion, home heating, electricity generation, over use of plastics, overpopulation, traceability etc, we're not even talking about or questioning all these bombs exploding everywhere!

We typically think of MAD as nuclear apocalypse, but surely people refusing to actually engage with each other to the point of forcing the world into something with the carbon footprint of a war (never mind several of them) is the climate change version of MAD. We can't reverse it.

I feel like politicians and diplomats just aren't trying hard enough with this because war is so profitable.

Why aren't just stop oil and all those other activists out there trying to protest the most avoidable thing we're doing with the biggest carbon footprint and pressuring governments to go back to diplomacy instead of treating their people as expendable?

IDK what the answer is but we seriously need to get a handle on this and stop using bombs to make points (they're not very good at it anyway) because of this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68110310

Sorry I just needed a bit of a rant. AIBU that they need to try harder to avoid armed conflicts and solve things like adults for the sake of the planet because the stakes are so much higher than one territory or issue? I haven't had much sleep this week so please explain why IABU if you think I am.

I had an elephant in the room until this morning, but I’ve posted her off now.

The “sophisticated marketing methods” don’t work on everyone.

Or maybe how I look at spending money on clothes is different to nearly everyone else I have known (I have met a few friends over the years who have similar philosophy)

I am not saying to not buy the latest trend (although the latest trend atm seems to be market stall clothes from 1981) But think about how many times realistically you will wear the thing and what it will look like after a few times in the washing machine. Even Primark has occasionally had a well made item that has lasted for years. But also buy things that don’t date and have your own style.

Maybe we need lessons in school about spending money, how to recognise the difference between an appreciating and depreciating asset. How much it really costs to buy “cheap” stuff that comes in the post and looking at how and where you spend money and how spending money you have had to work for on something that will be worn once or twice and end up in landfill within the year is just wasting your life.

People need to think about not just what they are spending their money on but where that money ends up because there is a link between buying cheap crap on the internet and money spent on weapons. One isn’t exclusive from the other.

I’ll stop slapping my wife when Joe Bloggs down the road stops punching his.

Some things you just don’t do because it’s wrong. Some things you just do because it’s right. Have your own moral code for sure, but don’t base it on the lowest common denominator.

@yalta they don't work on you, or me, not everyone. but they work on most people. i think a top to bottom approach is the only one which will work. every tiny thing we do is good. but won't change anything unless there is a change at the top.

whatarementomountainsandtrees things won’t change at the top unless things change at the bottom

Like smoking we need to change people’s shopping habits and make buying cheap clothing that ends up in landfill within a year or 2 not only socially unacceptable but also get over to people how expensive buying what is essentially rubbish is

It’s the analogy of buying a good pair of shoes that last 25 years for £100 as opposed to buying cheap shoes that need replacing every year for £10

@yalta I completely disagree with you. There is no possibility you will combat marketing and commercial strategies aimed at telling people what they want so as to make billions for the business owner, successful going back decades to the time of Edison, by getting a few good people to do good things! It is for governments to regulate their activities, stop the over production of tinpot items. Look at how the mobile industry works. Lightbulbs. Everything.

Of course it's nicer to not have fumes coming from vehicles around you. Who would say no to that?

Especially when all the poisonous mining needed for all these batteries is done far far away?

no way would shoes last 10 years ... that is impossible. Medical experts warn that comfortable trainers , with a broad base are the healthiest for our legs , feet , joints ( just wait until you're 55 and arthiritis / sciatica / toe pain metatarsal pain etc , NOT Clarks £99 shoes-to-last

who the f** has enough money to buy " good " shoes for £150 ? ? 25% of the population is starving or mal-nourished under this vicious 14 year right-wing government that is covertly obsessed with re-distributing money from the poor to the rich .... . . . . . . As usual ( yawn ) . . . . mumsnetters are out of touch with reality .... e.g of living on minus £85 per week

A lot older than 55 and still have shoes and clothes from 40 years ago that now are worth more than what I paid.

Dd now wears a lot of my clothes when going out.

who the f has enough money to buy " good " shoes for £150 ? ? 25% of the population is starving or mal-nourished under this vicious 14 year right-wing government that is covertly obsessed with re-distributing money from the poor to the rich

🤣🤣🤣

There might be a cost of living crisis and families living on -£85 per week but someone has money to spend £150 on a pair of shoes because yesterday I went out to my bin and sat on top of the rubbish bags were a pair of shoes (quite a good make)
First thought was someone had chucked them because they had a fault with them
But on closer inspection they looked like they had been worn only once
Googled the shoes and they are £150+ new

Guess they will be going on FBMP later.
Someone can obviously afford to spend large sums on shoes and the chick them in the bin

If 25% of the country is starving but only 6% of people have actually worn all the clothes in their wardrobe that means even if the 6% come directly out of the 25% That means that despite having no money 19%of people living in poverty have spent money on clothing they never wear.

I think the stats say that on average every single person in the UK has 26 items of clothing they have never worn

with a population of 60million that is more than 1.5 billion pieces of clothing that were made and sold that never see the light of day

multiply that by £2 or £3 or £10 per item and you get just in monetary terms how much really is wasted and the sheer size of the problem.

If you've seen the app tracking private jets coming out of Vegas last week after the superbowl, you'd wonder why we bother doing anything at all to help tackle climate change. One rule for the elites, another for us commoners.

when all planes stopped over the pandemic, there was an actual and visible fixing of a portion of the ozone layer. I keep thinking of this when I think there’s no hope.

Saying that my mil’s tv broke after just three years and they told her not to bother getting it fixed. Fizzy and still bottled water are in most people’s trolley in the supermarket, and it was acknowledged that not even 40%of recycling here is reused, and not even 70% in Germany, plus everyone is going on holidays on a plane (as are we), so I do think sometimes yes, we are fecked

And adding to the awfulness is that many of those clothes have been made in sweatshops by people earning less than £1 a day, so shops can sell cheap clothing to people who will either never wear it or will use it once