Do you actually care about the environment?

[HamsterKebab]

I think a lot of people say they care, but do you really? Have you adjusted your life with wildlife or the climate in mind? Or does convenience come first?

Im genuinely interested in how much the general public truly cares about biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution. Does it bother you or do you just think ‘someone else will deal with it’. I’m not judging, I genuinely want to know how people honestly feel rather than what they say out loud.

I do care but I'm also a hypocrite. We try to recycle as much as possible, we think about food miles when buying food, we installed an ASHP in our previous house (can't in our current house as it's too old).

But we still eat meat, we take one flight a year, we run two cars when we could probably manage with one.

I think part of the issue is that governments allow big corporations to get away with huge environmental damage, and we have people like King Charles lecturing us on climate change whilst owning multiple residences and taking helicopters and private jets.

I was a teenager in the 80s and was in dread of nuclear war. I was convinced we had no future. I think there's a part of me that thinks "yeah, had all this before, went through a stage of complete anxiety about nuclear war, all for nothing" and so this kind of feels the same.

Does your council not recycle plastic?

I know people who care so much that they never fly. I’ve got one friend who makes such a big deal out of it. Posting photos of damp holidays in Wales saying how they swapped their long haul holidays to save the planet. They all look bloody miserable.

If I had the money, I certainly wouldn’t be limiting my life experiences. Not when all you see are celebrities who lecture on the planet, jetting all round the world.

How come they get to do what they like while the rest of us have to stop flying to save the planet?

Why did they post photos of themselves looking miserable? Or is it you would find it miserable?

I wouldn't want to pay to go on a damp UK holiday, but limiting flights or using other ways to travel is a fair middle ground.

If we all lived by 'I'm not doing it because other people don't' we'd all be terrible people. There's always someone who doesn't play by the rules. You still choose to do something if you're morally inclined that way.

There is a lot of plastic that can't be recycled.

But that's exactly why those activists are dangerous. Not to the corporations, but to the green agenda they claim to support. They turn people off. They are not winning hearts and minds by preventing an ambulance from getting to the hospital. Or making ordinary people late for work (or worse).
If they actually cared about the environment and not simply getting publicity, they would be pulling their stunts outside the offices of the FTSE 100 companies, or outside parliament.

They do all look miserable. They looked far happier in photos when they used to go to Disney or the Caribbean.

She and her husband are those sort of people though. They love posting about eco things and saying how life is harder now but LOOK AT HOW MUCH WE CARE.

Dh calls them the compo face family.

Another friend reckons they will last one more year before they crack and book the Maldives.

And no, I’d take a wet holiday in wales to be honest. I’ve not been able to afford any sort of holiday in a decade. But if I could, they would be ones I actually enjoyed, not ones to just prove the point of how selfless I am, because that’s just fucking madness.

It’s not about stomping feet and saying it’s not fair. it’s the bloody hypocrisy of it. It’s okay for the worthy, but not the little people? Nah. Sorry.

Honestly?no. I can’t really care when countries like China don’t and won’t.

I think there are many more important things to worry about so I focus on them

that said, I drive an electric car and I recycle…

The thing i find on these threads is the people who do care and the people who dont care often have the same carbon foot print anyway - or its not propotional to the level of care.. Like i dont think i care enough as i dont do anything thst would make me uncomfortable right now. But my friend feels she cares and does a lot, but they have more children, bigger house which costs more to heat and they fly for work and to see relatives. I think your carbon footprint relates more to your wealth than your caring, in very general terms.

Im not saying we all need to be perfect or that individuals cant make a difference but it seems a bigger more systematic issue.

I agree @Spendonsend

Another friend reckons they will last one more year before they crack and book the Maldives.

😂😂

@Ouchmyarse

I hear you about not being fair, but it's about balance. I'm not one of those people who thinks you should forgo having children, meat and holidays forevermore - but you might choose a Eurostar over Australia.

If Andrew Tate wants to fly everywhere, own a tiger and burn plastic in his back garden to spite Greta, I won't be doing the same even though it's not fair.

Not much these days. Most plastic trays are recyclable as are plastic fruit/veg bags, bread bags, orange nets, cheese packaging etc. Even a lot of the film used alongside plastic trays is now recyclable. It's a bugbear of mine that so many people make assumptions instead of reading the packaging. Things are constantly changing.

I never said I didn't care. I am a conservationist and I learnt a long, long, long time ago that the only problem on this planet is humans. Nothing else is as destructive and selfish as the human.

The quickest route to getting nature back to a natural state would be for humans to go virtually extinct. It is impossible for 7.8 billion humans to live on this planet without destroying the environment. A few million spread out and living in harmony with their surroundings could probably manage to be low impact.

Now you are bringing up human suffering. Millions, if not billions, of humans are suffering daily due to a variety of man-made situations (modern slavery, hunger, war, oppression, poverty, exploitation). I don't spend my time seeking out and celebrating human suffering. My emotional reaction to human suffering is not going to prevent, or increase, it happening. Only my actions will. I act to be as unselfish as I can without making my own life miserable, that as far as I'm prepared to go.

And equally, a lot of people don't read or understand the packaging, and try to recycle plastics that aren't recyclable. It's not straightforward.

Nope, couldn’t give a shit.

Yes, which is why I said 'unless'. I know how first past the post works.

I certainly don’t get worked up about it. I recycle and even then I was shocked recently to discover what actually happens to the refuse in my area, so it feels recycling is a waste of time. To lecture me on what I should or shouldn't be doing seems disingenuous when politicians are travelling the globe on planes and driving around in convoys of cars.

You can get online a list of all the mining and metals etc that go into manufacturing an electric car. It's eye watering. My friend has a Citroen sitting in his garden 6 years, battery is, and would cost £17k. He's got a leaf, says he doesn't get anything like the millage claimed. He's an electrical engineer on the rail network. I have been recycling for over 50 years. Most of our furniture is second hand, solid wood. Clothes from charity shops We grow a lot of our own fruit and veg,4 greenhouses,5 waterbutts. Spent DH pension lump sum on solar panels. Don't have passports,last holiday was 15 years ago. Our choice, moved, downsized before retirement to small bungalow near the sea. We chose this place for the large garden.Couldn't afford an electric car,if I wanted one, I have an SUV, because we have 2 dogs,that's our luxury item, and grandkids I look after. Tried a standard hatchback, but I need to collect manure from nearby farms. The carbon neutral UK,is a complete joke, when you look at china India and the US. Even the Cop, where do many people fly thousands of miles to attend to tell us, how to reduce co2,it's a joke. The planet has always had 'extremes" of weather,rain, drought,ice ages,hot summers, throughout history.

That’s where we differ.

If I could afford to go to Australia, I’d go. The thought of getting the Eurostar somewhere to help the environment wouldn’t cross my mind. I would go where I wanted.

I did, in fact. 20 years ago I was very wealthy. I spent years travelling the world with my eldest child, I’ve been all over the world. I didn’t give it a second thought. If my fortunes changed again, I’d do the same. Because I want to.

Not because others are doing it so why can’t I - I gave the example if he hypocrisy. I wouldn’t use that to curtail my own life. I don’t care about the future of the planet. I won’t be here. And I am afraid I can’t worry about hypothetical grandchildren that don’t exist.

I don’t believe in climate change (apart from natural climate changes). If it’s so terrifying, and the seas are rising, why have so many celebrities and politicians bought waterside properties in the US in particular?

Climate change is a good money maker for governments.

As PPs have pointed out too, electric cars aren’t made by fairies and run on pixie dust. I hate that people think they are the second coming when they buy one.

There was a photo a few months ago of some eco festival in the middle of nowhere, electric hook ups for the electric vehicles. Run off huge, diesel generators.

Not really. I recycle at home, i'd never litter, i walk around the street after a windy day to collect blown around recycling. but that's it.

We own lots of vehicles, travel all over the country on random road trips without a second thought, go on holidays, travel my horses to compete. I'm not changing what i love doing for anything/anyone.

I want to care but we are so squeezed financially that our choices are more and more limited.

And time poor. Time poor and stressed with no headspace because of constantly juggling all the problems that a little more cashflow would easily solve.

Ouchmyarse
Care to explain how "climate change is a good money maker for governments "?
As far as I know, our government is panicking slightly about the loss of tax revenue from diesel and petrol.

I also don't fly for my holidays, and I also don't fancy the thought of shivering in Wales. That's why we're going to France and Spain this year. Last year we went to Italy.

Not really, stranger on the internet who I don’t owe anything to, I am sure you can look into it yourself. Living and working in London in a pilot area for low emissions was shit, and the fees for low emission zones when a lot of people don’t have a choice are a couple of examples.

If not flying makes you feel good, go for it. But as soon as my financial situation improves, I’m off to see my loved ones in New Zealand again without a second thought.

I suppose that the government will put a lot of vat or tax on electricity for such vehicles once nearly everyone has an EV , they will find ways around losing the extra revenue on petrol and diesel I'm sure. Including those who use vans etc for work , they will probably have to pay even more. I can see this happening