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.

Ouchmyarse
You are aware that there's a difference between the Greater London Authority and the Government, yeah?

I don't live in London, so have no skin in the game re: the whole ULEZ thing, but I do know that local authorities overall are facing a massive funding shortfall, due both to an increase in their statutory responsibilities and having funding from central government slashed. I also know that TFL have had their funding cut, and are struggling to recover from the revenue drop over lockdown. Given this, I find that anyone accusing local authorities of "just trying to make money" out of various initiatives to be a bit hard of thinking. Yes that's right, they're trying to make money. Because they need money just to keep essential services going.

But, returning this accusation of the actual Government profiting from climate change....well, climate change is expensive, and governments aren't going to be able to avoid picking up the bill. Storms, floods, wildfires, droughts etc etc...

Whether individual Tory politicians are profiting from their links with polluting industries, and whether this affects how they shape policy, is quite another discussion...

Agreed that people do get recycling wrong but don't agree that it's not that simple. All people need to do is read packaging. The big supermarkets, in particular, have very clear instructions on where/how to recycle most things they sell.

If it can't be recycled in my household recycling, it goes in the general bin. Our council doesn't recycle "soft" plastics. I'm not saving up plastics to take elsewhere, i never know what days i'm going shopping, or if DP is going instead and when. Sometimes we don't do a weekly shop if we're too busy, all sorts of reasons.

It's called road pricing. It's based on telematics boxes, and it's on its way.

If we're only talking about food packaging, it's quite simple. But there is a still a lot of plastic that can't be recycled. When it was first invented, it was touted as this product that could forever be melted down and made into other things. But it hasn't worked out that way. Nowhere in my area that recycles hard plastics and there's a long list of what can't be put into the recycling from our local council.

I think most people have a sense they should be concerned but in reality carry on living their life as normal, except for easy wins, like recycling.
The people I know who are super eco conscious variously,
Fly to their foreign holudays
Have large SUV style cars
Own dogs ( sorry but dogs are shit for the environment, as are pets in general, unnecessary food production to keep them alive).

I think the rise in popularity of large SUV style cars tells you everything you need to know about whether the population actually cares that much for the environment.

Aside from high car usage due to where I live, my life is pretty eco, but that’s by accident not design. Environment is not one of my big concerns. Simply because my energies go elsewhere. I suppose it also feels like I can do very little given the scale of the problem. This is one for governments to deal with.

Our labour run council on the edge of a large city has a very very long list of things we can't recycle including plastic food trays, fruit punnets, tetrapak, foil, metal other than food cans and drink cans, biscuit tins, small pieces of paper, plastic takeaway tubs, cardboard or paper with sticky labels on etc. Neither is there food waste collection and garden waste has to be paid for separately.

we've got some friends who sent a virtual Christmas card last year, saying they weren't sending paper ones in order to save resources etc. Which is all very well except that they took about 8 return flights last year......

I do care about the environment, but there is only so much I can do. I will do what I can.

I do care but only to a certain extent, then convenience will win.

I tend to go for the eco friendly products, I'll use public transport if it's available and convenient and I'll recycle everything that can be done in the household recycling.

I'm not spending 3 hours on public transport to do a journey that takes 40 min (and is cheaper!) in the car though, and I'm not storing up things that need to go to a recycling point 10 miles away rather than just being collected by the council.

There is a distinct feeling of fuck it at times as well when you see the ridiculous private jet journeys etc from celebs/politicians/the super rich. I'm not feeling guilty about a foreign holiday every couple of years and having a pet when you have ridiculous levels of overconsumption like that going on.

I care on a sub level, and I care about loss of species, but ona day to day level, no, I don't care enough to want it to inconvenience or cost me with 15 min cities, bullshit ULEZ and congestion zones, and being locked down and controlled.

I see it now that the government are just using it all as an income generator.

Plus if China and the US don't make a dent, what is the point in the UK doing anything? We wont make a dent.

Plus if the elite won't stop using private jets etc, why should us plebs make changes?

Clingfilm 🤣! I ditched it long ago and don’t miss it-I can’t even remember what it’s for ? I cover food with plates or re-useable rubber covers. Honestly I’m not having a dig-you really don’t need it 🧑‍🍳

No, I don't care at all. Nuclear war will happen first. Might as well have a decent car and a nice fireplace while you can

You are SO WRONG. Everything you buy or use sustains businesses everywhere. If everyone collectively stopped buying bloody plastic air fresheners for example, there wouldn’t be a market for them and the producers would need to come up with something more sustainable.

I'm here as well. I actually have made a conscious decision to only care about my 'village' ie the people I actually know in real life (not just on social media) and not worry about the rest of the world at all. I have stopped reading about Gaza, for example. Why worry when there is nothing to be done?

Honestly, not that much. I do have DC but they're adults and it's increasingly looking like they will choose to stay child free. So I have no emotional investment in any future generations.

I like meat and will continue to eat it. I like to fly off on holiday and for many years, I couldn't afford it. Now I can I'm not stopping any time soon. I don't drive, I live in London and actually can't drive anyway so that probably "offsets" my flights. I am bad at just chucking things out instead of donating them, but that's linked to me not driving. It's just too inconvenient. However I have massively cut down on what I buy. But truthfully anything good I do, is because it's convenient to me. I recycle because otherwise the main bin fills up too quickly! Not driving because it's cheaper for me etc.

"Clingfilm 🤣! I ditched it long ago and don’t miss it-I can’t even remember what it’s for ? I cover food with plates or re-useable rubber covers. Honestly I’m not having a dig-you really don’t need it 🧑‍🍳"

And yet, there they are in the back of every supermarket and warehouse, winding miles and miles of cling wrap around cages of goods. Honestly, my tiny roll that lasts two years is nothing.

Cling film is rubbish, it gets twisted up and is unusable. Also smells nasty. A simple plate works so much better. Not even an environmental thing, it's just obsolete.

winding miles and miles of cling wrap around cages of goods

Seeing this makes me seethe.
Our corner shop gets 3 or 4 cages a day of goods wrapped this way. Why are food distributers allowed to do this whilst we are expected to travel miles to recycle our soft plastics?
It renders the whole recycling effort completely pointless. Yet another reason why recycling is futile.

Temu, Shein and Amazon have put an end to any efforts to be environmentally friendly. Billions of people are constantly buying cheap unrecyclable, chemically produced shit from all corners of the planet.
What on earth is the point of me recycling a milk carton if my neighbour is chucking an outdoor, plastic 3 piece suite in his skip?

The toy aisle in any supermarket is just landfill in bright coloured boxes.

Being environmental is totally pointless now.

We're all gonna burn and drown one way or the other.

Not pointless. If 40% (don't know the stat) of household waste is recycled , that 40% is no longer blowing around on the street/grass verges or contributing to landfill.

If you have a problem with Temu and Amazon, then don't buy there. No, you cant single-handedly put them out of business. Yes, you can choose not to boost their profits or help drive demand for more plastic tat.

I do care and I do what I can to make the little patch I have control over as wildlife friendly as I can. However it does feel overwhelming. The little bit I can do feels like nothing unless the governments around the world work together to do something properly. There is no reason they can't, they did for covid.

However the options have to be affordable for the general public and convenient. Putting in measures that just make things more expensive don't help people want to do their best towards the environment as it puts them into survival mode. Electric cars for example, these are no good if they are expensive to buy, run and repair as they only tap into the richer part of the population. If you want to reduce car use then invest in proper public transport that is affordable and connects properly so that people want to use it.

Yes but the environmental concerns have been grossly exaggerated, and environmental measures are negatively impacting many people especially those with disabilities.

Just to offer a suggestion for donations, Anglo Doorstep Collections are brilliant if you can't or don't take your unwanted stuff to a local charity shop. You just book a slot, stick it out on your doorstep and they collect it plus some of the profits go to a charity of your choosing. They're really great.

Yes that's how I feel about it

Yes and it terrifies me more than the threat of war.

Childfree by choice. It baffles me that people are having lots of children when the future looks so bleak. Why would you want to bring children into that?

And saying 'but I recycle' or 'I don't fly' or 'technology will get them through' is just denial.