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.

It's the best thing you can do for yourself. The climate activists are driving themselves crazy for nothing, there is nothing anyone can do. The planet will survive even if humans do not.

Perhaps we should lobby MN to not advertise Temu

I do what I can, always have done since I was a naive, idealist, teenage conservationist, but I draw the line at choosing not to have children, even if that is the best thing you can do. At the end of the day, this is all down to overpopulation.

As I learnt at school in biology though, the environment will right itself eventually. It will mean a lot of people will die, but unfortunately that's what is needed when an ecosystem is overpopulated.

There's no way we're going to solve it, not whilst we live under a capitalist system which relies on overconsumption.

I've just seen that Elon Musk launched a rocket to the moon this morning. I wonder what that's done to the environment?

I think one Falcon launch by Space X does as much as 200 cars in a year? So a lot.

I thought it would be more. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it's not too bad. Worth it for the research carried out.

If it is research. Didn’t he shoot some red convertible mustang car into space just for shits and grins? I’m ok with some emissions for science and research, not for fun and definitely not for war. Just the war emissions by Israel in Gaza exceed the entire annual emissions of some European countries.

I'm pretty sure he's trying to crack the launching of giant rockets capable of carrying people, food and water to set up shop on the moon once the shit hits the fan on earth.
He may not be liked but he is mathematically and scientifically astute and he can tell this planet is doomed - for the next 100 years at least. Once most of the people have perished and the fires and floods have settled down they can repopulate with mini Musk's.
I reckon that's his plan anyway.

I missed my chance to have kids as such I genuinely find it a real struggle to give a fuck what happens after I’m dead

Wowsers, that's huge (Israel)!

The press are reporting that "NASA is paying Intuitive Machines $118 million to get its latest set of experiments to the moon."

My SIL is currently working on developing a method of producing oxygen on the moon, I think space research is about to take off (boom boom tish!).

And I think you may be right @weregonnagetrelagetedthistimeforsure

Yes, I do consider the environment, but only really make the easier changes. I fly much less then I could (drive/free holidays), but still fly every 5 years or so. I tend towards second hand, but still buy new sometimes. I consciously bought a economical/lower emissions car, but still drive journeys I could have walked. Avoid single use products day to day, but if I forget my water bottle, do still buy drinks throw away bottles.

I care, and do a bit, but in all honesty I could do more. I live very rurally and often drive somewhere every day (work, family, friends, hobbies, kid's clubs etc). Family live about 5 miles away and public transport would take at least an hour each way so I drive because it is 10 minutes and I can leave whenever I want to.

But, I have a friend who is always going on about her electric car and how we should all switch to electric, but takes 2 long haul holidays a year plus several flights for long weekends in Europe, plus travels a lot internationally for work.

So I guess, to answer your question, I don't put myself out because I'm too busy thinking "I'm not that bad compared to X" which probably keeps me from doing more than I do.

Presumably not an animal or nature lover then @Pheasantsmate and no nephews, nieces, friends with kids?
Not so much a personal enquiry, i just find it bewildering that because someone doesnt have kids, they dont give a fuck for anyone elses or any other living thing..

I also dont do a 'im not as bad as X', because i think the comparison thing is an excuse, we are responsible for what we do or dont, regardless of what Fred next door is up to!

From the sound of it, Pheasant may be chinless not by choice ("missed the chance") and that's where that feeling stems from. Could be wrong?

I was born in the 1960s. Once, in the 1970s, Blue Peter's Christmas campaign was for schools to collect newspapers and send them off for recycling. That was in the days when every household had a daily paper. Our school collected thousands upon thousands of newspapers, as did hundreds of others. In the 1980s, I used to cycle 3 miles each way to take recycling to the only bottle/paper bank in my town. In the 1990s, councils gave us home recycling bins, so good intentions became easier. After decades of recycling, I truly believe it wasn't worth a hill of beans. The oligarchs, the pop stars, and the celebrities have undone all of my efforts with their stupid private jets.

Except that with rich people using private jets, we might as well do what we want as well. Why should ordinary people scrimp and save and cut out meat and go 'zero waste' or whatever else when none of that makes the slightest difference? I will continue to enjoy my steak and my foreign holidays, which I will get to by plane. The government has no right to try to intervene in ordinary people's enjoyment of life, they are squeezing us enough as it is.

It would be pointless doing so anyway. Our fertility rate (number of offspring per adult woman) is already below replacement level.

Childless and as you guessed not by choice. And as @Jellykat “kindly” questioned, my friends with kids drifted away towards others in the family/with kids boat. They would say we have little in common and our lives have taken different directions.

So I do what makes me happy, I’d actually guess my environmental footprint is smaller than most. But I have no legacy, the world won’t miss me when I’m gone, and I don’t feel any concern for it when I am no longer here. Why would I?

We obviously think very differently @Pheasantsmate , i dont have a pet but still donate to Battersea dogs home. I dont own a Polar bear, but still care that they are in danger, i've never been to certain countries but still care that they're being invaded etc etc..

And if Bono hires a private jet to collect his hat, that makes him a knobend, doesnt mean i've got to be one too.. but hey ho, no point in arguing, because some random on the internet isnt gonna change your outlook!

It’s an interesting one, because logic might not sway someone’s opinion on this. Because you both have your own logical reasoning for reaching your own valid conclusions. But manner and kindness might sway an opinion.

If someone says that they are lonely/isolated and that a sense of disconnect means that they no longer care- then a snide or unkind remark about not caring about nieces and nephews might just reaffirm that that person’s world view is correct and further entrench opinions? It costs little to be kind.

This post was about rather than the virtue signalling that many do in day to day life, do we actually practice things behind closed doors. I applaud anyone who has been genuinely honest about what they do or do not do and why. Only by understanding why people don’t do things, whether it is to much effort, feels like it won’t make a difference, or that they don’t feel a sense of connection to the future can others find ways to create change.

I started to but people like Extinction Rebellion etc have made me think twice so basically no.

Where was i snidey or unkind or bad mannered @Haydenn? You dont know anything about my life, maybe im in a similar position to Pheasants in some ways, and thats why i'm trying to understand her perspective!?

Either you care or you don’t. Your opinions about current science should be based on current science and nothing else. Your choices should be based on YOUR values rather than the behaviour of other people, surely?

@Jellykat “Presumably not an animal or nature lover then @Pheasantsmate and no nephews, nieces, friends with kids?
Not so much a personal enquiry, i just find it bewildering that because someone doesnt have kids, they dont give a fuck for anyone elses or any other living thing.”

Personally I think starting your post with the phrasing “presumably not…” quite snide and aggressive. It’s also quite patronising to just suggest that she might have forgotten about nieces or nephews. I also am not the only one who read it in that way, so perhaps the issue is with your wording?

It’s not the Government that want you to change your lifestyle. It’s that if we carry on as we are we will be fucked. We already are but we can lessen the degree of fuckedness.

Climate change means loss of biodiversity. It means huge swathes of the planet will become uninhabitable leading to mass migration and more wars over resources. Food will be harder to grow. Water a more scarce resource. Morality is a higher order human need. People will do unspeakable things when driven to it.

We are already seeing people flooded out of their homes. Higher mortality, more illness, food scarcity. In the UK. Much worse on other places. The poorest countries that produce the least carbon are being hit first and worst but even if you don’t care about the brown skinned people in other countries (and yes climate change is a race issue) you should care about your own safety and survival and that of any children you care about.

Don’t make changes for the Government. Make them for yourself.