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.

@Babyroobs does the country park begin with W by any chance? If so you're right about the rubbish washed up from the floods, we do regular canoe litter picks and gather bags and bags of rubbish but despite all the efforts you're barely scratching the surface. People just don't care

Yes and no.

When I was younger there were campaigns to keep Britain tidy and to buy British. Neither seems to have made a difference. People took it as a status symbol to buy foreign. Same will happen here a few people will try to make a difference but really little will change. As far as the rest of the world is concerned the west has had the industrial revolution its now the rest of theur turn to make as much pollution as they want.

As far as climate change is concerned i think we're on a ride we can't get off.

Depends what you mean by ‘care’.

do I believe the scientific consensus that we are quite fucked, heading rapidly towards very fucked? Yes I do.

can I do anything about the persistent aspects of human nature and the systems/ institutions that we’ve built continuing to drive us towards completely fucked? No I cannot.

what I firmly believe is that personal lifestyle changes will make no meaningful difference whatsoever, except to make the individual feel that they’ve ‘done their bit’ and don’t have to make any of the more fundamental, life altering changes that are required (eg rather than buying an EV, will you support banning private car ownership entirely ?). As long as there is no global consensus (a binding one) to change our current models of development, we are fucked.

I care about as much as is reasonable for someone in my position.

Or, let's put it another way.

Whilst every fucker on MN is doing 10 loads of washing a week... Me turning the little standby light off in the telly isn't going to do shit.

Whilst other countries pump metric tons of shit in to the air and sea every hour, me rinsing an old pot noodle pot and putting it in the right bin ain't gonna do fuckfuckin all.

On a scale of
Doomed to fucked in the arse - me rinsing my bean tins ain't gonna even rock the needle.
Sort the massive polluters out and then try and guilt trip me into turning my heating down a bit.

I care about litter and plastic products getting into the sea etc.

I don't care at all about climate change.

I do care but I'm a bit inconsistent and find it a lot easier to do things that feel sort of crafty and lifestyle-y than the bigger stuff- eg I've started making gardening pots out of old newspaper, only eat organic, no fast fashion, grow veg, plan my garden around wildlife diversity, take my LRB shopper every time I go to the shops BUT I still drive my car, fly occasionally etc. I am moving to a very remote rural location which feels like being green but it's actually a lot greener to live in a city flat. So I am a bit of a fraud.

I very much care and I have made adjustments to my life. It is a factor in my decision-making, small and large.

Those that don’t haven’t faced reality yet and are in denial. Fear, probably.

Yes but if I use a paper straw its useless when celebrities use private jets every day 🤷‍♀️

Yes i do care about the environment but i dont think the vast majority of the population do.

Just stop oil - All i hear is people moaning about how it disrupts their trip on the school run or a trip to the doctors/hospital. They dont get the irony that the topic they are protesting about means that there will be no need for hospitals or schools in the future. We will be extinct.

Politics - If we actually cared there would be no voting for Labour or Conservatives. Both parties have shown they have no morals and will lie for votes.......yet they still get voted in.

Transport - How many on this site would walk 30mins each way with their child to drop them off and pick them up from school. Suggest it and all you hear is i'm busy or it rains or DC wont walk.

There are hundreds of examples of why we all are guilty of ignoring the plight our environment is in. Do we care.......nope, thats our GC problem to deal with.

Not a jot.

I care about things that are within my sphere, so to speak, e.g. air pollution, landfill, sewage in rivers, etc.

I don't lose sleep about climate change - it's out of my control.

@AristotelianPhysics

Why do you not care about environmental issues then?

Yes. I feel a bit fuck it about it all. I do care but i can't see what I can do...

Was looking a destination up on Google maps yday and can see another shitty new Development of houses. All the roads have names of birds eg the habitats of what would have been in the meadow that was there before they knocked it all down. I know many of the gardens will be Astro turf and then block driveway so depressing

I watched a tv programme about how they farm beef in America and was horrified

I don't know how to make a change tbh

Afraid I'm like this too. I don't have kids so that's a massive plus, and in my teens and early 20's I was a pretty active environmental campaigner - which is over 30 years ago so it wasn't just something a millenial or the gen z lot have invented.
Now I don't care, sorry. Not sorry, actually. I'm just on this planet for another 30 years or so and couldn't give a shit what happens after I'm dead.
I have a dog, I drive a diesel car, I ear meat and I fly. Fuck it. That's still less impact than people with children have.

I'll be honest and admit I came late to the party, but yes, I do now, very much so. Two things served as a wake up call. The first was lockdown and being able to actually see the difference in the air quality without traffic and to watch animals acting differently because we weren't there. Second was temperatures hitting 40 degrees a couple of summers ago and for the first time feeling actually scared for the future. I'm vegan, I walk or use public transport and don't own a car. I buy as little as possible and second hand wherever I can. I do fly once a year though and there are a lot of improvements I could make day to day. But I won't let perfect be the enemy of doing my bit.

I do care , I recycle but that's about it.
All these high profile people preaching about saving the planet and then they take flights..drive petrol guzzling cars that belch out fumes... Hypocrites

Yes, up to a point
I don't have a car.
I am vegetarian ( though this is partly culture).
I buy very few clothes and mostly in charity shops
However, I do fly long haul to see my mum and family overseas because I have no other way of seeing them.

But then of course, I see the royals preaching to us about going green while flying across the Atlantic in a private jet for a half hour meeting, and I think " Fuck it".

I do in that I recycle manically, don't buy new clothes or crap from China, try to eat locally, never throw litter and regularly pick up other people's litter, write letters about building on flood plains, use public transport, avoid plastic bottles etcetc. So on a micro level try to be really responsible.

But then I see the government use private planes or go to overseas conferences which could be run by Zoom; allow water companies to pump sewage into our water supply; allow over development on flood plains and don't put in sufficient defences; fail to tax flights/fuels heavily to reduce usage; fail to subsidise public transport; fail to ensure all public buildings use renewables ... and I feel totally despondent. Our little contributions are fruitless unless the government make some significant changes.

Yes and no. I try really hard with single use plastic but it's fecking impossible.
I'm v strict with the kids about littering and if impacting wildlife.
I'm not giving up the flights I take less than once a year. Not my diesel car for now. I don't take all the public transport I could.

We use a water butt and blah. I try and give plants as gifts.

Yes. I care and I have made plenty of adjustments. For example:

Our house is well insulated and we have solar panels. I'm looking at heat pumps for when the boiler needs replacing.

However, I don't replace big items unless I need to. The last car did me 18 years and I have just replaced it with a plug-in hybrid, so all my local driving is electric. We have our own charging point which is fed by the solar panels.

I recycle virtually everything, including soft plastic which I take to the supermarket. I have very little food waste and most of that is vegetable peelings etc which goes into the compost. Non recyclable rubbish is around one third of a plastic sack every fortnight.

I walk all short distances, except when I have lots to carry or it's absolutely pouring. I often travel by train rather than driving and haven't flown since 2018 (though hope to do so this year or next).

I have a tumble drier but only use it for towels (all year round) or in the winter. I use the eco setting on the dishwasher and washing machine unless I'm in a huge hurry. And I always wash clothes at 30 (but towels and bedlinen at 40).

I don't eat much meat (and beef very rarely indeed). What meat I buy is from the butcher so it is local. I also buy local milk (in glass bottles) and eggs from the milkman, so not many food miles.

I have reduced plastic bottles and now use hard soap rather than shower gel and liquid hand wash. I also use a hard shampoo bar. I buy dishwasher tablets and washing powder through a subscription service. The packaging is plastic free. I also buy most cleaning products in solid form (in a small tablet that you dissolve in water, and use in refillable bottles). That cuts down on plastic and the cost of transporting what is mainly water. I never buy bottled water.

Many people say it's not worth making the effort because they can make only a tiny difference. I tend to think that's an excuse. We can only be responsible for our own actions and I want to feel that I am doing my part and to set a good example.

Could I do more? Yes, of course. But I think I do pretty well.

I do care, but I don't believe in switching off lights, trying to live in the dark ages to reduce my environmental impact. Instead I care about humans using technological advances to solve problems, rather than us trying to cut back. I find it really disheartening that people use the environment as a whipping stick to chastise (usually ordinary people) for living their lives e.g. guilting people for eating meat or having kids or flying in a plane.

I care but also think that people aren’t willing to make the changes that are going to have an impact which can be disheartening.

I have chosen not to have children and will fly every other year to short haul destinations and buy locally wherever I can.

I do. Think about it too much.

If you are flying to go on holiday once or twice a year you are not doing everything you can easily. It is the easiest thing in the world to not fly on holiday. Holidays are not essential. It’s one of the things we do that is the most carbon heavy.

Dearohdddd you may be right , but the message isn’t getting through. Have you ever looked on Flightradar? There are thousands and thousands of planes in the air at any given moment.
If flying hours were rationed then it would only work if every country agreed as otherwise people will just fly to the nearest country and go on from there.