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 care but it’s depressing. I work in waste management and people hide glass/ bin bags under cardboard so it ends up contaminating a lorry load of recycling. So much plastic waste behind the scenes at supermarkets It feels like individually we are just spitting in the wind trying to put out a forest fire

I do care (although I don't think it will make a difference now because not enough people believe change can be effected)

We do lots of things but could be better:

We installed solar panels and a battery plus a solar immersion heater which means that from April through to the end of September we use very little energy (no gas). We have woodburners for the occasional chilly day during the summer and only use wood from our own property. During the winter we are unfortunately dependent on oil/woodburners since solar panels don't generate much during the late autumn and winter months.

We recycle everything that can be recycled locally.

House is well insulated and we have planted to provide lots of shade around the house to deal with heat in the summer. I have thick interlined curtains and blinds which we use effectively in both summer and winter. I have draught excluders at all external doors.

We don't have any food waste since we have chickens so they eat all of our scraps. We have very ,little anyway since I freeze most leftovers to use in another dish. I try to buy seasonally and locally.

We compost everything that can't be eaten by chickens. We also compost the chicken manure/bedding.

We don't eat red meat. We do still eat chicken and turkey and fish

We grow lots of our own vegetables and some fruit.

We have woodland which we manage in a sustainable way and we have planted literally hundreds of trees.

We harvest a lot of rainwater. I have 12 water butts.

I hardly drive anywhere anymore (although some driving is necessary since we live rurally). It's significantly reduced from say ten years ago. We both drive very old cars and will continue to do so until they die.

Dog is on insect based food

We hardly ever buy new clothing. The vast majority of our furniture is second hand from eBay/relatives/facebook marketplace.

We try to buy British if possible.

I don't ever buy cut flowers which have a horrendous carbon footprint. If anyone buys any for me I preserve them with glycerine and they then last for months.

We don't mow the lawn from May through to September.

We have thousands and thousands of bees.

We limit the washing and dry as much outside as possible. Even when its wet I have a line outside under cover so things still line dry.

I have unsubscribed from everything possible although with the ridiculous levels of spam it's impossible to do this. I try to delete all old emails that are not needed. I do use MN way too much which is really bad for the environment.

I'm sure there is other stuff.

There's also more we could do though. We still fly once a year. We still eat poultry and dairy etc, etc.

Yes, but sometimes other considerations are more important.

So I still had children, but we use reusable nappies and bring them up in a relative low-impact lifestyle.

We don't fly and we walk the vast majority of journeys under 3 miles each way. But we own a car. I need one to get to my elderly relatives' homes (I help to care for them and I simply couldn't fit this into the day when public transport would add 3 hours to each round trip). And we have day trips to the beach and to nature reserves, travelling by car.

I am trying to grow more of our food. Virtually everything is made from scratch which cuts down on carbon footprint and landfill. Our diet is fairly low in meat. But we eat lots of dairy, plus I can't afford any organic food or all that much local food.

We buy most things second hand, and repair/reuse as much as we can. My mending basket is piled high! I mostly clean with vinegar/lemon etc. We don't use much energy per person - heating rarely on, slow cookers instead of big cooker etc.

There's a lot I'd like to do but can't afford to - organic food, more fruit trees in the garden, electric cargo bike, solar panels. But plenty more that I'm gradually improving with little or no additional expense.

If everyone in the UK had the sort of impact on the world that my family and I do, I think the environment would really gain from it. But if everyone in the developing world adopted our lifestyle from tomorrow...well that would be bad news.

I'm trying to gradually move towards the kind of lifestyle where everyone in the world could live like us, and creation would be all the better for it. But at this rate we are quite a few years from that goal.

think a lot of people say they care, but do you really?

In all honesty, no, I don't care or think about it at all.

Exactly -and then I go out and see all the polluting SUVs, the plastic tat in the shops that people keep buying eg for Halloween and Christmas and all the photos of ski-ing holidays. Oh, I forgot all the pets and the people who insist on using sprinklers on their lawns when we get one day of dry weather.

Also agree that when Russia and Israel/Hamas want to wage war with all the environmental damage that entails - there are far more people out there who don't give a wotsit than do.

I work for a company that is a BCorp etc

Not sure how that is worth anything, given that Nespresso is a BCorp. How, when its whole premise is so wasteful? Being a BCorp is just another example of greenwashing.

I do care but I have come to believe that humans have evolved to fuck the planet and I don’t think we can stop ourselves. So I think we are fucked and can’t fix it.

I've always recycled and reused. I didn't understand the wanton waste of resources, still don't.
However I see capitalism as the problem - we are pushed to consume endlessly, this won't stop so waste is constant and growing.
I do lots still but it feels like pissing in the wind.

I do care to the level of making lots of minor adjustments, but nothing that causes discomfort. I do feel a bit stung having kept my heating much lower than i wanted for quite a few years now 'for the environment' then chatting with people in much bigger houses who spend like 7k on their gas bills and realising i probably havent had much impact - especially when i see their massive cars and holidays 5 times a year.

I do care to a certain degree and threads like this sometimes give ideas of little easy extras I could do and then along come people like OhDear with their sanctimony and I think fuck it I’ll be long dead

It's really hard when everyone around you is ignoring it. You start to feel like there isn't any point.

My friend is on her second overseas holiday of 2024.

Same

Yes, I do care a lot. But not for the affect on humans, I really don't care about those. It's all the species we are wiping out in the process, loss of habitat and loss of food for these. I grow and plant as many things to help the bees and insect population. Don't keep an overly tidy garden and feed the birds and hedgehogs.

I try to be conscious of everything I buy, all shoes second hand, nearly all clothes. I use everything until it no longer works not because it is not in style. Recycle as much as possible, only have been on one flight for an hour in my nearly 50 years on this planet. Litter pick the road I live on, it disgusts me how some people are so thoughtless and simply don't care.

Yes I care and I make choices in my life to reflect that.

Obviously, nobody can do everything, and there comes a point where there is too big a trade off in terms of having a negative impact on me enjoying my life (which is also important).

But, I do quite a lot, and I'm happy with what I do.

I tend to think we'll wipe ourselves out within a fairly short space of time. Earth will recover. In the meantime, I do what I can but I don't worry about it.

Yes and no but you could say that about so many things, it’s a bit of a daft statement. I wouldn’t work in the NHS if I didn’t care about lives.

If you care, but everyone around you is ignoring it, maybe you're moving in the wrong circles?

The vast majority of my friends care and act accordingly.

Yes I care

Yes I do stuff to minimise my carbon footprint

If don't think it's yet low enough but there are structural problems in the uk eg limited public transport means I still have a car

I do find many - if not all - of the changes make me happier and healthier so it's been easy so far

Ahh ok, yes it's entirely my fault then. Thats helpful thanks.

I do but get fed up when there is so much hypocrisy with it all

I care, and I don't think someone else will deal with it, but I also think why should I put myself at significant disadvantage when those around me are not, and so anything I do will be a drop in the ocean. Also, lots of so called sustainable alternatives end up being worse, so knee jerk reactions are not helpful.
I subscribe to everything in moderation. We are not excessively wasteful or environmentally harmful but we don't disadvantage ourselves either.

Eg. I have no issue taking my one return flight a year for my holiday given many many others take multiple long haul flights. If flights were rationed it would not affect me really.

Yes i do everything reasonable to minimise waste and recycle etc but i do take too many flights etc.

Both my children have decided not to have children largely due to the climate change and a horrible world

I don't want to create unnecessary waste, however my own carbon footprint, since I'm not a millionaire who jets everywhere is very small. Real change will have to come from the US and China, and the mega rich. I am tired of groups like extinction rebellion targeting normal people when they should be protesting outside refineries and large corps.

Why don’t supermarkets give us a choice of stuff in plastic or stuff in waxed cardboard (or whatever).
Why?

And any crashes in an EV the car gets written off as you can't tell if any of the battery cells have been damaged. Very wasteful

I agree

For as long as "big men with important jobs" fly around everywhere all the time, I don't feel too guilty about having the occasional holiday