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 thought you meant about six plus, lol. I don't think three is large, particularly.

Out of curiosity, how would the council know?

Considering we have monthly collections I'm sure word would get round by the neighbours.

People get fined in my council if they put rubbish in the wrong bins. 🤷‍♀️ It does happen. They refuse to collect it too.

I do care but I have other problems that take up more headspace in my mind

Yes, I do.

I don't really understand those people who say they don't care, but have children. You may be dead before you see the full effects of climate change, but do you not care that your children will suffer?

I actually do care but it’s impossible to do anything. Impossible to buy food that doesn’t come in plastic packaging. Impossible to get to work unless you drive. Impossible to heat your home without relying on fossil fuels. And no matter what I do, B&M undoes it with the sheer amount of Chinese rubbish they sell. Until cheap disposable junk gets banned by the government, irresponsible businesses will keep selling it and irresponsible people will keep buying it. My individual actions will make fuck all difference.

Yes.

Are you saying your council open the black bags and check what's inside them?

Because you could easily be taking your recycling to a centre somewhere and not having it collected at the roadside.

I do care about the environment. Was called crunchy, granola and when I was a fresh faced intern there was shock by staff that a “hippie” had been hired because one of my very first emails to the Director was a complaint about who they had hired to prune the trees. They had hired a quack who had topped these beautiful mature trees, a type of tree you should never top as it almost always kills them. I skipped all levels of management to do that email!

my lifestyle is as green as it can be within my means and has been since I was 16. My DC have been raised into it.

Yes I do, I recycle, use public transport and keep an organic garden so the wildlife can flourish. I just wish people would stop sticking themselves to the road because that only annoys people and turns them away from something important.

I do care and I do make an effort in certain areas.
However when I see the likes of China, shipping vast quantities of absolute tat around the world and causing huge pollution. Or Joe Biden with his 79 car (?) entourage, I think sod it. Why should I be put out. How dare they tell me not to go on a plane once a year, or every few years.
I see so many examples of entitled laziness it’s mind blowing.
I reduce, reuse and recycle but I’m not going to stop travelling not until the big players make serious changes.

I like to think I do quite a lot, but it's a drop in the ocean really. DH and I both have electric cars. Our house has solar panels. We pay a premium for organic/free range groceries. We recycle religiously, don't buy fast fashion, actively avoid single-use plastic and palm oil and buy from B-Corp/ISO 14001-certified companies where possible. DH organises local litter-picks and plants trees. We always finish a day on the beach by filling a bag full of other people's litter.

On the other hand, I fly a few times a year for work (minimised as much as I can) and we go on a long-haul holiday every other year with a few short-haul flights for holidays/visiting family every year. I have two DC, although DH and I chose not to have a baby partly on environmental grounds. We eat meat and dairy products and shop at Sainsbury's rather than local independent shops.

So I suppose we don't really, really care. If we did, we'd be childless vegans who cycled to work and went on low-impact holidays by train. We've made compromises but nothing inconvenient, that we couldn't afford or that seriously impacted our quality of life.

I don’t have children. I do drive, it’s essential for my job. I have a bee friendly front and back garden. I didn’t rip my garden up to have a massive driveway. I buy secondhand a lot and I don’t buy ‘throwaway’ cheap items. I do fly every year though and I am not apologising for it. In the scheme of things my carbon footprint is very small compared to those in the public eye who constantly preach about climate change.

This.

Think about all the international events that hundreds of private jets will fly to this year; Davos, UNGA week, Munich Security Conference, COP29, European Political Community Summit, 2024 UN Climate Change Conference, NATO meetings, G7, G20, various European Summits for EU leaders, World Governments Summit, WTO Ministerial Conference, Global AI Safety Summit...and dozens more. And that doesn't even include the likes of Bill Gates just island hopping etc.

Nothing any of us do makes a difference in the scheme of all those big events. And let's not even get started on India/China emissions...

I'll start caring when world leaders put their money where their mouth is on climate, stop preaching at us whilst being hypocrites and stop jet setting to discuss things in person that can be discussed on the phone.

https://www.controlrisks.com/our-thinking/geopolitical-calendar?utm_referrer=www.google.com

I'm accountable to my DC, and their future kids. I need to lift my end, so to speak, and try to teach them the right thing to do. I would like them to at least know that we tried to do that for their generation, as they will inherit possibly catastrophic problems. We don't eat much meat, and usually drive on holiday, rather than fly.

We grow food, use one old car, no fast fashion, no one-use plastics, recycle and so on.

Same as pp, I find it very, very hard to hear parents say they don't give a shit about the environment, when it's their own kids and grandchildren who will be affected. I don't look at the scale of the problem, or politicians on private jets and think 'well, fuck it then.' I focus on what I can do, and try not to be an arsehole about it.

I just don’t 🤷‍♀️

I'm happy to recycle and reuse my shopping bags. I don't eat much meat and don't have a dish washer. I barely use my tumble dryer and have already decided I won't replace it when it dies. But I don't really care as there's no way I'd have put having children off because of climate change. And I'm not going to stop travelling either.

Whatever I do isn't going to make a dent in the problem. It's only the big corporates that can do that. They'll figure out how to do things in a more environmentally friendly way. And when they do, I'll happily change over to a cleaner way of doing things.

By the time my great, great, great, great grandchildren are here I'm sure things will be done in lots of different ways.

So no. I don't really care as I have confidence that new things will be invented that make the way humans live more environmentally friendly.

Every time I think about that amount we consume in our household (food packaging, clothes, fuel etc) and think about that over the course of a year then multiplied by millions I think how f*cked we are as a planet.

We have made some changes

This.

I do try hard to make the best decisions but I lost a LOT of motivation when my meat-eating colleague with 5 kids, a diesel van and annual trips to Disneyland told me off for “only” being vegetarian and not vegan as she was “terrified” for her kids’ future. I don’t take flights, I don’t drive, I have no kids and I’m with a 100% renewable energy company. But no; I’m ruining her kids’ futures because I sometimes eat cheese.

very much
I do all that I can to lower my environmental footprint.
I hate that the local water authority pumps raw sewage into the harbour where I want to sail.
I recycle all that I can, I reuse and repair where possible.
I feel guilty when throwing away usable materials, especially food.
I have downsized my car and cycle when ever possible, except that some scrote stole my bike last week.
I live by a 'make do and mend' mantra.

The only adjustment I could make is to give up my car and considering that I work on a farm it's not really practical. I already recycle everything I can, don't buy tat for buying's sake, don't buy clothes unless I need them and try to keep my energy consumption low.

To be honest, every single one of us could live in mud huts and eat locally foraged nuts and squirrel and it won't make a difference until the big corps shape up. The top 100 companies are responsible for over 70% of pollution.

https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/global-social-challenges/2022/07/07/corporations-vs-consumers-who-is-really-to-blame-for-climate-change/#:~:text=Since%201988%2C%20just%20100%20companies,of%20global%20greenhouse%20gas%20emissions.&text=In%20addition%20to%20this%2C%20only,during%20the%20same%20time%20period

I care a lot.
I do what is in my power to do, but my influence is tiny, so even when I bend my life to the cause more than most people I know (my carbon footprint is significantly lower than average), I'm still achieving nothing compared to the effect those with any actual power and influence could exercise but don't. So depressing.

Nothing seems to be done on a societal level which is the kind of change that's actually needed.

I think that most people at the bottom of the heap are persuaded that we all need to do our bit, it's the people at the top who can't coordinate an international response that matches the need.

National interests vying for position against one another and an eye on the next resource to exploit still seems to take priority. I can't see that changing, human nature being what it is.

Yes, I really care. I was born in a really rural area and have always lived here and love it.
During lock down like other key workers I was going to work every day. Within the first month of lockdown I saw more deer than I have done in 40 years of living here. There was so much more wildlife. Nature reclaimed the earth for a few months and it was incredible to see.

Also look at who invented the idea of a carbon footprint - one of the biggest polluters in the world!