To resent the cognitive dissonance that exists around climate change

[JacquesHarlow]

Let’s be real - will anything get better when folk’s priorities are usually about themselves?

Let me explain my rather emotional opening point.

There’s been lots of news this week unsurprisingly about how we had the hottest year on record last year. The last 10 years have been the hottest on record. Wildfires, floods, you name it - the earth is changing.

Yet here in the temperate, largely rainy UK, many people I see around me are very happy to have their head in the sand, while also bizarrely choosing just one or two lines of attack on the climate crisis to shame others.

One of the parents i know has an electric car. It’s nice, I’m happy for them. They also take at least five flight a year. They have three children.

Yet if you hear them talk about diesel cars… it’s as if the owners are personally killing everyone around them.

Now don’t get me wrong. Emissions locally are important, the air our kids breathe is important. that might be a focus.

However you see it in the choice of car journeys over trains, of large SUVs over a normal family car like a Golf.

The latter particularly grates. We have a huge climate crisis. Yet Joanna or Nicola has to have a Discovery Sport for her three kids because she needs to sit high up, it’s easier to load them in, and she worries about crash worthiness.

The history books will show that rather than looking up and out for each other, we’re actually turning more inwards. Our own personal economy will always triumph over needing to protect others. If I’m able to pay £400 a month PCP on a Dispcvery Sport, then “I’ll protect my family over anything”, even though the entire thought process is irrational.

We need to take fewer flights and more rail journeys. working from home should mean more walking to school as the commute has gone. instead we’re seeing more car journeys. More flights. More large purchases; throwaway electronics; fast fashion.

AIBU to think there’s a lot of cognitive dissonance and head in the sand about climate change in the UK, and spending power (and the choices it unlocks) is king?

Our individual actions don't add up. They just don't. The UK becoming net zero will not make any difference whatsoever. We could all die in the UK and the whole country could go rewilded and it would not make any difference whatsoever. The world will rebalance itself. Certain forms of life will die out, new ones will emerge. That's fine. Why are you so invested in maintaining the status quo op?

Sorry what are you asking me? I'm just saying that I can only control a very small amount of the world, so I choose to do it in an environmentally friendly way. I can't change the world but I can do my part. If you don't want to because you don't think it makes a difference, that's your prerogative.

Being climate aware is the preserve of those who can afford it. Those of us who cannot are destined to sit by and worry for our children's future.

Not entirely true

You can vote.
You can still choose to consume less, recycle, repair, etc
You can campaign and spread awareness and teach the next generation

But yes many things like an electric car or solar panels cost money and we need the government to spend on effective transport, retrofitting houses, etc which can then help everyone

Not correct. Again who consumes the trade from China ? And again they have spent a fortune on renewable energy and are driving prices down (although I am still not a fan)
Anyway, you are validating the OPs frustration 🫤

It’s a case of being realistic. It is true. Everyone in the UK could live in a mud hut and eat dry leaves (this governments doing its best to get the country to that state) and it still would make 0 difference to the climate. That is simply a fact.

Wait until Trump gets going with ‘Drill, baby drill’. That will a whole other level of global emissions.

That's incorrect but there is no point in trying to change your view

Exactly this. A small country like the UK’s population deciding to not book that international flight or get an electric car is not going to make any difference in the scheme of the world.

We really need to change the way we calculate each country’s emissions.

The UK’s official figures ought to include the emissions created by the manufacture and transport of the goods we import from China, India, Vietnam etc. Also, the UK is the world’s third biggest exporter of plastic waste, which is sometimes burned, especially in Turkiye.

So, lets say all EU/European countries take that attitude? thats a lot more than 1%.... actions add up.

However, i do question some stuff, like chainsaws/strimmers becoming electric... FFS how many people use a fucking chainsaw??

Its just a means to get people in that sector to buy more stuff and manufacturers to make more money.

EU is not going to do that. Because they are learning the lesson the hard way that climate hysteria damages your country’s living standards irreparably. But even if they went to 0, It’ll still make no difference. EU make up less than 6% of global emissions. India’s emissions alone will grow more than that in the next few years.

As I say feeling good about stuff doesn’t mean it’s worth anything or that it makes any difference to the world. With respect, that’s the term virus signal is so heavily associated with people who see themselves as climate activists or environmentalists.

Well, in that case, lets do nothing at all and see things like floods and fires become the norm & what that will mean for food security.

Its all very well your doom n gloom "there is nothing we can do" attitude but it is a rather negative message.

The thing that no one is ever able to answer is that if there is really a so-called climate emergency, why do the US, China, India and others continue to emit so much. Why do celebrities and activists who lecture the rest of us, live their lives as there is no emergency.

Clearly, they are not stupid, if there is going to be some climate related catastrophe, then they will be impacted as much as everyone else. It’s like Nuclear weapons, everyone knows that they are assured mutual destruction, so every country avoids first strike as much as possible. While witn carbon emissions, the rich and the powerful live their lives and powerful countries run themselves normally.

There is only one explanation. There is no climate emergency. The gullible have fallen for that line and are being taken for a ride.

Do as they do, not as they say.

Yes let’s do nothing. Because people in this country doing something hoping for it to make a difference knowing that it physically and statistically can’t is the real cognitive dissonance. It’s actually weird. Like being in a cult

Well, that is one interpretation.... it could also be that countries like India China etc know there is disaster coming down the tracks but due to their huge populations and utter reliance on growth, see no real way to halt it, so bury their heads in the sand... Trump isn't going to get elected if he said i want to Make America Poor Again, Xi has a population that demands growth, India the same.

The elites think their money will protect them and the climate people like Attenborough believe they are our last chance, environmental prophets.

So basically your explanation is that they are all stupid, ostriches, short sighted, don’t mind being wiped out.

And the vocal minority following the climate hysteria cult is smarter and knows everything. Sorry but I struggle to think that climate hysteria types sitting in their cold homes, feeling good about never flying are smarter than the people running the biggest strongest countries in the world.

I err towards @Anniedash ’s opinion.
Why is air travel unlimited? Cruise ships everywhere? America, and Europe, selling cars with huge engines capable of ridiculous speeds? SUV’s still for sale? Buying shite from China? India and China building fossil fuel power stations? Drill baby drill? Beef still a staple part of the food chain? Factories producing non essentials like biscuits and cakes? Bottled water being transported all over the world!
That last one boils my piss though. How the fuck is it possible you get a bottle of Evian in an Edinburgh restaurant?
I’m not a climate change denier, but it’s either too late, or nowhere near as serious as made out.

The biggest issue by far is the fact we have 8 billion people and counting. A reduction in reproduction would be the biggest improvement mankind could make. Get back down to 4 billion.

It is difficult to be a conscious consumer but every little bit helps. You must also remember that we all influence each other. So if you start doing something in a more environmentally friendly way you might influence someone else to do the same and that way your little effort counts double.

We use washing nuts and I know that two other families have started using washing nuts too because we had told them about it ( and how much money we had saved). If you start wearing clothes with visible mending or clothes from a charity shop instead of the latest range from Primark you might inspire others to do the same even without talking about it.

I know that it is difficult to avoid products that are made in a way that cause a lot of pollution. Even if you buy local products they might have components that were made in countries you don't agree with politically or where they use child labour or pollute a lot. But it is better than buying a product where all the components come from such countries.

I have sympathy with the population posts. We have a declining birthrate already I wouldn’t do anything to counter that.

AI will kick in by twenty years and lower workforce would be better than loads out of work.

The UK and Europe have declining birth rates, totally dwarfed by India’s growing population.

No, i said thats one interpretation.....

You tell me how China maintains its growth of around 8% by any other means other than mass manufacturing? how it supplies energy to its billion plus citizens?

How does Europe keep its populations in work? the so called Green industries cannot compete with cheaper SE Asian products.

These world leaders are very rich, quite old, Xi is 71, Trump 80? Climate change is for another leader to deal with... many Govts also think tech will save the world.....

I'm not saying you re wrong by the way but i do look at my local environment, just a few years ago, vegetation died off from October onwards, now its still growing in December....
Squirrels used to hibernate, not anymore... Tick season was March till October, now its year long.

These are things that have occurred in just a few years.

People are selfish (myself included). We do bits and pieces that help the environment but many people put their own comfort and convenience first.

I think the Keanu Reeves film explains it perfectly "The tragedy is they know what is to become of them, they sense it but they can't seem to do anything about it"

So cycling and not eating meat is expensive?

With falling reproduction rates worldwide, the world's population will eventually peak and start to fall