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?

Not really. I had untreated asthma while I studied and biked more than that a day.

Even though I drove slowly, it still only took the same amount of time as using public transport.

Agree with this!
It's all very well to insist the UK is only responsible for 1% of global.emissions but a lot of that has to do with the fact we dont manufacture on a massive scale. But that doesn't mean we aren't the consumer or customer of the nations we're pointing the finger at.
China and India etc are not producing billions of goods just for their own residents , they are providing the world with phones, cars, clothes, toys etc etc. (We recently replaced our towels after 20 years, new ones are made in India - the old ones are going to an animal shelter)
So there will be an environmental cost to the production and the transportation to other countries including the uk

I thought if measured as a consumer nation, not just what we produced here, the UK is responsible for around 2% of world green house emissions but even on the 1% figure, we are the 21st country of the worlds top emitting countries.

Yes. And if you go on the S and B thread or many other threads, you will find people with 30 pairs of jeans, a 100 dresses, 60 pairs of shoes.... Then all that is discarded as rubbish and dumped in poor countries.

We-including myself-could all consume more mindfully.

Generally people change behaviour when there’s a cost attached

So if people want to lower consumption from China that would mean something like tariffs

So politically would we want that?

One problem is that we've benefited so much from economic growth over the last two hundred years and it's not reasonable to expect that other countries won't want the same lifestyle - so they are catching up, at all costs.

Another is that when you see the level of destruction going on globally - Gaza is now 90% destroyed, Ukraine similarly razed - not to mention the LA fires - one's own efforts at scraping beans from a can to recycle it seem utterly pointless.

I think we've reached peak human intelligence / evolution: we are really doing the same as the Vikings, pillaging the earth: maybe humans don't change. The mistake was to think that we were any type of kind, compassionate steward of our planet. We are selfish apes.

I will keep trying. Regardless of who sneers at me.

High street & consumer spend is important to the UK s economy, tariffs would dent that.... we apparently, all want growth!!!

Its a conundrum, better way is to ensure China makes better quality, longer lasting goods, which tbh, it is starting to do.

We like to travel, have a nice home, a decent car, etc etc all those billions in China and Africa and India all want the same.... Airline travel set to triple over the next decade.

But 1 or 2% only makes a difference of 1-2%
Which is roughly translated as none at all. Especially when other bigger producers are cheerfully increasing emissions with other developing countries set to join them.
And I also don't understand why activists are so wedded to keeping things as is. No one thinks that this is a special time in the history of the world do they? We are just a phase, a blip. If we disappear something else will come along. And that's fine.

China emits about 35% of global greenhouse gases.

If every other country said “ah, because of China, we don’t need to reduce ours” we’d miss 65% of the required reductions.

Every country needs to reduce emissions in line with preventing a 1.5 degree temperature increase or at least remain well below 2 degrees. By 2050.

Us, India and china emit so much because of their size

But we would feel it with higher costs of goods, even the green stuff that’s being imported is cheaper from China

And the tariffs are usually reciprocal which would damage us more

So if people say stop buying stuff from China how much would they want to back that up with a price they pay?

Politically we’re trying to sell in China as a good relationship atm, well Reeves is

Thats not really a very constructive way to look at it, wrecking the planet so humans can no longer survive on it, would wreck it for many other species too, it might even lead to earth no longer being habitable, especially as such climate disruption "could" lead to many more wars, possibly even nuclear ones.

There would also be the suffering and death as we go into this phase of our decline.

Based on the UKs imported emissions, the EU is nearer 15%, so with the UK, we are approaching 20% on global green house gasses.

I think thats worth, at least, trying to reduce.

Its not just Reeves, its British industry, services and manufacturing, both in full support, rare given her budget!!
China is the worlds 2nd largest economy, given Trumps tariff promises, we'd be mad not to explore other opportunities.

Spain is getting China to manufacture there, much like the UK did with Japanese car manufacturers in the 80s... the UK could do that too but thanks to the Tories, Brexit makes that rather harder, unless we relax our so called FTA with the EU.

Well then a decision is made people prefer consumption from China and the associated impact on emissions.

There’s no point in lamenting China’s manufacturing and doing this, people need to decide politically

I think there's a lot of hypocrisy around it for sure. I know someone who is head of climate change advocacy for a big international charity. Last year was in Asia for holidays several times, drives a car, etc etc.

I don't personally believe climate change should be something we prioritise so I don't care that she isn't following her own rules but the lectures are a bit annoying.

The only thing that will save the planet is the removal of the human race. Hopefully the planet will suss out a way to do that at some point.

That’s a bit extreme. Do you have dc out of interest?

Do you know what the world will be like when average global temperatures are 2-3 degrees higher than now ? Is that good for the economy / trade / happiness / wellbeing ?

I do. I don't know what that's got to do with the price of chips like.

We are a plague on this planet and the planet will see to us. It makes me laugh at all the I don't believe in climate change people. Climate change doesn't give a toss if you believe in it or not. The planet is changing faster than we can evolve to keep up.

All the navel gazing in the world won't make a difference.

I can understand people saying they want to be wiped out without dc, but wanting this destruction for their dc and for them to be wiped out, well I can’t see why you would.

I think the idea we will get more inward investment and more export opportunities, not that we will import more.

I personally, have reservations about this but if Trump makes trade harder with the US, then who do we trade with?

China is here, its the reality, your phone laptop and networking equipment in your office and data centre is mostly made there or SE Asia, your bicycle, the processors in your car all come from China or surrounding regions.

Its not just cheap tat that we import.

Bless you.

I don't believe there's anything we can do that will change this (and I don't think it will be the end of the world anyway). I think a lot of humans are predisposed to love a hair shirt drama is all. I'd rather live a nice life.

China is here, its the reality, your phone laptop and networking equipment in your office and data centre is mostly made there or SE Asia, your bicycle, the processors in your car all come from China or surrounding regions.

Of course it is. There are no posts stating otherwise

People want that stuff fine. Then China will have higher emissions and we can’t say much as we are part of that

As for investment China are already buying across the world, we’ll see where acceleration gets them in terms of long term control in a few decades