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?

Just matching your energy hinny.

I've always said the same. We, as a species are distructive. We breed, consume resources, rinse and repeat. We won't be allowed to do that forever. None of us are of any importance in the grand scheme of things

When a population of parasites overwhelms its host, the host takes care of it. It's not that hard to understand.

I picked up on your first post saying you hoped it would happen

I don’t think anyone does in reality, when push comes to shove, anymore than they hope their house is taken out by a tornado tomorrow

84.4% of the population is urbanised. Let's sort out traffic in towns and cities first, that's the easy win (though safe cross-country routes between rural towns and villages are needed too, fast country roads are the most dangerous). Then we can worry about the 15.6% who live rurally. Likewise, most of the population aren't kitchen fitters, most of the population are going to work, going to school, getting some shopping etc. Every one of those who isn't in a car is a win.

Those people (delivery vans etc.) who need to drive will benefit from everyone who doesn't need to drive no longer being in their way. The Netherlands (famously hot on active travel and public transport) is a far better place to drive than North America (very car-centric) because shifting as many people as possible onto bicycles and trains reduces congestion for the people who remain in their cars. A 10% decrease in traffic makes a massive difference, you see this every time the school holidays start.

At least London and Paris are getting somewhere. Anne Hidaglo in particular has done a lot of good. Once critical mass is achieved the rate of change grows exponentially.

You realise that the reason that you no longer hear about the ozone layer is that people listened to scientists and did something about it? All 197 countries signed a treaty banning CFC production. The hole is gradually shrinking and is expected to return to 1980s levels by the mid-21st century.

How are the rich and the famous in Southern California getting on at the moment?

Insurers are the world's experts in assessing risk, why do you think that they are withdrawing coverage from places like California or Florida?

And?

What’s your point? LA is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and will continue to be. They will build it back and manage the risk.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't care and I'm not willing to have a terrible life so that people in 70 years can have a 2 degree increase instead of 3 (I also think only a mug in the UK would take responsibility when there are billions of people in India and China who won't)

I think only a mug in the UK would blame an Indian or Chinese person for buying one car per family per lifetime when British and American peoppe have seversl cars per family.

Not really. It means not subscribing to climate hysteria and the cult like obsession.

You are denying that climate change causes natural disasters (your evidence apparently being that some rich people are carrying on anyway so it must be fine). I am pointing out that the most expensive natural disaster in the history of the US has just happened. Climate change was a large part of the cause.

You claim that "clearly they are not stupid". Celebrities and politicians are pretty stupid on the whole (have you seen who's in the new US government?). Some refuse to believe that climate change is a thing, others are aware that it will happen but as long as they can buy their way out of trouble it doesn't matter if everyone else starves. Meanwhile closer to home there are some politicians who do appear to get it, but are too cowardly to take the necessary action.

Car dependency lowers quality of life in the present, never mind in the future. It cuts off social contact, reduces physical activity, increases ambient noise levels and parks a heavy financial burden on the most marginalised people.

I don't own any cars. I also don't care what India or China do because we're about to have a population collapse globally and all this will sort itself out. So just chill and book that long haul flight.

So don't drive.

Are you going to stop too? Because you driving impinges on my quality of life (not to mention my personal safety).

I have never driven a car in my life. Why do you greenzos bang on about cars so much?

It’s neither hysterical nor cult like.

What a strange way to put your head in the sand. Like being on a sinking ship and making the hole bigger and calling everyone trying to close the hole and bail out the water “hysterical” and “cult-like”.

Transport is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. Most of that is down to cars. On top of which they cause thousands of deaths in the UK per year (not just in collisions - see Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah), generate large amounts of noise and air pollution, occupy large quantities of land on this small island, and enrich some very dodgy dictators.

Ok.

It's still something I don't care about at all.

Cyclists make my day to day life harder tbh.

No they don't, you just made that up.

I used drive 35k per year for my job, all types of roads, towns and cities, i can count on one hand the number of times i ve been delayed by a cyclist, usually for about 30 to 60 seconds.
Vast majority of delays are caused by, yep even you could guess this.. Traffic!!

If this country had a better attitude to cycling, instead of the one you ve got, air pollution and general quality of life would improve.

However, yours is the prevailing view, so well done 😥

They cycle on the pavement at speed, through green men (at speed), on electric vehicles, with silent arrogance. Cyclists are the worst human beings.

They make it frightening to be a pedestrian and dangerous to be a visually or mobility impaired pedestrian and they act as though they don't know what they're doing.

‘Some’ cyclists are terrible, the same as some car drivers, some lorry drivers etc.

If I had a pound for every car driver who failed to stop at a zebra crossing (when I'm on foot), who blocked the footpath forcing pedestrians out into the road, or who came inches from killing me because they were too impatient to wait until it was safe to pass I would have funded an LTN myself. That's before I even count all of the ones who are speeding.

Car drivers worry that a bicycle will delay them. Bicycle riders worry that a car will kill them.

And most people on bikes aren't cyclists. They're ordinary people trying to get to work: