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?

Ok but cars don't drive on pavements ringing their bells behind them as though the pedestrian is responsible for getting out the way.

Enough that it's cyclists that make life miserable in Edinburgh, where I live, not cars.

I concede that Edinburgh traffic calming will have made cars less stressful than they might have been (you can report pavement parking online now with the click or a button).

Wow its turned into a row about cycling....

As PP said....some cyclists....not all. Although we can probably all agree that delivery cyclists without lights and on pavements are maddening

As you were...

You ve clearly got an irrational hatred of cyclists and lump them all together.

I worked in central London, very few cycle related incidents compared to the ones i encountered with buses, taxis and cars.

Same where i live now, i go into Plymouth, decent sized city, are there poor standards of riding? of course but again, tiny in comparison to vehicles or even people with pushchairs!!

Simple fact is, almost all cyclists are aware that in a collision, they will suffer greatly, even be killed.

The hatred of cyclists really concerns me - people don’t see them as real vulnerable human beings

I used to cycle to work and didn’t break any rules but the aggression of some car drivers put me off

This isn't about car drivers it's about pedestrians. You are the risk to us. I know cyclists hate having to face this because you see yourselves as baby vulnerable good guys.

Wow. Maybe just calm down, take a break

Not only do cars mount pavements, they also use a far more invasive noise to get people out of their way

Thet doesn't madden me

Most pedestrian deaths and accidents are due to motor vehicles

Good 4 u

I really wish there wasn’t the sheer amount of “whatabouttery” on the Internet of today as demonstrated by @Everythingisnumbersnow

Which is more dangerous:

• admittedly irritating bikes which “drive” on pavements ringing a bell , asking a pedestrian to move over
• Dangerously driven cars which fail to stop at zebra crossings, or slow down as they turn into a minor road etc

Honestly - can someone not just make a point about a car without someone trying to counter about bikes? Ever?!

P.S I am a driver AND a cyclist before anyone starts.

Especially when some of the people at the climate summits probably have a vested interest in some form or another.

If cars don't drive on pavements then how do they end up parked on them? They might not have bells, but they just rev their engines or use their horns instead.

Godwin's Law (Mumsnet edition):
"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a rant about cyclists approaches 1."

Take a look at some facts and get things into proportion. Road vehicles are responsible for around 99% of pedestrian fatalities. Also responsible for around 25% of the UK's GHG emissions (which is what this thread is supposed to be about).

It's interesting that overpopulation in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia is always cited as a problem yet the inhabitants of those regions affect the global climate the least. The billions of poor South Asians and Africans are not the ones demanding Amazon delivery shit from China the next day nor do they have power hungry home Internet or yearly overseas holidays.

Agree OP the cognitive dissonance is wild in some of my friends who think they are the climates best friend because they don't use kitchen towels, recycle their contact lenses sachets and bring their reusable coffee cup when we go for coffee.
They scoff and moan at me because I never remember my reusable cup and you would think I was single handedly responsible for climate change. One actually refused to come for coffee one day because she couldn't bear to see me with a paper cup and lectured me about landfill etc.
I'm child free. They have 10 children between the three of them. It's fucking laughable and they don't see the irony.

Many people I know are climate deniers. That way they don't have to make any changes to their lives. Way of coping i guess. We are truly f***

That’s it exactly @malificent7
If you let in the knowledge and really sit with it and think about what it means - for the atmosphere, oceans, weather systems, land use, food production, pollution, migration, housing, natural disasters, long term deterioration of stable conditions, species threat, etc etc - then eventually you think, I am part of this, I am not separate from this, my actions affect this, how can I change my actions?
Or you stick your fingers in your ears.
(Or tbf, some people really honestly don’t understand the science/ physics/ consequences - but everyone can google if they want to learn).
Then you make your choices. And everyone has different circumstances, but surely you would try to help a little bit?
I think we all agree a reusable coffee cup isn’t going to cut it.

What does my swede in is the sheer amount of flapping and wailing over being forced to live a miserable, joyless existence if we all work together to cut our carbon emissions.

As if warm, well insulated homes, cheaper power, less traffic and safer streets, more nature, trees and greenery in our everyday surroundings, more opportunity for safer exercise, cleaner air etc were all bad things 🤔

It would take about three generations, billions of pounds worth of investment, a radical worldwide philosophical and economic sea change and a huge cultural deprogramming to be able to reach this admitted utopia.

Not going to happen.

Well it won't if we don't start now. But would you really prefer the alternative?

And to be honest, a lot of this stuff is in train- and more could be, if it wasn't for the endless carping of those taken in by the deliberate misinformation pumped out by the paid lobbyists of the fossil fuel industry.

Traffic reduction schemes are already being rolled out in cities. Hell, in the Netherlands it happened 50 years ago. Paris has become demonstrably greener and more cycle friendly in my lifetime (and consequently a far nicer place to visit). Last time I went to London I noticed how lovely and quiet the backstreets of Haringey were due to the LTNs. Renewable energy generation is increasing year upon year. A mass rollout of home insulation should happen (side eyes government 👀)

What it really needs is for people to stop fucking whining over nothing.

I note Trump.has announced the US will withdraw from the Paris agreement. In his own words" Drill, baby, drill". In the company of Yemen and Iran.

I really hope that people can stop blaming the poor in India, China and Africa now for climate change.

The richest country in the world doesn't care. Why should anyone else?

Most people don’t care.