This is it - climate change is really beginning to bite

[Wowwee1234]

We know the climate is changing and it is us. This particular heat wave feels like the next step up after a winter of devastating storms.

YABU - It's just too hot
YANBU - This is the taste of things to come.

Climate refugees are already on the move.

It’s worth remembering that AI is driving vast energy use and water use - doubling Googles environmental footprint. This is technology that we cannot afford, and I question its value added anyway.

We could not have had a worse concatenation of events with tech and economic global ideologies at the same time. We need to pull back on the economic ideologies. But yes, too many people can’t think won’t think and just want the convenience of being told what to do by AI. I despair.

something else that defeats the object is when the walls get hot. The walls that have light switches and plug sockets attatched to them.

Speaking of climatic changes impacts on humans, try something closer to home.
The ancient temple culture of Malta may well have collapsed due to that 4.2 ky event. It may also have driven the bell beaker folk to spread widely across Europe (and send their culture everywhere they didn’t physically go). They’re likely the reason we have Indo-European languages everywhere today.

Yes I do think we are tipping further and furthet dangerous feedback loops.

What we can do is both minimal and maximal. Think of it as each of us as stars in a night sky. The more stars there are, the less dark the night. And we can help more and more people to shine.

Practically, we need to ditch the nonsense that just recycling is our bit for the climate / environment done.

Everyone has their pet things to do, so pick a few and then add more as you get comfortable. Long list coming up of the things I have / am doing but this is 25 years of gradual additions....

Second hand clothes / vinted
Reduce overall consumption e.g reusing wrapping paper, giving vouchers or cash not items, donating to charities at Christmas, buying chocolate bars not eggs at easter (less wrapping, better value)
Stopped at 2 children
Not flying for leisure
Holidaying in the uk
Holidaying by train
Wildlife garden
Solar panels (electric) (via low cost loan)
Solar thermal (hot water)
Draft insulation
Cavity wall insulation
Local organic veg box (1/2 weekly shop, £20)
Electric vehicle (leased through work)
Helped various community wind power projects
Written to MP
Written to United Nations
Organised non violent denomstrations
Voted with my beliefs
Plant based washing up liquid and detergent
Plant based toiletries
Fairtrade tea / coffee
Eating seasonally
Vegetarian diet (vegan is a too big stretch for me)
Fabric bags
Washing clothes at 30 or 40°c
Wood pellet boiler (using sustainable pellets)
Cycling and walking where I can
No pets
Upcycling wood into furniture
Reusable bottles, cups
Staying fit and healthy (NHS is a huge consumer of energy)
Terry nappies - lasted two kids from birth to toddler, now rags
Home compost

I am far from perfect btw! Just showing things can be done by all of us with some changes.

We are currently experiencing the not uncommon feature of the Azores High, along with other countries in its path.

Nothing unusual about it. Its been around since Adam was a boy.

Thank you, that is a brilliant post. I don't and won't be having children, I don’t fly anywhere, and try my best to recycle. Never ever buy new clothes etc (always charity shops and Vinted), and don't buy the shite from Shein, Temu etc, so I'm doing my bit!

^ been doing most of that for decades. I’ve always done what I can, while being poor and so not having much control over energy supplies (beyond picking one - I still remember my joy when I actually got that option from a landlord and went for a green option before they were compulsory).

It is the well off who can afford SUVs and foreign holidays who have done the most damage and are continuing to do so despite having the most power over choices. Sort yourselves out! And be told!

I remember this sort of weather decades ago. No need to panic.🤷‍♀️

That's a strawman that doesn't hold up.

The main issue is you are wilfully refusing to understand or think about how different molecules ('chemicals') work. The hole in the ozone layer was down to small numbers of deodorants and fridges using CFCs. It took some time to work out CFCs cause runaway reactions that destroy ozone. Insufficient ozone means higher uv, which we all know causes sunburn. We've changed things up to stop this and didn't think the svientists were wrong then.

You wouldn't want small amounts of additional nuclear radiation throughout the atmosphere, because you know that is deadly and causes cancer. We don't question that scientists understand nuclear physics.

So, yes, the addition of extra carbon dioxide, methane, and some other gases can change the entire atmosphere. We have for around 150 years been releasing large quantities which took millions of years to accumulate (fossil fuels). They sit in the higher atmosphere and trap in the heat radiating back from the earth.

There is no narcissim here. Or idiocy. Unless you think you know better than thousands of scientists?

My DM started in the 60s, thank you very much. I grew up among books on self sufficiency, healthy eating, and a long exposure to recycling and (as I say) "saving the planet" as it was called then. Maybe this is why I have a very low threshold for todays eco bollocks.

Pessimism is such a danger because people who don't realise their own power think it's pointless to change.

But there is so much that can be done - to pull out of the worst of the crisis, in time, and to help those who need help to adapt.

We can absolutely pull together and do this. I really believe in our collective power to make things better.

Oh quite. Once we stop chasing fairy farts like net zero and actually deal with the effects of climate change. Or consequences if you want to be anthropocentric.

There’s around 7 billion more people on the planet than in 1890. That is the main issue behind a great many problems facing us today.

I really really wouldn't worry. Nature will take care of it. She always does.

She already is.

This has got to be the worst justification for not working and contributing to society I’ve ever heard.

If this goes down, even naturally and slowly through reducing birth rate we have more of a chance. It's odd that people fight against that and want policies to increase birth rate.

Yet even now there are white people who want more babies ....

Completely agree, at least in developed countries anyway.

What do you mean by the crossed out part? Why single out that group?

It's true though. Globally, the people who will be most affected by climate change are those who did least to cause it.

It's not so much this summer in the UK as the fact that I'm now cautious about holiday in Southern Europe in high summer now because 35-40c summers seem to be becoming standard and that's just too hot for me.

Fortunately only a few years until we're not tied to school holidays anymore, so maybe in the meantime we'll do Northern Europe only in July/August.

Nature doesn't give a shit about "countries".

Well, yes. But that's just the truth about anything. Those with least agency suffer the greatest effects.

It's simply not true that global temperatures haven't changed since the '40s.

I don't think they want to hear this!