To feel really worried about climate change in this heatwave

[Fulbe]

This heatwave has been caused by climate change but there seems to be hardly any discussion about this at all. It seems that people are focused so much on getting air con or massive paddling/ swimming pools without thinking how that might be actually contributing to the problem. People outside the school gates idling their engines to keep their air con turned on whilst creating more pollution.

I think I remember reading somewhere that we've released 6 million years' worth of CO2 in the past 150 years. Something needs to stop but consumption and car use seem to be increasing.

Am I the only one to be concerned about this and that we're just slipping into a future of more dangerous heatwaves?

People are animals and if you look around animals procreate regardless of their conditions. It’s one thing you can be sure of. Animals will shit, piss, eat and have offspring. I assume you chose not to and that’s fine. Being dismissive about people who did choose to have children is pretty mean spirited however.

And to think babies are still being born every day!

Gosh the trolling here is of a v low standard these days

That's a daft comment.
Of course people will continue having children as they always have through all previous disasters because the prevailing thing for us as humans is to have hope.

How does it help to just stop having children and then end up with an aging population who can't do anything to fix things or find solutions?

We're not discussing it because it's so completely obvious. why discuss something we all know?

We could do everything in our power to pull away from fossil fuels: properly encourage and incentivise solar and air source, capitalise on being an island and make use of changeable weather. Once we sorted that we could all move to smart houses and EVs because we wouldn’t be hostage to the instability inherent in the escalating squabbles for cress to fossil fuels.

But we won’t. The world is directly and indirectly so deeply enmeshed and committed to propping up fossil fuels, we will only escape at the point the earth starts becoming uninhabitable.

Consider the motivations of those telling ‘it’s summer ffs, it’s happened many times, remember 1976’. Those tropes are spread by those who don’t wish there to be any negative impacts to their (oil) gravy train.

Please go and watch this if you can. It is informative and explains that it isn’t necessarily too late but we must act now.

It is also important to think about how you spend your money - every major company contributes to worsening climate change. Although we think it is hard for us to make a difference, by just being mindful about what we consume, we can try to take power away from larger companies - use local shops, reduce and reuse!

We are fucked.

Big beautiful planet. We messed it up.

I was coming home from work this afternoon and looked across at the fields and thought about climate change and how we’ve fucked this beautiful planet up

@TaupeJokerwho do think is supposed to ‘do’ something? We are. Each and every one of us. And I’m not convince EVs are the answer to a big part, having just read a study on how we are destroying vast areas with rare earth elements (REEs) mining that are needed for EV batteries (and wind turbines, phones etc) - trying to ease one issue while causing another. The improvement in the atmosphere during the lockdowns are evidence of how we impact the environment. But here we are back to the usual. I was talking to someone about the REE paradox while looking at a newish Range Rover (20mpg) that I’m sure is totally unnecessary in Zone 3 London!

You living at the North Pole by any chance?

I think space exploration is a wonderful thing but take issue with it being left in the hands of the world’s richest man who has done nothing to try and improve the planet we already live on. We’ve done a terrible job of taking care of this planet, partly due to capitalism. The moon has existed long before humans and the idea that someone now feels that they have a right to build on it or lay claim to it (and no doubt its resources), is incredibly sad.

If anyone isn't feeling anxious and upset enough read The Heat Will Kill You First.

It's all so scary that almost the only thing to do is bury your head in the sand. Or at least that's how I feel

The Heat Will Kill You First https://share.google/cOpX0FyCtNFyCkJ8H

Imv what should be done is preparing and putting in place a strategy for dealing with the inevitable changes. I don’t think it’s possible to prevent catastrophic climate change but action has to be taken to:

-preserve water, and prevent drinking water being used to power wash cars and driveways
-use grey water
-reverse the depletion of topsoil,
-make the UK more self sufficient in food growth, even if that means advocating for changes in diet,
-subsidise home produced energy
-subsidise making homes more resistant to very hot weather,
-create emergency plans for heatwaves and make sure that everyone is aware or them

probably lots more things could be done

Sorry, I’ve no idea why you’re @ing me with this. EV vehicles?

There was a really big volcanic explosion which put a lot of water into the atmosphere.
https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/news/article/6016/international-report-reveals-atmospheric-impact-of-hunga-eruption

But the 8bn people on the planet all have a carbon footprint

Do you remember when they stopped talking about climate footprint because you might start counting feet?

I feel like this. This is the second heat wave so far this year. The pace of change has been so fast here in London. The storm we had last night was like a tropical storm, and the heat tonight is stifling. This is completely unprecedented. Yet I thought once it got past a certain point, it accelerated, because of the loss of stored carbon on the polar regions.

I'm an amateur flower farmer, and I can tell you, the last three years have all been extremely weird. Very big extremes of drought, heat, then rain. Nothing like our previous patterns.

I don't know if it's because we are going from a mild maritime to a Mediterranean climate, but I feel it's very marked here in the UK. I fear - what's next?

But I don’t think that’s true. When stressed, many animals become infertile and some females, both mammals and rodents, will absorb their unborn young if under environmental stress. There’s a difference between an imminent crisis, when humans are known to have sex, and the long term stresses that cause infertility.

I met a friend this evening who has just flown back from her latest trip. She has done 5 trips abroad so far this year and is aiming to fly every month to a new place now that she is retired. She was surprised how hot it was everywhere even in Finland … I tried to mention how much carbon those flights will have put into the atmosphere but she was more interested in what she was having for dinner

You do realise, that even if we stopped all emissions of CO2 and other warming agents today, that there would be no dramatic change in terms of the trajectory of the climate in our lifetimes. And that is assuming its all man made, rather than the more likely scenario of mans efforts colliding with a natural warming cycle, intensifying the latter.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't act, but we do so for future generations, we won't reap much reward.

The 1961 British science fiction film "the day the earth caught fire" is worth a watch, well ahead of its time and very prophetic.

Do you only ever do things that benefit you immediately and directly? V sad if so.

I guess you’ve never planted a fruit tree.

It is a big worry. Sometimes I worry that our children will grow up in a much more unstable , dangerous world. But mainly I don’t, we can do our bit for the environment but climate is outside of the circle I can control.

Also we are lucky to live in a wealthy democratic country and in a country that isn’t going to be the most affected. I’m in Ireland, so the weather is just nice, we have that Atlantic Ocean reducing the chance of the extremes.

I've planted several oaks as it happens, my point is that we are doing these things for the future, and absolutely we should be doing that, the OP seems under the impression if we act now we see the results tomorrow, which alas is not the case.

That wasn’t my interpretation at all tbh. I think one would have to be fairly dim to think that was possible.