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?

It’s the type of craft people use to travel that impacts climate change. A rowing boat or sailing boat (no engine) would have had zero emissions. Also, there were fewer people on earth with a much lower carbon footprint than today.

I don't think guilting people about using aircon is helpful. But I would suggest they look into passive measures too, if only because of the elevated risk of electricity cuts in hot weather: www.france24.com/en/europe/20260624-france-outage-leaves-68000-homes-without-power-record-heatwave-spreads-north-brittany

Global fertility rates are dropping fast and the world population may peak in a few decades' time and then decline. China still has a very low birth rate (I'm aware that I'm probably incorrectly using the terms fertility and birth rate interchangeabley, but you get the gist).
People cannot help but be polluters. We're all here arguing it's Temu and Shein crap, no it's air travel, no it's big corporations, no it's India and China...but won't a falling global population just improve matters? The only places significantly higher than 2.1 replacement rate seem to be the majority of Africa, Bangladesh and some of the 'stans and a few other places. Enough education of women there might push those birthrates down too.

If we're really lucky, we might hit some sort of self correcting homeostatic mechanism where the global population declines a bit then more or less stabilises. If we're unlucky and a bit stupid, we could boom and crash our way to oblivion and take a lot of species with us.

@6ate9

Right, which is why I commented earlier about the need to try to come up with a craft of travelling overseas which doesn't have such dramatic impact on the climate. Totally zero emissions might not be possible, but could alternative modes not be found? Greta Thunberg still travels overseas, after all.

Maybe I'm being naive and coming up with a a more environmentally-friendly form of mass transport would not be viable - but has anyone actually really tried?

I bet the minute we have finished investing in billions of pounds of radiative paint for all buildings/transport and AC for schools, care homes and hosptials - the AMOC fails and Europe is plunged into a local ice age.

We really are tinkering wildly with the earths regulatory processes and the resulting climate oscillations are so catastrophically extreme.

But that is deeply unkind of you to advise your kids not to have children, when all of the generations before them were allowed to have the experience of raising their children.

My octogenarian mother asked me to be REALLY truthful the other day and asked me if I know what I know now, would I have had children? How on earth can I answer that one as my kids have made my life have meaning and they are the absolute light of my life (mostly 😬). I would have missed out on a pivotal aspect of my life by not having them yet of course I worry they are going to have a tumultuous time. I would never suggest they don’t have children though. That’s cruel.

Greta Thunbetg isn’t a good example. She still flies!!!

Typo Thunberg!!

@SorcererGaheris My solution is Voluntary Human Extinction. People want quick travel nowadays.

It is worrying, but hard to know what to do on an individual level.

I don't drive and the local bus is once an hour, a returm trip a couple of miles into town costs me £5 and would cost a family of 4 about £15 - of course nobody would choose that over car travel. Buses are just full of older people who get free travel. Society doesnt seem set up for encouraging environmentally friendly travel

To be honest flying is a tiny proportion of the bigger problem.

Had an extension lately or bought a new front door? New kitchen? Decked the garden? New clothes? Something from Temu or Amazon that's been produced in China? Put your heating on for an hour in April instead of putting on that extra layer?

Our consumer and energy choices are fuelling climate change. We need to change our ways.

Yanbu

my dh has been bleating about this for about 15 years and I got on board with it a few years ago

We’ve just had aircon installed (100% powered by solar before you ask) and it’s worth every penny but I’m very aware that the vast majority of the uk population won’t be able to afford it so we’re exceptionally lucky

tbh though coping with the heat it just a small part of it. Crops will fail - food will become even more scarce and expensive and what happens eventually (economic breakdown) isn’t worth thinking about

Climate change is real. But we are 1% of emissions. What on earth can we do? We have the highest energy prices in Europe, it's decimated our industries. Just invest in AC.

I don't think it is worth worrying about it. Nothing any of us can do will make any difference. The Human Race is pretty selfish I'm not sure a sixth mass extinction event will cause that many problems for the planet as whole in the long run - there will be another wave of life.

Just enjoy life as much as you can before we descend into chaos. Over the next 50 years we can just enjoy that UK climate is getting better and better for wine making.

A huge concern will be a lack of drinking water!!!

All of those things. Plus

• banning disposable BBQs.
• minimising flights and taxing the fuck out of those who continue to fly several times a year.
• stop building on flood plains and agricultural land
• relax planning rules to allow homeowners to adapt housing for heat
• tax fast fashion and plastic tat pedlars out of existence
• bring in legislation to get rid of UPF. A fat nation is not a resilient nation.

What can we do if India, china USA and Russia don't?

We'll just adapt and learn to live with it.

I don't actually think it is difficult to know what do on an individual level.

People are inherently selfish and will typically only make changes if they can see some benefit to themselves in doing so. An example is solar panels and batteries. They make a massive difference but most people won't do it unless they can see a benefit in terms of a reduction in their bills. Practically every potential change carries that trade off and most people won't make a change that costs them anything more than a negligible amount of money/time/discomfort.

We can do an awful lot on a personal level and whilst one person making a change make very little difference, millions of us making that change makes a big difference. We need to buy local, buy seasonal, reduce what we consume in general and make sensible choices about things that damage the world around us.

We can change the behaviours of the big corporates by not buying what they are selling. Ultimately they change if customers demand it - but we don't currently demand it.

I'm very concerned too, OP. Not just for the UK but for the poor farmers and workers in other, even hotter places who will just have to keep working.

We are approaching temperatures in which humans will be unable to function.

And then there's the worry about mass migration from countries where water becomes very difficult to find. I think it's already happening around the Sahara - places which were once cultivable are becoming dry desert.

It's really concerning and anyone who isn't concerned is living in a fools' paradise.

This is such a reductive argument. If 85% of what she does is good for the planet then she is a good example. Pointing to one or two things which are not carbon efficient, in order to negate all the other things she (or anyone else) does, shows that you are just looking for an excuse not to do anything.

It also isn’t as simple as saying “she flies” Does she choose an airline which uses sustainable air fuel? One that is meeting net zero targets? For example, Delta has committed $1bn over ten years in sustainability initiatives, which includes halving its emissions by 50% and investing in research for sustainable travel.

The answer to climate change isn’t for us all to revert to the dark ages, it’s about reducing our impact to a level the planet can sustain.

Those countries do. We can do more.

But this sort of travel has become the norm to do every year, more than once a year. How did we get to that? Back in the 60s and 70s when people emigrated to places like the US and Oz, they saw family once if they were lucky. It was a massive thing to do, and it was a one off. We have become very entitled and think it’s our right to do all sorts. It’s not, if people emigrate, part of that is accepting they are leaving family behind, not continuing to visit them like they’re a couple of hours down the motorway.

Cycling is a viable option for many

I laughed out loud at taxing those who fly a lot. We've been on multiple multiple foreign holidays this year and will be going on another one in July.