Anyone else surprised that there isn’t more uproar about global warming right now?

[fluffythecat1]

In the grips of an unprecedentedly hot summer, schools closing, fridges breaking down in many supermarkets, impending drought. How come there is not more popular protest as we experience properly for the first time what the future will hold? It is a problem for global leaders and governments, however I’m surprised that Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, or a similar grassroots radical protest organisation isn’t harnessing the momentum. It doesn’t seem such an abstract issue right now.

But we don't really want China to do that, do we? Because if they did, where would we get all our cheap crap from?

If we achieve net zero, we'll have nothing to be smug about. We'll still want all the shit China pump out emissions to produce. We'll still want it shipped by plane, etc.

Trouble is, we want to have our cake and eat it. Net zero is only possible for us because we have shunted the problem of emissions from heavy industry somewhere else.

Nobody wants to consume less. Nobody really wants to do what it would really take. Most think it's not down to us as individuals, that us all giving up plastic straws, etc, won't make a jot of difference. We want the governments to do 'something' about 'big oil', 'big agriculture', and other multi-nationals you can put 'big' in front of, but the 'something' we want them to do has to involve minimal inconvenience to us as individuals. Shoving all the nasty stuff somewhere else so we can't see it, but still get the benefits has long been a policy in this country.

It’s not the possible extinction of humans that worries me, but the possible extinction of so many of the other animals and plants we are privileged to share the planet with. We are causing one of the earth’s great extinction events, just so rich people - and it is the richer people, poor people do not consume anything like as much resource - can have their cakes and eat, have every possible convenience laid on and use them to boost their ‘images’, ‘confidence’ or ‘status’. Pathetic.

We have been warned for decades. Unfortunately neoliberalism and globalism came along at the worst possible time, forcing entire economies to re build themselves around consumption and making profit for the rich instead of what was actually needed. Eg in. Britain a wholesale push for privatised transport and more and more cars, requiring ridiculously convoluted global supply chains, instead of more effective public transport and more sustainable local chains.

Like they are doing right now on this thread!

I shook my fist, very emphatically, at the sun. I even used swear words.

This story about the mass deaths of emperor penguins really got to me. The species of endurance and resilience par excellence… at the end, talking about their extinction being brought forward, as if it’s an inevitable event. How many millions of years have they been enduring Antarctic winters? Gone in 200 years of human greed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c204626888zo

The sun is not the only arbiter of a planets climate. If it was Mercury would be hotter than Venus, and Neptune colder than Uranus. On Earth, life makes its own climate.

This has some answers, especially episode 10. Changes in law made it near impossible among other things.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002ybbl

If I had a garage, and lived somewhere flat, I'd definitely be pootling about in one of these.

No road tax, no driving licence, no petrol costs - no brainer!

https://www.mobilitypower.co.uk/product/monster-2/?attributepacolour=orange

it’s not fair to blame climate policies for our economic issues. The Ukraine war, the pandemic, energy prices, inflation and Brexit are all way more significant factors.

The Uk has also substantially reduced emissions so saying nothing has been achieved is inaccurate.

Dismissing Extinction Rebellion activists as hypocrites who know nothing is also an unreasonable sweeping generalization.i’m not saying that this does not apply to any of them but I seriously doubt it applies to most or all.

i do agree with you about we need to focus on what we can do to adapt.

OP, I totally agree with you .

I agree with you. Another thing that pisses me off is the hose pipe ban after a short heatwave. Wtf. Water companies should have been investing billions into new reservoirs for years now. Instead we have one bout of hotter than normal weather and there’s a hose pipe ban. What resilience do we have as far as fresh drinking water goes if the summers get hotter and longer.

Governments have known about this for decades and choose to ignore it - at their peril.

I've adopted my own approach. I have a grey water system so my veggie beds and greenhouse are well watered legally.
I have retained a lot of trees so our garden is shady and moist (and stuffed full of wildlife hiding from the sun).
I cut and dry my own wood for heat and to minimise gas use. I cycle wherever possible to cut diesel use, and improve my health and that of my wallet.
I eat veggie several times a week, grow my own fruit & veg, keep bees to help with local pollination, and recycle everything possible. I've increased my house insulation to improve efficiency. At some point I will install solar panels to heat water

I can only fix what is in my control.

Posting my link again as it didn't seem to work - in case it inspires anyone with a garage and a non-hilly terrain 😄

https://www.mobilitypower.co.uk/product/monster-2/?attribute^pa^colour=orange

Humans in general don't, can't, do long term thinking. We've known about all of this for most of my life at least (heading towards 60). People just don't care.

Yes but we sold water to private companies who do as little as they can get away with to pay profits to shareholders 🤷‍♀️

You eat only meat?

Agree with this 100%. Activists cry about people flying once or twice a year and driving instead of getting the train. Aviation contributes 2 or 3% of emissions.

Meanwhile China are producing 30% of the world's carbon emissions and according to predictions it hasn't even peaked yet, despite the work they're doing to reduce them.

We need to adapt to this, it's not going to go away.

People are too selfish. They'll complain about the heat, but not actually want to change their habits. I don't believe anyone should fly unless it's an absolute necessity, but so few people are willing to give up their foreign holidays. People don't want to use public transport or cut meat consumption, or shop sustainably.
Everyone wants cheap consumption, and more and more "stuff". With this prevailing attitude the planet is fucked.

Adapt @sugarandcyanide ?

You do know the prediction is that we could be hitting 45C in only 30 years?

We can't currently even fix burst water pipes or potholes.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/uk-could-see-45c-by-2056-scientists-reflect-on-1976-heatwave-anniversary

China are producing the majority of the crap the rest of the world is intent on consuming. We've outsourced it own industries to China, but we still consume those products. The Chinese aren't to blame, Western consumption is.

This is what I do, I sort the things in my control. They mainly all help the bank balance too which is helpful!

We don't buy much "stuff" and pretty much all our furniture and clothes and books are ancient /second hand . I re-sole shoes rather than buying new ones. We haven't replaced our totally serviceable but not at all fashionable kitchens and bathrooms. We both drive modest (small, very economic) cars, as sparingly as possible. (Some driving is unavoidable due to DH job and my disability) . We have solar panels. We keep the garden green with plenty of plants and no awful AstroTurf/hard surfacing. We give things away if we don't need them.

I am sure we aren't perfect but we do as much as we are able to. We do have one air-conditioned room now because excessive heat makes me incredibly/dangerously ill. But the energy consumption is covered by the solar panels. And we shut all blinds etc to keep the house as cool as possible

We could afford to do all the house upgrades and buy big cars etc but it's nice having financial security.

The UK has substantially decreased emissions by shunting industry elsewhere. It's changed nothing on a global scale, because not enough of us have changed our habits or expectations for a comfortable lifestyle.

Most of the 'solutions' are really about 'what can we invent/do to reduce the problem whilst keeping all the convenience of the modern lifestyle'.

A PP was correct - pissing about with electric cars and not using plastic straws isn't going to achieve much, but it's what you end up with when society has become so entrenched in a way of life that we don't want to give it up.

When the government makes some effort to regulate big business, the public moan about increased prices, point the finger at China's emissions whilst taking advantage of the cheap stuff from there.

We moan that public transport isn't good enough, but it isn't good because it isn't used enough. People don't want it. They want their cars. The bus is never going to go from your door to the door of your destination.

The fact is, we all say, 'it's not us, it's big this that or the other, but big this that or the other is driven by consumers. We want what they sell, and if any government attempts to restrict that, most of the population have a hissy fit over it, whilst in the next breath expecting the government to 'do something'.

The magic bullet that means we can carry on as we are doesn't exist. What it would take to really change the outcome is for every single one of us to revert to very simple, off-grid lifestyles. But very few of us (myself included) are truly willing to do that. We pat ourselves on the back if we don't drive (like me) or we have an electric car, or we use beeswax wrap instead of cling film. It's not anywhere near enough, but we are 'doing our bit' and it's big this, that or the other, greedy governments, etc, that is the real problem.
It isn't. Well, it is, but not in the way we want it to be. Not in the way that lets the rest of us off the hook. Because big business and greedy governments didn't drop from outer space and make us adopt this lifestyle. We ran to it, we bought it, we kept it growing and growing, we wanted, we needed, we demanded.

Environmental activists are trying to do something, yes. But they are still operating on that principle that the governments and businesses are somehow separate entities that have forced us against our will to live this way, rather than seeing the co-conspirators most of us truly are.

Exactly! And it all gets shipped here on huge energy guzzling container ships that belch out disgusting plumes of pollution

NASA has defined it: The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia.
Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia.1 It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun’s energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

I know and I agree with you, I wasn't solely blaming China.

My point was people giving up their holidays is going to do almost nothing and I think we're at a point where this isn't reversible realistically.

People aren't going to stop consuming while stuff is so easily available. People aren't going to give up modern conveniences.

Electricity and heating are the biggest carbon producers. If the climate keeps getting warmer we'll rely more than ever on AC in summer, and in winter people still need to heat their homes.

It's too expensive to move away from gas and oil entirely, especially in a cost of living crisis. Even if it wasn't expensive it would take time do do this.

Is Il nino thing not in part to blame this summer?