AIBU to feel people are far too complacent about climate change?

[Quibble123]

I should probably say up front that I work in this field, so this isn't based on a few headlines or a panic after a hot week. My job has involved working with scientists, policymakers and communities for years, I have a PhD in social policy (focused on social action and social change), so I'm fairly well immersed in the evidence. If anything, it's made me less alarmist, not more.
But I honestly feel like I'm watching two different realities.
The impacts we've been warned about for decades are now happening with increasing regularity, yet most people seem remarkably unbothered. We have a hot spell, floods somewhere else, another wildfire, another record broken... and everyone just seems to shrug and move on.
I'm not expecting people to spend every day worrying about it. Life is busy enough. But I genuinely don't understand why there isn't far more public outcry and pressure on politicians to treat this as the priority it surely has to be. People do talk about the consequences (such as wildfires etc) but the discussion on the causes (fossil fuels, over consumption etc) remain largely untouched - when we should be absolutely raging!
Maybe people feel powerless. Maybe we've just adapted to each new "once in a generation" event until it becomes normal.
I don't know. I just find the lack of urgency really hard to get my head around. This is the single biggest threat to our current and our children's futures - it could literally kill them - and we seem to be walking blindfolded....

Don't you think it's better to position ourselves as a leader in the energy transition than wait for the laggards, even if they are bigger than us?

@Quibble123

my background is ecology / sustainability though I don’t work directly in the field these days, so I completely agree with everything you say. But I’m significantly more cynical about human nature I think. And I think when one is immersed in a subject it’s easy to forget that your audience does not have your knowledge or your insight.

what do you want to say in response - having read the replies on here? What, in your professional experience and opinion, do we need to know - because it doesn’t seem to be getting through? What will convince:

The ‘I already do my bit by recycling / electric car / one child, I’m not doing any more’ people

The ‘climate change is natural / not man-made’ people

The ‘I’m not doing anything until they (China, America, royal family, wealthy people, my neighbour etc) change their ways’ people

The ‘there’s no point, we’re done for, I’m just going to protect my family as best I can’ people

What do you know that they don’t? What would convince them to rage?

I agree about the lack of leadership discouraging people from acting.

I also think we need to start thinking about what needs doing to cope with the impact of climate change (not in the future but what is happening now) like water storage & irrigation; or growing trees in cities (for shade in the heat). That’s stuff councils can & should act on.

There aren't any. Just a series of made up crises. Something happens and along come a group of people whose solution is to get you pay them money.

I and most people just don’t have the capacity to worry about that when daily issues are all consuming. The ones in charge need to get on with it, they have all the knowledge and power and money.

Never sure what people want here - peopel to kill the kids they already have - or to stop any chidlrne being born in a world now worried about population decline.

They want people who have multiple children not to blither on about recycling and driving less.

As individuals there's little to nothing we can do. I remember reading once that the term "carbon footprint" was made up by BP to offset responsibility onto the average person.

Even globally it's a difficult issue to deal with due to us being a collection of nation states with very different ideological and cultural backgrounds. Only an authoritarian one world government could really tackle the issue but it wouldn't be pretty for us in the general populous as our entire economy and modern life has been built around fossil fuels. I think the best we can do is try to manage the problem and as individuals not create unnecessary waste but it's really pointless to worry about it constantly.

The Earth has had about 5 or 6 mass extinction events wiping out nearly all life so this might just be our turn.

It could start with all those that attend climate change meeting world-wide giving up plane travel. Surely they could be done by conference call?

Andy Burnham took a 38min private plane flight to visit No 10 North which cost the taxpayer £30,000+

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/andy-burnham-jets-around-uk-132105983.html

What ever happened to "leading by example" ?

How very cynical. Luckily, there are very many people out there who are devoting themselves to finding and implementing solutions to the challenges of our time. I am grateful to them!

I agree and I'm both amazed and horrified at this attitude given that most people on here have children who will have to deal with the consequences of their parents clinging on to their gas boiler for dear life, etc.

Yes, a pity they scrapped the Royal Train.

Yes, I agree with you 100%.

I actually pulled my children out of school for a few days to temporarily home educate, as the red alert heatwave was making them both so unwell. Other parents were worried too.

Schools are massively complacent about the changes needed to prepare their buildings for more of this, and my children will not be entering buildings which are making them physically sick, no way.

I have admit it isn't close to my heart. I think you are the first person I have felt like listening to on this, I think you should be working with the public. You have a really good way about you. A far cry from bloody swampy (who i agreed with in principle)

In people’s day to day lives, the effects of climate change still don’t make as much impact as there being a housing crisis, cost of living crisis, NHS waiting lists, being unable to get a GP appointment etc.

People go nuts if they have to walk 10m to their car.

Honestly it's a lost cause @Quibble123 depressing as that is.

The problem is that these things happen slowly unlike the movies we're fed.

People don't see the small incremental changes until it's too late. It's like how people assume 30s Germany instantly went from 0-Holocaust but it was actually a series of incremental changes that people happily ignored and by the time folk would have realised what they had allowed to happen it was too late.

Climate change is even worse than that example as global weather and temperature changes take even longer to happen so it's much harder for the average person to perceive.

Folk in general think of science as a system to provide "answers" when it's actually a tool for asking questions and constantly seeking to amend and disprove itself which feeds the mainstream media with plenty of ammo so they can point and say "look they said this and it was wrong".

I wouldn't stop flying on holiday.

And that's because "parents clinging onto their gas boiler for dear life" isn't the reason our planet is fucked.

Agreed. We really have very little power as individuals. Rather than telling people to stop over consuming, fast fashion etc etc, how about they stop bloody making it and shipping it. But they won't, because it makes money.

Rather than telling us to reduce our plastic use and to recycle, how about supermarkets stop selling us literally all our food wrapped in plastic. I never asked for it, I don't want it wrapped in plastic, but unfortunately I do need to eat.

When people point out it is probably a positive that birth rates decline others say well what about our pensions! Like you'll care about your pension when food and water are scarce resources.

I could go on and on tbh. Normal people are very scared about the wildfires, the impact on our crops, the impact on nature, but let's not act like recycling my food packaging and reusing my bath water for the garden is going to save the day

All individual people can do is start to arrange their lives so that they can manage with less. Collapse now and avoid the rush. A managed descent will be better than a crash. Live walking distance from work/school. Weather proof your home. Every pound you spend is a vote, so vote for good things. COL crisis is actually a positive because it focuses people’s attention on what is going on. Energy prices skyrocketing encourages and/or forces people to use a lot less. Fossil fuels are running out and we need the remaining stocks to transition to renewables. We also need to stop wasting energy and water on data centres. War is a distraction - Big Brother wants us fussing about Middle East/Ukraine/small boats. Focus on what matters.

Yes, exactly.

Nothing we do makes any bloody difference, and, selfishly, I'm not going to make my limited time on this planet even harder than it needs to be when there are people like Taylor Swift and our own PM jetting about the planet on 20 minute flights every single day of the week.

I wonder why countries in the Arab states don't capitalize on their sun and have countries just full of solar panels and then sell it to the rest of us. If that is more attractive than oil wealth then there may be some hope.

Everyone should make changes. The same people are many of the ones whingeing about energy prices and the cost of living crisis. 😂

I try to do as much as I can, however my hands are tied by budget when it comes to certain things. I can't afford better insulation/windows for my home. I can't afford an electric car (which I acknowledge also has an environmental cost) and I often can't afford to use public transport (e.g. if I want to take my family to London, using the train would more than double the cost).

It enrages me that taking the train from e.g. London to Newcastle is often double the cost of flying. People need to be incentivised to use the most environmentally friendly options and I have no idea why nothing is being done about this issue.

Companies that I work(ed) for always ask employees to choose the cheapest option to travel for business, which is usually flying. It would be great to see incentives/discounts for green travel offered to businesses (it would also be great to see internal business policy change... but let's face it, business is business and there needs to be financial logic behind spending).

I think I (and others) do feel powerless. Especially when leaders have an attitude of "do as I say, not as I do" and are completely ineffective when it comes to making environmentally friendly policy, making tough decisions and holding big corporations accountable.

I try to do my bit where I can. I haven't flown since 2018. I try to reduce driving and use public transport as long as it's cost effective. Recycle loads. Turn the heating down. Buy secondhand clothing. Etc, etc. But I'm one tiny fish in the sea... The climate crisis is anxiety inducing and I feel incredibly powerless (especially while others just don't seem to care).

Agree with all the recent comments. Surprised people don't realise COL isn't going to go away as climate crisis worsens. Imagine how much food will cost when the crops can't cope with the dry summers.

Also agree on the cost of train travel in this country. An absolute outrage