What are you NOT giving up for climate change?

[TheBeesKnee]

As in, something you know would be beneficial and you actively refuse to do it.

I refuse to take 4 minute showers. My showers last 15-20 minutes, 30 if I've had a really bad day. A nice hot shower relaxes me and I can't abide the thought of feeling stressed in there trying to wash before the clock runs out.

To balance this out so that you don't all think I'm a terrible person, I was vegan for 10 years 🙈

Just wondering what others are clinging on to?

I feel like a lot of my 'eco' decisions are made for me by financial circumstances tbh rather than being full choices. Buying secondhand everything, not taking holidays, if I wasn't already vegetarian I don't think I could afford meat anyway. I'm not saying these a
choices I wouldn't make but as someone else said I think more and more eco choices will be made for us in the future through circumstances and government restrictions.

Flying. I live in Australia so hard to get far without it. I do the carbon offset thing, recycle what I can, use reusable water bottles and empty bath water onto plants etc. but I won’t stop travelling when I can.

I don't drive yet, don't have children yet and have never flown so I've not given up anything for the environment. As an aside I do resent that most of the people I know who are the biggest supporters of green issues both have cars and fly even if only on the odd occasion so think in comparison I'm already doing enough.

All my relatives are continuing to keep themselves warm and comfortable in their homes.
Not giving up the independence I have had since buying my first moped at 16. The car I have now is the 2nd most wonderful that I have owned.
(Best ever was a Mk2 Jag 2.4) Cars are independence for those who don't live in cities.

My cat.
Meat & dairy.
I only had on child, but still, certain quarters will not be happy until humans stop reproducing altogether.
Takeaways (on a monthly basis).
I don't recycle because it's very difficult to do where I live. I put cardboard in the recycling bin downstairs but I don't seperate it all out because I live in a tiny flat with the tiniest kitchen so no space to put in a seperating bin there.

(I don't have a car, I use public transport everywhere, I have one foreign holiday a year by plane, but I'm looking at doing more holidays by train in the future).

I'm still haunted by those posts where people talked about having discussed it with their partner and having a plan for that in the apocalyptic future, not just one post but people agreeing with them.

Only thing I gave up re: the environment is hope really. I’ve always lived modestly but living in a first world country it’s still unsustainable according to the calculators. I think we’ve got some incredibly grim years ahead, better make the most of them while we can.

My car. I can get to my uni site in 30-40 minutes as I’m in a village at the edge of a dual carriageway, but it’s 1h walk, 40m train 35 minute wait, 40m bus, 20m walk
workis the same 20-25 drive, 1 hour walk 2h10 bus 20m walk
I don’t have time to spend 6 hours a day commuting

'I won't give up my SUV'

The amount of entitlement in these comments is staggering. This is exactly why strict constraints of carbon use need to be imposed by governments - impacting all of us; rich or poor, in terms of travel, all consumer goods, consumption of meat and dairy. This is the only thing that will give us even a modicum of comfort in the future.

The alternative is horror and suffering for everyone.

Do you have children? If so, how many? You do realise that a single one is worse than any SUV you can imagine, right?

Exactly. Child free people automatically win the prize here, regardless of what else they do, eat or drive. Others just don’t like to acknowledge it. 🫣

Yep. And as for turning the water off while I soap myself or shampoo my hair - not a chance!

I'm not giving up meat, not that I eat much. However I don't drive, never fly, and have no children so I don't feel too guilty.

Eating meat
Driving my car
Going on holidays
Long showers
Single use sanitary products

Until the large billion dollar industries stop their shite I will be giving up absolutely nothing. As its completely pointless.

Flying and travelling. I hate it when I see people being sanctimonious about not flying when they still drive a car and eat meat and have dogs or other pets. I have never owned a car and haven’t eaten meat for 25 years but my family live abroad and I still want to go see them. Plus travelling makes me happy.

I didn’t see that post!… Scary!

@user1471447924 I have children and acknowledge it. Worst thing you can do for the planet.

Bollocks

Talk about deflection. You CHOSE to buy a diesel SUV, one of the most polluting cars out there instead of a smaller eco friendly car. Own it. 🙄 You force your dirty diesel poisonous exhumes on everyone because of your selfishness and the fact you’re celebrating it on here says it all.

Actually you have mostly summed up how I feel. Born in poverty, hardly any possessions, no car until I was 32, I've just been given a bollocking on the other thread because I said I drove my disabled son to A&E in an emergency and would be beside myself if protesters stopped me. So now I think , sod it, I'll enjoy it while I can and tell my kids to do the same.

We've just been put on a meter, so we'll see how much it costs, but up to now I think we were paying about £400 per year?

What's the carbon offset thing?

This. I think I'm fairly low-impact in general.

WHAT?

Bananas actually aren’t that bad environmentally (as for a human cost, as with most products, I’m sure there is, I buy fair trade but even that probably isn’t amazing conditions for workers). The biggest emissions are generated from food production rather than food transport so imported bananas are better than buying a (for example) locally reared pig fed on soya grown in the amazon. Due to food conversion ratios plant products are nearly always going to be more environmentally friendly than animal products.

www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2017-10/WWF_AppetiteForDestruction_Summary_Report_SignOff.pdf

“Today, protein-rich soy is such an important feed ingredient that the average European consumes approximately 61kg of soy per year, largely indirectly through the animal products that they eat like chicken, pork, salmon, cheese, milk and eggs. In 2010, the British livestock industry needed an area the size of Yorkshire to produce the soy used in feed. And if the global demand for animal products grows as anticipated, it’s estimated that soy production would need to increase by nearly 80% to feed all the animals destined for our plates.”

More generally this is quite an interesting resource on how individuals can reduce their climate change impact, it may be a surprise which changes are the most important:

https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-04/Environmental%20Perils%20of%20Perception%202021_0.pdf

We have a child and as a household we have a non-electric car so we have a reasonably big impact.

We do only have one child and one car between us though and won’t have more, chose an eco energy supplier, will replace the car with electric when the time comes and we’re a vegan family so doing our best in the top categories with our current circumstances.