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?

Nothing.

Let me know when China and India have hit peak CO2 production in the 2060s and i might think about it.

@Deloresadores

words have meanings. Either you're vegan or you're not. You can't be some days and not others. It's not how it works.

i have no idea how you think it's relevant, but I'm currently, politically homeless.

Draw yourself a diagram, you seem very confused

Owning an item, namely a diesel SUV, instead of a less polluting car is a selfish choice. A cleaner car is widely available yet you actively and selfishly choose/support that use of a more polluting car and you justify it by saying oh well it’s greener than having kids so I can keep running my lovely polluting car.

I didn’t know it’s a race to the bottom with who can emit the most carbon.

Keep justifying these polluting ideologies so it makes you feel better. Keep giving your self a tap on the back.

As I said before you are comparing apples to oranges.

What would I give up? Giving up coffee and cheese would feel like a loss unless something equally satisfying could replace them. But it’s trivial in the wider scheme of things.

First time I got a tumble dryer was when I inherited a tiny one from my grandparents in 2021 after they died. Before then I had 3 kids, a job etc and would wash clothes every day and hang them dry. My mum never had one, and for a long while we didn't even have a washing machine because we were very poor. My dad would take road kill home to cook and go shooting and fishing for our dinner. I didn't grow up in the 50's I was born in 1987.
I think my poor upbringing gives me climate coupons and I'm sure as hell using them up now I'm better off. Although still driving to Spain next week as it's more exciting then flying I think.

Those who are banging on about "wasteful" long showers. It's all relative surely. I don't have 20 minute showers, but mine are probably around 10 minutes. However, I don't live in the UK and here the majority of people don't heat their entire homes, just the living areas usually, and I don't have a clothes dryer as there is no need. Surely heating a whole house when there is no need to is also "wasteful", but you just carry on fixating on long showers.

Quote:

A shower lasting about 5 minutes emits between 90 and 200 grams of CO2 if using a gas boiler, and as much as 500 grams if an electric boiler is used.

From:
https://www.bbva.es/en/general/sostenibilidad/soluciones-para-personas/huella-de-carbono-personas/repositorio/ducharse-a-diario.html#:~:text=Showering%20every%20day%20generates%20109,an%20electric%20boiler%20is%20used.

Cars in comparison:

Quote: In the UK, average CO2 emissions per car are 138.4 grams per km (or 221.4 grams per mile), according to latest 2020 data from the Department for Transport.

From:
https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-co2-emissions-car-uk#percar

Now the thing is. Someone having a longer shower is at least cleaning themselves and washing their hair etc.
Compare that to the millions of people driving when they could walk because they're lazy, or the millions that sit in car jams with the engine idling etc.

Cars cause far more Co2 than people having showers longer than 5 minutes.
If you're feeling guilty, get a bus to town a day a week and shower for an hour.

You know that those emissions are from factories that make goods for us in the west to buy?

Have a look in your kids toy box. Anything plastic. All the shite that shops have in the run up to Christmas. Stocking fillers. Party bag contents etc etc. All made there and bought by you. We've just outsourced our filth so we can feel good about it and do shite all about it.

Nothing but i haven't got any children so that automatically cuts out all of the things people with children use or do

'I think my poor upbringing gives me climate coupons and I'm sure as hell using them up now I'm better off.'

I'm pretty sure that's an individual version of what many rapidly developing and previously 'poor' countries, at whose emissions we look with disapproval, are now thinking. Going by that way of seeing things, India, China et al have enormous 'climate coupons' that they are now simply using up. It's obviously not sustainable, though. And that's the point.

All the 'use your car less and then have an hour's shower', or the 'I don't eat meat/have a car/have children, so like hell I'll give up my longhaul flying habit/long showers/diesel SUV' seem to come from a similar idea - a sense of (Western) entitlement to a particular amount of 'lifestyle'. Rather than ending up emitting the same, or nearly the same, on different practices, we need to reduce emissions, and therefore lifestyles, across the board.

You emit as CO2 as the average Chinese person and 3x as much as an Indian.

I reduced my lifestyle by not having children so no plastic tat in this house for a start.

I also don't have any hounds either

I haven't bought or used a cleaning wipe ever and seem to have survived!!

I shall be dead anyway, why should I care what other peoples kids have to worry about.

Totally agree, people can't grasp it's us creating the demand for stuff in those countries that makes them so polluting

@TheBeesKnee every time we book a flight we can either pay extra or use frequent flyer points to do a carbon offset, each flight will give you a different amount/cost. Maybe it’s just an Aus thing? Assumed it would be worldwide.

@Threenow , the problem with the UK is really the climate. Not heating homes and ventilating them too causes black mould, there are at present umpteen reports of social housing which isn't really fit for purpose due to mould/mildew . Heating one room can often cause problems along with drying clothes indoors. It's why so many people have a tumble dryer; to prevent mould.

Re. private cats.

We haven’t even started to think about the finite resources used up in facilitating millions of private vehicles, of whatever form of propulsion.

Roads and car parks use up the finite resource of land

Then there are the materials used to build and maintain those roads: concrete, tar etc. That’s before we talk about the environmental damage of acres of land not available as a water sink or for food production or simply wild.

Then there are the working hours of human labour.

Then there are the resources used up in repairing the human harms of careless driving, drunk driving, sheer unfortunate accidents.

Private cars

Gah! Clearly my phone is a climate crisis denier!

But what is the carbon offset? Like do they plant trees for you or something?

Sorry to be so dim and ignorant 🙈

@TheBeesKnee
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/04/what-is-carbon-offsetting-and-how-does-it-work
carbon offsetting

Barbie. The thing your kids all want now and you buy for them.
China. Chinese factories. All that plastic. Those Chinese emissions you can be so smug about is creating these pointless things Recycling your bottles for a decade isn't going to touch the emissions that one Barbie creates in manufacturing.

3 minute showers and twice used towels to make you feel good while the £2 plastic bucket and spade set in a plastic net bag used for one rainy day in Bognor so you can 'make memories' isn't an issue. Yet it's been made in a Chinese factory and flown half the world away to be dumped after one use on holiday.

As for disposable cleaning wipes. FFS. Heard of a cloth?

I think little old me using climate coupons in the way of driving to work and using a computer is very very different to the mass industrialisation of countries like India and China and all the rubbish they chuck in the sea.

I do 400 miles a week in my car and it means I only do 12 hours of commuting rather than the 20 it would take on the train. It’s also cheaper than the train.

I don’t have children and I eat vegatarian during the week/local meat maybe twice a week. Limit flights to once a year. Recycle everything and use refillable everything in the house.