Good grief, is Trump going to destroy the climate?

[Junglebell]

Just been scrolling and came across this.

https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1854482837350555810

Is Trump for real? Surely someone needs to tell him that every scientist agrees that manmade CO2 controls the climate/

Good Grief, it makes me laugh when evrrybody is so so worried about the climate when russia and ukraine have been bombing the shit out of each other. Isreal has been carpet bombing gaza, bombs in sudan, etc.. Must be creating a helluva lot of emissions....give me strength, no world power actually gives a shit!!

I doubt whether Putin gives a shit, that's for sure. China definitely does, air quality significantly affects productivity in many cities. India does, but their whole economy is years behind, they have a lot of big priorities. USA has the IFRA and despite Trump is starting to get things together.

Addressing climate change will only bring positive benefits to the UK, particularly economic benefits.

Not wanting to cause any arguments surrounding the topic of monarchy but if anyone wants any positivity from this topic, The Earth shot Report 2024 is on BBC iPlayer and it's lovely to see the amazing inventions that people are coming up with to battle climate change ☺️.

I care about it all 😊.

@Lynsey953 fundamentally we need to stop burning fossil fuels, and the biggest emitter by some margin is power generation and heat. Next is land transport. We know how to do this, yes there are big infrastructure challenges and the tech is evolving all the time, and we need the skills. Net-zero can make our lives better.

When China India and Russias emissions are on a par with ours pound for pound, that's when I will join in, we have a short time on this earth and I'm going to enjoy myself - I'm not being miserable when everyone else is warm and cosy and opening more and more coal mines. We don't seem to be overly keen on electric cars and heat pumps so let's wait for the tec to improve. Seeing the amount of materials that go into one wind turbine made me realise we aren't quite ready yet.

Whatever the UK does makes so little difference globally. All it really does is wreck our economy and you know what people still want steel and things look me that so now we import that steel. It still caused pollution in its making just pollution in another country like China. Importing steel just adds additional pollution because of having to import it on top of original pollution to manufacture. Milliband will cripple our economy. All our DC will be poorer for it and other countries like China will just get richer.

Per capita, ours are roughly the same as China, 3x that of India, and about 3/4 that of Russia.

Time to join in yet?

If China get richer it is because they are investing more in renewables and green tech than other countries. If you want your children to be poor and live in a shit environment - just keep going as you are.

@Lynsey953 So far today over 60% of the UK's electricity has been generated from renewables and less than 20% from fossil fuels.

Actually lots of world powers 'give a shit'.

Because man made climate change may be catastrophic for our economy and for theirs.

What happens in economies when summer temperatures become too high to allow people to safely work out of doors?

What happens to economies when crops fail en-masse because of drought?

What happens to the housing market when the increasing number of catastrophic storms, wildfires and heavy rainfall make buildings insurance completely unaffordable - as his happening in Florida currently - and starts to impact on the mortgage market?

Some calculations put the current cost of climate change to the US economy at 150 billion a year. That's not taking into account many billions more in productivity losses.

It's not an 'either' 'or' situation. We can worry about Putin's predation and the damage being done to populations - Russian and Ukrainian - in fighting that. We can also acknowledge that climate change is real and is a meaningful threat to the well being of the human race.

@Lynsey953 right now just 10% of the UKs electricity is being generated from fossil fuels. The majority is from renewables or other sources such as nuclear.

So are all of these scenarios based upon whether the UK in isolation meets net zero goals?

And what if the big global emitters stop bothering once Trump takes office?

He was being interviewed and he said that all of this money was being ploughed into climate change, to try to prevent the oceans rising by 1/8 of an inch, in the next 355 years (or something like that) and it was a waste of money and that he would stop that and focus on growth.

If the US is out, will China continue with their goals or put their economy first too? Not to mention their goals are like, what? 30 years later than our own?

And as for Europe, well that feels like a disaster at the moment, with most countries experiencing lack of economic growth, even concerns about recession. People, are showing dissatisfaction with their government’s and government’s are moving parts about to try to prevent the far-right to centre right parties taking control, but people have had enough. With the possibility of new right leaning governments in 2025, comes more focus on the economy rather than climate change.

So can the UK save the day? What’s the bigger picture? Are we doomed anyway, if so, I’d rather just enjoy my time here to be honest.

And if Ed carries on pushing the UK to do things faster, and we all get poorer, and colder…then who in the world is going to care? Apart from activists. Which countries are going to look at us and say ‘well we should be doing that’?

Either all countries are in it together and willing to support each other through the cost and make it work for the people, or I don’t see any global benefit that will change outcomes.

I have children, am I worried for him. Honestly no. I worry about WWIII breaking out a lot more.

@Llhaaf UK in isolation meets net zero goals

The UK is not acting in isolation.

Trump is not as influential as you might think. The incoming administration is also unlikely to repeal the inflation reduction act in it's entirety.

If the US is out, will China continue with their goals or put their economy first too?

No, China will continue to install more renewables than any other nation, just as they are now. It's a fallacy to suggest that switching to renewables damages is nations economy.

In 2025, comes more focus on the economy rather than climate change.

Climate change mitigation is an investment in the future. Not investing in the future will cause huge economic harm.

I’d rather just enjoy my time here to be honest

A healthier planet will be a more enjoyable place to live. If you want your children to enjoy their time here you definitely don't want to leave them with a trashed planet.

You seem really determined that mitigating climate change is economically harmful. It isn't.

Where has been the benefit to UK consumers?

Centrica on the other hand, has made almost 800m profit from its renewables energy business.....

If you want people to get on aboard to net zero, then you need to show the benefits and more than just on a pie chart or a graph....

Until then, its just BS, esp the 2.5 ton electric cars wrecking our roads and destroying large parts of the world, digging up lithium etc

Where has been the benefit to UK consumers?

Energy independence
Job creation
Cost reduction
Reduced air pollution

Consumers seem to want 2.5T cars, the biggest cars on the road are ICEs not EVs.

Energy costs are a result of international prices and the UK market mechanisms. It works the same for fossil fuels as it does renewables.

Nope, we haven't got energy independence, the energy is sold on international markets and bought back to the UK.

Until we stop having super high standing charges, unit costs, some of the highest in Europe.... you wont convince the majority of consumers who are still paying green fossil fuel levies.

there has been no cost reduction at all, prices are now increasing, despite energy production originating in the UK.

Change how energy is sold, who cares how it used to be done, it needs to change, so uk consumers benefit.

A large ICE fossil fuel car is a lot lighter than the equivalent EV.

@Alexandra2001 so we haven't got energy independence but despite energy production originating in the UK

More renewables give us both these things that appear to want but you don't like renewables.

Crappy energy markets are crappy - regardless of where you get your energy from. That's got absolutely nothing to do with renewables.

I love renewables, best thing since sliced bread as R4 would say BUT you need to convince the general population and that wont happen if all they see is rising bills, job losses ie things like Oxford solar moving production to Germany.

The energy reform has to go hand in glove with renewable energy, so far the Govt don't seem too keen on this at all, so bills go UP, people don't believe the net zero agenda, leaving the door open to the climate change deniers...

& without it, we don't get energy security either.

However, EV's are the biggest con going, destroys western jobs, helps China, damages the environment and leaves the consumer with a worse product.