To be stressed by climate change

I think all of us should quite really feeled stressed by climate change. This is of number concern to everyone. The countries who are biggest polluters on the planet per Capita are USA and Australia and both over use coal as a fuel and eat vast quantities of meat. Every single person can do something and the main thing has to be eat less or no meat(cows and sheep are apparently the biggest methane producers), cut down on dairy products again because of the cows; try not to overconsume goods and be less wasteful: of food , of white goods , of clothind .....etc
But smile as it CAN be done and Extinction Rebellion are doing their bit to highlight the problem to all.

Being concerned about climate change is all part and parcel of being concerned about the overall state of our planet, which made me wonder after a day of protesting in Hyde Park yesterday, why so many of the protesters, according to the Daily Express, used single use disposable plastic bottles, carrier bags and coffee cups.

Is this 'do as I say and not as I do'!!

According to the Daily Express..is a key here - there were water stations set up for refills, the food tent used reusable plates- was that reported? Extinction Rebellion protesters cleaned up after other ( not ER) protest groups, bet that wasn’t reported either. I was at many of the sites and cleaning up and reuse was one of the main concerns of the organisers. If people were dragged off by police they may have not been able to clean up but others were told to do so.

Just shooting the messengers shouldn’t detract from the importance of the message. Some people on here just don’t like free speech.

Well said crystaltipps.

There really is no need for anyone to be 'stressed' about the possibility of climate change.

People used to bang on about 'global warming' but that seems to have morphed into climate change. I guess it was felt the latter phrase possibly made more of an impact.

The fact is, for many centuries our planet has gone through periods of warming and cooling, so it's entirely possible we are heading for a warming period due to sun activity (although some scientists do dispute that, rightly or wrongly)

As for the hypocritical protesters doing their best to cause maximum disruption to the lives of ordinary folk going about their business in London - well come June they will have something else to get their knickers in a twist about - the arrival of a certain Donald Trump.

What's the betting it will be the same idiots causing havoc protesting at his visit?

You don’t need to do without dogs. Just stop driving them miles so they can have a nicer walk. My dog thought she had died and gone to heaven when we visited my mum in her urban home. All those fantastic smells!
So boring in a field. Until she saw a rabbit.
My friend has more soft toys for her dogs than my children or DGC. They always get more for Christmas and birthdays.
It’s avoidingp those sort of daft things that can cut the carbon footprint.

Smileless please do not believe everything (or even anything) you read in the Daily Express. Are you not aware of its agenda?

Foxygran I agree completely. I support Extinction Rebellion. I also think that yes, we should be afraid of climate change. It's our actions as humans on this planet, destroying habitats, polluting, including with single-use plastic without thought for the life we are destroying, and it's no good burying one's head and pretending like Trump that it's not happening. It is, right now. Greta has it in a nutshell: she wants us to panic and panic we should, but in a positive and determined way. It means a different way of living; challenging our adopted 'must-haves' and asking instead, do we need this? Can we re-use, recycle, buy second hand, use public transport more? I thought I did what I could do, but I feel there is so much more I can and will do. I applaud the school children taking action. They are terrified for their future and darn right they are too. Don't blame growing population per se: that's an ostrich way out. Not us, we only had one/two children...sorry, that's not the answer. Watch the Attenborough programme again. Listen to what ER and any climate change activist and scientist is saying. We can do this if we want to.

Jennifer Eccles Trump is a climate change denier, so yes, they will be the same people protesting his visit. I hope to be amongst them.

Prince Philip once said, “The Daily Express is a bloody awful newspaper, full of lies, scandal and imagination”. For good measure he added, “It is a vicious paper.”

He was right, wasn’t he?

Lord Beaverbrook, who bought the newspaper in 1916, told a Royal Commission into the press that he ran the paper, “purely for the purpose of making propaganda”.

From 2000 to 2018 The Daily Express was owned by pornographer Richard Desmond, a major funder of UKIP.

I imagine the protest is aimed way higher than 'individual' responsibility anyway.
There is not a cat in Hell's chance, as my late dad would have said, that enough can be done to save life as we know if it is left to individual 'choice' at the point of purchase.

Significant advances can only be made by forcing industry and manufacturers to change.
A very, very basic example of this is to prevent the food industry from producing goods in unnecessary packaging,though obviously, measures need to go much further and apply to all industries.

I see the current protests as just a start in putting pressure on the powers that be to take the kind of action that is urgently needed on a global scale.

MamaCaz BOTH are relevant: top down, bottom up. We are all responsible. Agreed that we have to make industry and manufacturers change though. That's a given. But we can make a difference by upping our game. Except that this is no game, it's deadly serious - with the emphasis on 'deadly'.

Rowantree I honestly believe that the changes that are needed can't possibly be achieved by individual responsibility. By the time enough individuals realize or accept what is happening, it will be far too late to reverse things, imo!

MamaCaz no, I didn't mean in isolation. I believe we have to change individual mindsets too, rather than shifting total responsibility on corporations (whilst recognising their vastly greater part in the whole). Individually we can exert influence; united, we are greater. It's not either/or.

What worries me most, personally, is not having any water coming out of the tap.

Those who say it’s all just a natural cycle are denying the effect that human activity is having on speeding up climate change and the destruction of species and habitats. We must do something before it’s too late. Just sorting out your bit of recycling isn’t enough - it’s down to governments and industries to be forced to change and we have to change our habits.

Greta Thunberg

Don’t know if this short video of this child addressing our MPs will work. Hope it does. Listen to the children

Press ‘skip trisl’ and watch

Alexa we only had water out of a tap for 4hours every 4 days when I was a child.
Very difficult for a family that could store water in the bath.
Extremely difficult for those who didn’t have a bath and had to queue up at a stand pipe.
I can’t remember how long it went on but it seemed like forever.
Classes stopped when it rained and we all went outside.
We lived in Hong Kong.

Works fine Anja. Thanks for putting that up.

Thank you Gonegirl I wonder if you will be the only one on GN to access that link.

Less thar 2 minutes laydees.

PamelaJ1, interesting.

I could mange with 4 hours of tap water per day. I began married life in a caravan and managed well. I am a good manager. I worry a little that there will be no clean water at all if climate change continues as it is going.

I listened to Greta Thunberg addressing MPs. I expect that most grans will do so.

There is a lot of frivol on Gransnet however that is not an indication that grans are too stupid to read serious material.

Sadly we may hold off the inevitable regarding our planet, but the little that we can do in our own lives is & will be of little help in stopping the inevitable,
We will all be stardust eventually.
Just be pleased with yourself on the occasions you do remember to doing something that is less bad for the environment.