There is no Planet B

Greenpeace demo: www.standard.co.uk/futurelondon/theplasticfreeproject/greenpeace-single-use-plastic-michael-gove-recycling-a4075611.html

I was beginning to think I imagined it!

So have I Pam. It's good that this is on though. The main session seems to be on a Friday with a little bit every day.
There is a suddenly lot more about the environment in the news recently (when everything else isn't pushed out by the Oscars)
There's been a demo by Greenpeace about plastic bottles....
well, I've just seen them on TV carrying a huge plastic bottle made of discarded bottles - but can I find it online?
Anyone find a link?

I’ve just caught up with the Victoria Derbyshire programme.
If these supposedly intelligent students are representative of the knowledge that young people have about pollution then we should be applauding those young students who were part of the demonstration.

Today: www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-47330830
OMG what next?

NOW (12.39) on freeview 232 - the Environmental Audit committee is having discussions on planetary health, has been talking about insects - and sustainability - no idea what next....

Hi anno.
That was quite interesting - it's in the last 15 minutes of the programme. and it goes on, I gather each Friday, for a month.

3000 litres of water to make a cheap Tshirt?
And some clothing may go to 5 countries on the way....

Also, I am not being very environmentally friendly, as I have developed a habit of buying clothes and not wearing them, not liking them and getting rid of them!

I'll see if I can get that on catch-up, Alie. I think my GD will be interested in the subject as she did a degree in textile technology.

STOP PRESS
Victoria Derbyshire program now 10am is doing about how and where clothes come from and what they cost the planet....

Since fashion is in the news today:

"fast fashion" - a major contributor to greenhouse gases, water pollution, air pollution and over-use of water....

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47282136

Whave the capability to be self sufficient in renewable energyWind and water in abundance here,Sadly because so little of our leislative powers AND income are devolved we have to abide by WM rules.Any funding for renewable energy has been cut and cut again by the tory government of England(We didn't vote tory nor have we since the mid 50's) Is the westminster government blinkered about GW or do they prefer to give the money available to their chums for fracking etc ? I'll leave it up to you to decide .OUR government is firmly behind RE

They wouldn't want to alienate the business world of course....

"Each and every day CEOs across the world face numerous decisions, and sustainability is just one in a long list of priorities. Few will simply admit that they don’t care, although it is clear from interviews conducted with them that many will only go as far as the customers demand, or only make environmentally positive decisions if they also reduce costs." (The Guardian)

That's certainly my impression!

Governments are aware..... but.....

are they producing a lot of hot air?

"As 2018 came to a close, urgency to tackle climate change intensified.
The year was marked by the publication of a landmark scientific report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which warned that the world has 12 years to nearly halve greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
In the UK, ongoing uncertainty over Brexit leaves many unanswered questions over the future of environmental regulation. While across the world people are rising up to demand radical climate action, governments have been accused of failing to “deliver what the world needs”.

Governments are aware..... but.....

janeainsworth. Thanks!

Questions and ?Answers
earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/7316/why-is-the-temperature-still-rising/7317

Tillybelle I think demand and output are not the same.
Excess energy can be produced from wind and solar and stored on the grid.

Sorry but I've just added up - roughly - all the amounts then the %s of the types of energy the Gridwatch Uk page shows and they come to, in the first example far more than the total shown and in the %s to way over 100% of the power being used. How does this work?

Our existing nuclear plants are nearing the end of their useful life. The Government wanted the Chinese to build a new one but they have pulled out because it was not cost effective for them, even with the promise of a high price for each unit once it was up and running.

Whether or not the energy is "clean" energy, it is still too expensive to be a viable option.

We must find another way.

janeainsworth. Thanks! That's great!

"We discussed our children.... futures in a different discussion"! and here!!

lemongrove. You say: " the only clean electricity ( and enough of it) would be nuclear"

Fifty years of nuclear power in the UK has generated 750,000 cubic metres of waste but the nation has still not developed a permanent disposal solution.

Nuclear waste is currently stored at about 30 sites, but predominantly at ground level at Sellafield in Cumbria.

I quote Caroline Lucas:
“Radioactive byproducts are yet another reason the government must stop building dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power stations,” .... “The future is in clean, renewable energy like wind and solar.”

In Jan. 2018 a government plan was reintroduced to local communities around England, Wales and Northern Ireland which will be offered £1m a year to volunteer to host an underground nuclear waste disposal facility for thousands of years, as part of a rebooted government programme.

Highly radioactive nuclear waste could be permanently buried under national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, under government plans backed by a committee of MPs.
Environmental groups wrote in an open letter to the nuclear energy minister, Richard Harrington:
“We recognise that safe disposal of nuclear waste is one of the key challenges our society currently faces but this should not be used as an excuse to put at risk the huge range of benefits these areas deliver for society, the environment and the economy,” .

The Lake District national park is seen as a potential location for the underground facility, given Cumbria’s nuclear history and proximity to Sellafield, where most of the UK’s nuclear waste is currently stored.

We discussed our children and grandchildren's futures in a different discussion.

We have governments running around in desperation bribing councils to bury this dreadful stuff, knowing it will take thousands of years before it is safe!

And you call this clean energy!

Not to mention that the governments sanction building new nuclear energy plants the price of which goes up at a crazy rate and the time estimated to finish it gets longer and longer while the British electricity user will be paying this astronomical bill ad infinitum, mainly to France and the Chinese and their record for safety leaves a lot to be desired....

And you call this a clean energy?

It's a filthy, execrable, immoral, irresponsible, evil form of energy, whichever way you look at it.

We have had threads on climate change and pollution before but it’s good to keep revisiting the subject.
Will we still be talking about it next week?
Cynical? Moi?
Next week tornados from RAF Marham are off on a jaunt around the country to mark the fact that they are being decommissioned.
WHY?
Our government seems to think it’s a good idea to waste a lot of money (which they keep telling us they don’t have) and seem happy about the pollution this will cause. For, IMO, no good reason.
I know that in the grand scheme of things this is a very small percentage of pollution but if the powers that be aren’t getting the message then how will the general public get it?
Present company excepted!

I think the children are wonderful. If they hadn't gone on strike we would not have had a thread talking about climate change and what can be done. Of course some of them will be hypocrites, just as we are, but anything which makes us more conscious of the task ahead is welcome. I think governments have conned us into thinking individual action can be the solution. The only real progress that can be made has to come from national governments, large blocs, such as the EU, and then global organisations. Tough decisions have to be made and I think some of those brilliantly articulate children are showing the way.

"Planet Earth is massive and most of it unoccupied"

I remember our geography teacher saying this, but then going to great pains to show us that mountainous areas, lakelands, wetlands and oceans etc, cannot really support settlement or the infrastructure needed for communities to grow.

Look at Wales, Look at Scotland and the lakes and pennines in England. There will never be mass housing in such places.

What does disturb me is the loss of our greenbelts in the UK and the natural habitats for wildlife. Once it is concreted over, it's gone for ever. Our grandchildren and their children need to know more than suburbia exists.

Population control has to be on the cards if we want to retain our "green and pleasant lands" - especially in the UK, where population density could become a problem and the quality of life become poorer. It's a start, beginning at home on our relatively small island.

I agree that awareness and education is the key and issues have to be a global concern, right now, not decades down the line, as lemon pointed out.