It's now or never for the planet

GrannyGravy13

P.S. I do agree with man made climate change, but respect others have the right to say what they think/feel.

I don't think it's a question of agreement, thinking or feeling. The facts are there. Of course different people will interpret them differently, but nobody can think or feel facts away.

IMO it's a fallacy that all people's thinking and feeling is equally valid.

Urmstongran

I wish one journalist, just one, would askBoris the following: 'If we achieve Net Zero in 2050 what affect will it have on global average temperatures?'

The answer is, none whatsoever.

Where on earth did you find evidence for that?

GrannyGravy13

Some uncalled for comments on this thread, part of living in a free country is that folks are entitled to hold their own opinions.

There are scientists who disagree with man made climate change no doubt they have their reasons.

People are entitled to hold their own opinions, but it doesn't mean they're valid in a serious debate.

Just remember that it isn't the planet which needs to be saved, it is our species and a lot of others. Presumably rats and cockroaches will survive and the planet itself will carry on spinning (as I think somebody has already said but I couldn't find it).

Urmstongran, your point about many wildfires having been started by arsonists is true, but the fact that they take hold so fast and are so difficult to control is often because of climate change having reduced the rainfall and allowed the wildfires' fuel to dry out. Perhaps woodland management needs to change to take account of that.

Urmstongran I believe that modern dishwashers are so efficient that they use less energy and water than hand washing.

It's not just about climate change or net zero. It's about the amount of resources being used, the amount of waste, the amount of plastic in our oceans, the sewage in our waterways and the consumption of land and resources that wildlife need. We seem to be piling up a whole load of problems for the generations coming up after us.

To those who are sceptical about man made climate change or believe that until we all do it then there's no point any of us doing it I would ask do you worry about these other issues?

I think they are all connected.

Of course some morons think climate change is a hoax but the science shows it is real and threatening disaster for future generations. But most politicians, whatever their rhetoric, don't really look beyond the next Election and they waste time and resources on eye-catching trivia or marginal issues. And people of a green disposition have sometimes been short-sighted and obstructive. Few politicians have any scientific knowledge or understanding beyond O level. I'm sorry for our successors but I'm glad I won't be around to see it.

Either we adapt or this is going to finish us before global warming.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/06/microplastics-found-deep-in-lungs-of-living-people-for-first-time

I'm still waiting for the Ice Age that we were threatened with in the 70's

The prediction of cooling was based on the forecast that human emissions of aerosols would quadruple. They didn't. Hence...

I personally published what was wrong (with) my own original 1971 cooling hypothesis a few years later when more data and better models came along and further analysis showed [anthropogenic global warming] as the much more likely…” (Schneider quoted in Santer & Erlich (2014))

And now it's happening

There’s too many people using the worlds resources. Whatever we do won’t make much difference unless China and the like do, I do think however we’ve had so many different ages, plaques and wars, but now there’s more people in the world than in the whole history of the world. it will one day end, just yet I hope.

We'll all be blown up by the time it matters by stupid greedy dictators or religious fanatics. The Earth will regenerate we won't that's the grand scheme of things. We'll be like the dinosaurs.

One thing we can do is to stop paving over our gardens and let the grass grow, (no plastic grass either) plant bee friendly flowers and not buy the annual flowers sold all over the place that have no pollen or nectar. Every small change does help and can influence other parts of the world.

I’m sure I read somewhere that the billions of people on earth has tripled in a (relatively) short period of time. There’s too many of us, basically. We all need feeding, use plastics, agricultural chemicals etc. I suppose as a species we consume too much and are probably not sustainable.

I was told (by a university science professor, decades ago) that we 'passed the point of no return' back in the 1970s. Anything we do now will slow down, but not stop, the destruction.

So - here we are, on a dying planet, with our heads in the sand - or blaming somebody else, as per usual. Our poor, dear grandchildren. Will they forgive us?

Pepper59

Well, they really need to tell China, India and Russia. I think our various governments are trying, but I really am sick of getting preached to while all these other countries do exactly as they please. Remember CopOut26? What a waste of time and money that was, and to my knowledge countries gave it "all that", but so easy to talk the talk and not walk the walk. The UK is trying to do it's best, time for other countries to step up to the plate. This is only my personal opinion.

And the USA and Australia.

Well they are telling them.

Jeezy peeps...

This is the big scary question of our times. Seems to be beyond us to really think about it in a productive way. I don't think this government has the real will to tackle it as it will require enormous political and behavioural change and they don't want to be voted out by asking the country to do what's needed. Heading into disaster by inaction I fear.

Unless countries like Russia,China,India,Pakistan and USA start getting on board with climate change our tiny nation doesn't stand a chance

Katy1950, you are right and, apparently Australia is heavily involved with coal mining. Volver, you have been arguing with all of us who have been saying this throughout the thread without giving any solutions. I think most of us try our very best to be as green as possible. Most of our generations have had it instilled in us to frown upon waste, for example. I do think various European governments, including our own, are at least attempting to change but they cannot do it on their own. These very large countries need to be on board with us. Just because we are saying this does not mean that we take away our responsibility.

Do any of you honestly think Govts. around the world give a fig about any of us? The World Economic Forum is trying to kill most of the world population. Did you know that everyone over the age of 50 (or even 40) is called a "Useless Eater" by Klaus Schwab? If you have an e-reader download "Behold the Pale Horse" by William Cooper. Scroll past his life in Government and see what is happening to the planet. He wrote this book about thirty years ago and you would think he wrote it in the last 5 years.

Volver, you have been arguing with all of us who have been saying this throughout the thread without giving any solutions.

Well, I wasn't aware that countering the global conspiracy to deny man-made climate change came with an obligation to say how to fix it, but seeing as you ask...

Stop worrying about saving your glass bottles and recycling the cooking fat. That’s table stakes and is about as effective as taking everyone’s railings was during the war. What the world needs is large scale, macro solutions to the major issues such as power generation and carbon capture.

The UK governments (plural) are paying lip service to Green-ness but are not practicing what they preach. We are still having debates about opening new sources of fossil fuels, such as the Cambo field, when these sorts of things should be entirely off the table. We need a proper energy strategy that focuses on alternative sources of energy that do not generate any long term emissions.

It's not beyond the wit of man to do a cost benefit analysis of how much atmospheric carbon is currently created by the manufacture of wind turbines, batteries and the like. Then work out how they have to be created and maintained to make their manufacture sustainable. Then make them. Then get everybody using them.

In the meantime, we stop investing in and subsidising damaging technologies such as oil and gas. And don’t get me started on nuclear. We need to have a plan, stop taking kickbacks from vested interests and focus our investment where it matters. Stop complaining about China and the US and get on with doing something that will place us ahead of the pack when the oil runs out.

And William Cooper was a crank who thought extra-terrestrials were involved in global conspiracies and that Kennedy was killed because he was going to expose it.

Fruit and veg in plastic bags? Let's stop this single-use

Buy Them Loose

The plastic thrown away each year could circle the earth FOUR times. Almost half the rubbish in the oceans is left behind by fisherman. Fishermen should pick up everything they drop.

Use paper straws

Saw a thing recently about roads in India. They've been making road surfaces with ground down plastic waste for some years. The roads have not worn down or developed potholes and they are cheaper to make than standard tarmac ones. Sounds like a good thing.

Volver, I think there are very few of us here who deny climate change and all of us are concerned about the world our children and grandchildren are inheriting. Even if our small ways of reusing and recycling are a drop in the ocean compared with the rest of the world, at least we are doing something positive. I took my own bags to supermarkets long before it became the third to do. In fact, I remember supermarkets charging for plastic bags as recently as the seventies. It was only in the eighties and beyond that we had free bags and many of us reused them for other purposes. I have always bought and donated to charity shops and, for several years, most of my clothes have come from eBay. I realise I am one person but if we all at least try it helps. You mentioned glass recycling. Near me there is a business that has the money from its glass recycling (and open to the public) going to a local cancer charity. Surely this can only be a good thing - a double win.
You make a lot of good points in your last post. How, though, can we get governments, particularly in the biggest polluting countries, to play their part?