Greta Thunberg on the environment and being on the Autism spectrum

Well, now we have seen Greta Thunberg's post (thank you Marjgran ) we need have no more unpleasant comments about her.

Says she, hopefully.

Gone oh come on, she obviously didn’t write it herself. I expect someone paid someone (nudge nudge)

Trust your post is a ponderous attempt at humour?

Ye. I think it is anja.

I think it’s pretty clear what my views are on GT.

I don't claim to be knowledgable about climate change. I want to comment about jeans. I know it seems frivolous after all the serious contributions. I think it was Urmstongran who posted that the production of jeans uses far too many of the limited resources we have available.

This may be so but - during the warm weather I reverted to my favourite pair of shorts. They're cut offs from a pair of jeans I bought about 20 years ago. They were wranglers. My experience is its nigh on impossible to wear the b*****s out. I love them. They're pale blue, frayed in places but not in that trendy pre wrecked way. I cut them off at just below the knee so they can be long if it gets chilly or rolled up if it gets properly warm. Am I allowed to say 'properly warm' would that be trivialising a really important issue

Apologies - it's been a tough week

IAM64, every little helps the good cause. Shabby MUST become chic. Political involvement is good too.

Notanan makes a very valid point (yesterday 15.49)

The door seal on our washing machine has been gradually deteriorating and water started to leak out, together with marks being made on light colours.
So Just this week we decided to replace the seal. Firstly the damned thing cost an arm and a leg £47 + delivery (the cheapest we could find on the internet) for my model. Secondly it was VERY tricky to fit and the washing machine had to be pulled out and partially dismantled . Luckily my DH is an Engineer so we managed to do it ourselves (took us 2 hours mind you) but if I’d had to get someone in to do it, not only would the part have been marked up considerably, but the labour would have been eye watering . It is by no means a fancy pants washing machine so the cost of repair would have probably evened out with replacing it with a new model . How can that be right?

Funnily enough, gillybob, my husband and I were discussing the same thing last night. Today's white goods just aren't built to last in the same way. We had a problem with our tumble drier last month and my husband fixed it for £32. He'd got a quote for call out which was going to be £120 + vat without the part. This would just make a repair untenable. The way the tumble drier was put together meant dismantling the front control panel, 3 sides and taking out a control box just to replace the fan that pushes out the air at the back. It was, quite frankly, a major bit of work for a small problem and was obviously engineered to make it difficult.

The manufacturers clearly don’t want their machines to be fixed ican so they obviously make even the most basic repair difficult and expensive . They just rely on us replacing them.

With climate change more firmly on the agenda now surely some entrepreneur could market ‘Green White Goods’ and promote ease of home repairs as part of the promotion of the product? They’d make a fortune!

Absolutely right about white goods, and indeed all electrical goods being manufactured, that goods are made to make home repair difficult. It’s the same with cars. We all come from the generation that DID try to mend things. My husband manages to mend lots of our things, like others have said, he looks on the internet to find the best price, and he also looks on the internet to find out exactly how to do things properly. Younger people don’t do this. My husband does the repairs for our children as well. We do live in a throw away age, and manufacturers are guilty of ensuring that this continues. When our generation (we’re in our sixties) dies out, the manufactures will have achieved their aim, a totally throw away society.

maddyone, you are so right about cars. Several years ago we had a Renault Scenic and you had to take it into the garage for the light bulbs to be changed. The world has gone mad!

I wouldn’t feel sorry for her, her father is an actor producer etc and her mother a Eurovision finalist! All scripted and trained I’ll bet. It’s political and don’t fall for it.

Political? In what way? So we become more aware of man made degradation of the planet and try to do something about it? How terrible! Better just to slag these people off, ignore the whole thing and go about feathering our own nests.

@crystaltipps depends if you believe that climate change is the real issue. I don’t.

What is the real issue? Are you saying climate change is not real? Or the loss of habitats and species? The destruction of the oceans? What is the evidence for your beliefs? Shall we just ignore these issues?

Yes Kisathecat. Please tell us what you think the real issue is.

How is it political?

I don’t believe the changes in climate are man made as we are made to believe. I believe the earth goes through climate changes naturally. Of course pollution, plastics, gm, etc are damaging the earth and it’s inhabitants and are of course a serious issue. 5G will be disastrous. Geo-engineering is another matter entirely and this is deliberate climate change which the majority of the population refuse to believe is real and is happening.
There’s a lot of money in “green issues” that is what I mean when I say don’t fall for it. Do your own research. Jump off the bandwagon.

Do your own research this article may interest you Kisathecat

Yes, the earth has gone through climate changes naturally
The important question is what is causing the current, rapid warming? We cannot dismiss it as natural variation just because the planet has been warmer at various times in the past. Many studies suggest it can only be explained by taking into account human activity.
Nor does the fact that it has been warmer in the past mean that future warming is nothing to worry about. The sea level has been tens of metres higher during past warm periods, enough to submerge most major cities around the world

www.newscientist.com/article/dn11647-climate-myths-its-been-far-warmer-in-the-past-whats-the-big-deal/

Interestingly, the article mentions one period of global warming which could have been caused by a massive volcanic eruption that heated up coal deposits. which built up greenhouse gases - does that sound familiar?

I agree that the pollution of the earth with plastic is another urgent problem which needs addressing now and not later.

The throw away society is a nightmare. I always do try and repair, I have accumulated quite a tool kit. I was pleased to fix my tumble dryer myself with a replacement part I though was causing the problem. It cost £20 from eBay and was easy to fit. This was about 5 years ago and it is still going strong.

Trouble is the no fix white goods practice is keeping thousands of people in employment, and I suppose these goods are now on the whole mostly recyclable. But I will still try and mend myself.

Joelsnan ....are you available for hire??
It always seems so wrong to throw away whole items for want of a small part or two doesn’t it?

So everyone has got to do their own research ( how exactly?) and then we can decide that there is no need to worry about man made pollution and how it affects the planet. “Green issues are a big con to make money” - not sure how that works- please explain. This sounds like a head in the sand approach,

A lot of research is going on and many programmes on radio and tv seem to include a message about plastics, the move towards manufacturing recyclable plastic. Apparently the number of unrecyclable black plant pots sold each year runs into the millions each year so Monty Don suggests re-using them until the time comes when they can be recycled and new types of recyclable pots are now being produced. Alternatives to food packaging are being developed. One young scientist is developing food packaging made from cauliflower leaves which are normally just wasted. Advances are being made.

What needs to be done is to clean up the filthy mess that the planet is in now and stop it happening further.

For every person that is getting the message, takes home their rubbish, recycles, avoids plastic as much as possible, there is another who thinks that someone else will just clear up their mess.

@callistemon thanks for sharing that article. I’m not a scientist obviously but my own ideas about change and common sense along with studies like these tell me that some environmental change is normal.
@crystaltipps I don’t have my head in the sand and I’m not advocating that anyone else does either. But sadly until mass production of anything is reigned in or stopped, consumers are limited in what they can actually do. I mean as individuals we do what we can but while corporations are polluting the world and making lots of money and being allowed to by governments our efforts are always going to be overwhelmed by that. I know it has to start somewhere....but the plastic industry itself needs to be stopped and other real sustainable solutions created to meet consumer needs. Like we should all have access to water that is safe to drink and not full of chemicals so we don’t resort to buying bottled water. That one single thing would make such a difference!