The Environment

General Chat
21

I do what I can… but it’s frustrating to find that not matched by government or corporations. I hear tales from workers, of how much plastic is used shipping items to supermarkets… I hear that local authorities are treating recycling as a simple spreadsheet exercise and not actually recycling more than a fraction of what we put in the recycling bins…

Then the deafening silence from the government about what they’re actually going to do about the dire warnings in the UN report (answer: nothing, because it might hurt profits).

Alas everything I do is pissing in the wind compared to all that.

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22

yep. individual action isn’t a solution.

I hope you also apply political and economic pressure. Write to MPs, vote based on green issues, boycott companies, protest. These are the main things people can do. One big reason governments wont take radical action is that they’ve calculated it won’t cost them many votes, unless that changes they’ll continue.

23

Must admit last year I had my parents view on climate change saying “ turning off our stand by lights at night won’t save the world “. But now I’ve tried to do more, living in Leeds there’s big projects happening, they hope to ban all cars from city center, plant more trees! Grey to green project they call it. I’m going electric car soon, my job as a cobbler is one of the oldest form of recycling, shoes on landfill sites take years to degrade. But we are just a island in the world. Greta and co need to go to china and educate, saw a picture of discusting smog they produce.

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24

I’ve decided I’m not that bothered about it anymore, I’ll just keep up with whatever I’m doing and not give it a 2nd thought.

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25

Any specific reason why?

I know from your past contributions on here, you already, I suspect, do more than most to keep your impact low, so I’d figured it was something you cared about! Did something disenfranchise you?

Glad to know you’ll continue to be doing what you’re doing though! I’ve certainly learned a few things from you.

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26

House insulation renewed. Heating boiler upgraded to latest standard. Main electric oven in kitchen is now redundant and all cooking is done using a combined microwave/fan oven, enormous saving in energy.
If our house had been built in a different location we would have installed solar panels and we are presently looking at alternatives to the gas central heating.
What was our 3 Litre Diesel car is now just a footnote in history having been replaced by electric cars.
16 years ago my wife and I decided to adopt a plant based diet and we haven’t looked back.

I am quite sure that our actions to combat climate change won’t make much of a difference but if everyone that could make the same changes did then I am equally sure the outcome would be very positive.

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27

I think I’m just that way out at minute, governments aren’t taking it seriously.

The world’s literally on fire or under water in pretty much every area going. They’ve all been warned for years that this is coming, not one country has taken this seriously.

I can’t help but feel what’s the point when all the world’s leaders just provide lip service to the issues.

Maybe I’ll change my opinion when these talks in Glasgow take place, but then again how many global summits do they need, the last one didn’t exactly spur them to doing much.

Covid provided a great chance to have a green recovery… Meh nothing really came of this.

I can’t help but feel the world would be better without humans right now.

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28

I’ve just got Al Jazeera news playing on YouTube, they’ve got this story running at the moment. I’ve found the link to the program that’s broadcasting now.

Boris and his lot annoy me, stop giving lip service and actually do something :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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29

I’m sure lots of great promises and platitudes will be made. But then they’ll come home and brag about how we are already a world leader etc as will everyone else.

For me it’s no longer ‘can we avoid this collision’, more like ‘can we steer to the left a bit maybe slightly lessen the impact or at least maybe take our foot off the accelerator’

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30

Yep, I remember reading something a few years back that may explain why this happens. Apparently, talking about doing something releases the same dopamine as actually doing the thing. So you feel like you’ve accomplished your goal just by telling people what your goal is and receiving approval, so then you don’t actually follow through with it, as you’ve already reaped the reward without having to.

We need to stop coming together to talk about what we plan to do, and actually come together and do something. These summits are just too much virtue signalling still, and that’s a big problem.

We already know what the problem is, and we generally know what we need to be doing to take care of it. So what good does meeting to talk about what we’re going to do actually do? The talks should be taking action at this point, not planning more promises that will seldom be fulfilled. Mandates, not proposals.

It’s so frustrating as an individual with very minimal amounts of power to actually do or influence anything on a large scale. World leaders do, and they’re not making full use of that.

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31

I mean it’s already happening, all of them talking up this report and it’s got to be taken seriously.

Then nothing, no actions. They go into the blame game of well that country over there is polluting more.

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32

So, was waiting until I was sufficiently quiet (bored) at work to reply to this!

Answering your initial question first.

I very much try to lessen my impact in as many of my day-to-day choices as I think I can.

I’ve been on a green energy tariff for a while now, first with Bulb, and now with London Power (https://mylondonpower.com/), which also reinvests any profits into (admittedly vague) ‘green’ projects in London.

I do ‘offset’ every month with Ecologi, which pays for a number of trees to be planted. (well aware of various criticisms of off-setting but I’d rather plant some trees than nothing)

Whenever I have to replace something at home, I try to find the most energy efficient if it’s an appliance, or the most recyclable/eco-conscious if it’s a scrubbing brush or cleaning product for example. Similarly, I only use rechargeable batteries and LED lights.

And that’s the way I feel I make the most difference to my personal footprint - just seeing if I can do better every time I buy something new/change some aspect of my life.

Relatedly - I discovered this site the other day from a Positive News article (About us - Trainhugger) which I intend to use next time I book train tickets. Tree planted for every ticket (partnered with the Royal Forestry Society) and a third of revenue into eco-initiatives.

All of that said though, I’m totally with a lot of the sentiment in this thread that I know I’m doing X or Y, but I’m a drop in a drop in a drop in the ocean compared to Shell, BP, Coca Cola, Nestle, etc etc etc.

So I hope that enough governments around the world stop being cunts (and in that respect I will continue to protest and write to my MP and so on), but I’ll at least do what I can - more from a moral view than thinking it will have a practical effect I suppose.

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33

On the subject of population growth this chap has a good grasp of the data. R-

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34

Not a targeted response, but just jumping on this comment to say that I’ve noticed there is often criticism towards developing countries in environmentalism (pollution, carbon emissions, fishing - recent Seaspiracy docu, farming etc) but I feel there needs to be some consideration given to developing countries to let them grow and catch up.

Take for example carbon emissions- developing countries make up 6/10 of the top 10 contributors to carbon emissions globally, which sounds quite crap. But other major emitters like the US/ UK/ Europe have well over a century head start and when combined, have 4x more emissions than all these countries combined. The US still produces the most carbon emissions per capita yearly even though they have significantly reduced emissions.

Even among developing countries you can see the countries who have started earlier or are wealthier are able to reduce annual emissions while maintaining GDP growth, e.g. Mexico, China, India, South Africa; while SE Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa are still playing catch-up. With less resources/ gaps in expertise/ inexperienced govt. the barrier to building renewable energy sources is high, so until economic growth/ reducing poverty becomes less of a priority they won’t have the means to adopt renewable energy or shift to more tertiary industries.

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35

I remember when British summers used to be quite mild compared to back in the US. For the most part they still are, but more frequently every year, we have bursts of periods where the experience is like a summer back in the US, only Aircon isn’t a normal thing in most homes to combat it here.

I worry we’re approaching a point in Europe where aircon is going to become a necessity for a lot of people to get through the summer.

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36

I’m fairness aircon is rarely necessary at home. Bad architecture is normally the reason we need it. A classical Spanish villa type house has lots of shade and breeze, shutters keep them from heating up as do thick walls. Bearable for most in the summer. If we work in offices, we can remain productive as large numbers gather in comparatively small air conditioned spaces if we need to.

The problem is as we move to glass boxes in tower blocks and such, they get as hot or hotter than outdoor temperatures. That and a shift to working from home which has caused a lot more aircon purchase and use in the last 18 months.

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37

We are indeed, I’m seriously looking at getting it installed within the next 2 years, this last mini heatwave we had was unbearable.

Our houses are designed to retain heat in the winter, which then works against us in summer. In these heatwave temperatures, closing blinds and opening windows does very little.

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38

I remembered this came up on YouTube a few weeks back. It’s a bit simple but describes the differences between our housing stock and countries in hotter regions.

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39

Yes architecture!

I’d counter slightly that the features that make houses cool and those that make them warm aren’t mutually exclusive. A house with thick stone walls will keep heat out in summer and in in winter. Verandas and ventilation don’t necessarily make things cooler and can help with damp. There are ways to build things that cope better with both extremes. I know someone who lives in the barbican and it’s a great example - the open spaces and sheltered corridors really help with heat management in the summer even though the flats are well protected in winter.

I think a large part of it is modern cost savings in buildings and the lack of architects involved in most new build housing projects. It’s more ‘how many bathrooms and bedrooms can we cram into this floor space’ than anything else.

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40

Not at all! You’re better off with a heat pump converting it to electricity or heating water. You only need a small differential to make it worth it for water. Aircon needs to go…

Edit: go and measure your tap temperature immediately :joy:

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