Climate Change.....our children and their children.

[Ocean Spirit]

I really do not know what sort of reaction this post will get.
But Climate change has been something nobody ever wanted to believe to be a phenomenon that Humans are responsible for or that it is truly a more than passing cyclic series of extremities that occur naturally from time to time.
Beleiver or sceptic there are undeniably scary things going on in the world and the acceleration of the scary extremities that are having devastating effects on the planet and our lives are so far reaching now I have to wonder whether the world will change the way we live unrecognisably before we respect whats happening enough to take the advice out there and stem the tide so to speak.

I can't profess to understanding whats thrown at us in terms of scientific evidence or to being very pro-active in ensuring I do everything I can to help. But in 2020 the weight of the onformation passed our way and the events they speak of have reached a level where I am in no doubt. Eroding shore lines, strong storms, floods, extreme heat, increased health issues are now dominating our lives in a way we can no longer look back on as an isolated historical freak moment. It's switched from an occasional report to absolutely daily warning and daily consequences for all to see.
What will it take for the world to pull together on this and instead of just listening to the news actually make the right changes? how smart are we? Can we control human population growth or are we to selfish? How much will that help? will we walk the kids to school instead of sitting outside the gates in the car for 20 minutes so we get a good space and sit there with the engine running? Do we need to fly so often? how many single use products am I going to throw away?
I'm damn sure we all have moments where we care and others when we only think about our own actions as a priority.

I saw a young lady on TV this week who has chosen not to have children because of all the things going on in the world that a child would be bought into and how it would simply add to the problem.

Quite a deep post from a climate change novice.....and not one that I have written trying to be smart in anyway. It's written because I'm scared for the children over the coming generations and I accept every step put on me by authorities so long as I can see past a money making scheme and I want to do more independantly too. It doesn't mean I'll never fly, it doesn't mean I'm desperate to swap out my diesel T6....but I am a convert, it's here and we have to choices as far as I'm concerned and they are....
Decide it's someone elses problem and let nature take it's course and hope future generations can reclaim something after multiple disasters
or
Think a little more everyday about our own actions big and small and do the right thing accepting that the right thing to do is not always what we wanted.
Education is the key and there is no excuse for ignorance.
If you believe recycling is key then recycle. If you think unnecessary traffic is the problem, drive less but do something and keep doing something.

 

[Hotel California]

If everyone should look at theireselfs before starting to critcize on others and saying what they should or should not do , the world would be a lot different.
I feel that in our household we contribute a fair bit , if i would earn twice my monthly salary i could affort a electric car,solarpanels,climate neutral house,.....unfortunate that's not the way it is as almost 50% of my salary goes to taxes . Taxes direct cut off my salaly and again taxes on every € spend on things needed to live our daily life. The few € saved brings up noting in the bank , soon it will cost us to put a € on the bank.
as for the future ...we don't live forever and the world has bigger problems then the ones i can (try to) solve.
Main reason for a lot of problems in the world in general is overpopulation resulting in overconsumption imo.
We don't have kids and what will happen after i die is not my top priority to worry about call me selfish or whatever , i live my life now and not in 2070
The way i feel is that 30% of the world population is forced on paying for climate change while the other 70% contributes nothing and coninues to pollute like before.

 

[Ocean Spirit]

If everyone should look at theireselfs before starting to critcize on others and saying what they should or should not do , the world would be a lot different.
I feel that in our household we contribute a fair bit

This is what I feel is important.
You are consciously doing something.
For sure nobody's lives are the same. We don't all have 2.4 kids and half a Labrador nor should there ever be a case for that.
Whether you have children of your own or not, there are people in coming generations who need us to make the efforts you are making.
On a lighter note, don't you ever turn up at a public toilet and wish the previous user had left it in a state they would have liked to have found it in .
It's the same thing except thats much easier to put right.

 

[clarinetbcn]

15% of the world population in developed countries produce 63% of carbon emissions, while the other 85% is forced to pay the consequences of climate change.

There, fixed it.

 

[Ocean Spirit]

15% of the world population in developed countries produce 63% of carbon emissions, while the other 85% is forced to pay the consequences of climate change.

There, fixed it.

not sure about your maths
Ah....thats better...changed from 70% to 85 as I posted this...

 

[clarinetbcn]

not sure about your maths
Ah....thats better...changed from 70% to 85 as I posted this...

I can only cut and paste so fast...it all goes back to having taken Band in high school instead of typing. Lead to a 40 year symphonic career, but still can't type!

 

[westfalia]

Ha Ha. You post this tonight after me spotting this
earlier today.
I have mixed feelings.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

How the Surfers of Ireland's Favourite Surf Town Are Championing Sustainability - Magicseaweed

It's time we all stopped being ones and twos when it comes to climate and step up. - Magicseaweed

magicseaweed.com

 

[Velma's Dad]

There are some positives, for me personally, about the public at large at last getting the collective willies about CC. I studied environmental science in 1980-83 (at UEA, which is home to the Climate Research Unit) and then spent several years trying to explain to people that the modelled impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions wasn't actually just a bat-sing lefty conspiracy theory. But eventually I got sick and tired of the reactions of friends that ranged from polite indifference to sometimes quite direct hostility, and I just shut up. That's not to my credit, but at least I don't have to put up with so much of that crap any more.

But my lecturers were hardly early prophets of the CC issue - the British meteorologist John Sawyer published a very sound analysis and forecasts of anthropogenic global warming in 1972. God help us if it takes another 47 years before we actually start to do anything about it.

 

[BenPcaliman]

I am now 40 and have always been well aware of the issues we face, I have stark memories of digging up decade old crisp packets in the junior school hedge we used to play in and think "how many years has that been there not decomposing"
I think there are a many number of issues we face as humans and individualism, which is becoming more prevalent, is a major stepping stone. Obviously the massive expansion of the human race is telling its toll on the earth and its creatures and the almost unstoppable greed that is over taking our lives. The current social program of capitalism does not work and its going to take strong leaders from all over the world to make a real change.
Unfortunately I can see a dismal future for the human race for fear the poorest will suffer and the richest will carry on as they did before. Disappointedly many of us are far too selfish to make a real change and would take only law to force it upon us.
But we are as a family trying to make small changes like reducing the amount of meat we eat, refilling and trying to reduce plastic waste but its hard very hard. I live in hope our leaders see sense and soon...

 

[Amarillo]

Change, including global change, can happen very rapidly. Look at how the hole in the Ozone layer was patched by a quick global ban in CFCs. And I hear that China is to ban single use plastics in Tier 1 cities by the end of this year and throughout the country by the end of 2022.

But CO2 emissions is a much longer term problem. Even as per capita CO2 emissions fall in developed countries, they will continue to rise in developing countries, probably for decades to come. The only crumb of comfort being that per capita emissions in developing countries they are never likely to come close to today's worst polluters. Australians each spew out about 150 times the CO2 of Ugandans (16.8 tonnes versus 100 Kg).

 

[Aidy P]

I bought my sister 5 native broadleaf trees for her 50th birthday last week. They will be planted and maintained (I hope) by a trust in the Yorkshire Dales.
If they survive for 100 years, it turns out they will only capture the carbon equivalent of a family car doing 10,000 miles. It isn’t feasible to offset our carbon in this way (there isn’t enough space in the U.K.) but salience of the issue will hopefully help us make changes and our behaviour will then change our children’s behaviour and so on.

 

[GrannyJen]

Goodness,

All these statistics, all these maths...

Just waste less. Every time you throw something away just think how much of the worlds resources were exploited just so that you can throw it away.

It's quite frightening really. I fed 26 people tonight, all of the food contributed by those who in other circumstances would have tossed it in the bin.

In 2005 with the jangaweed militia threatening me at every step I finally found my way into Gennaia refugee camp in Chad. Never again will I ever throw away food without hanging my head in shame.

 

[Amarillo]

I bought my sister 5 native broadleaf trees for her 50th birthday last week. They will be planted and maintained (I hope) by a trust in the Yorkshire Dales.
If they survive for 100 years, it turns out they will only capture the carbon equivalent of a family car doing 10,000 miles. It isn’t feasible to offset our carbon in this way (there isn’t enough space in the U.K.) but salience of the issue will hopefully help us make changes and our behaviour will then change our children’s behaviour and so on.

There's a Global plan to restore 1,000,000,000,000 trees. That's about 125 trees per man, woman and child on the planet.

 

[clarinetbcn]

There's a Global plan to restore 1,000,000,000,000 trees. That's about 125 trees per man, woman and child on the planet.

It would be much less carbon intensive not to cut them down in the first place re:Amazon

 

[Amarillo]

It would be much less carbon intensive not to cut them down in the first place re:Amazon

Extract from:

What would it really take to plant a trillion trees?

Tree planting is capturing the minds of those who look for fast climate action. Earlier this month, the Ethiopian Government announced a new world record: thousands of volunteers planted 353 million trees in one single day.

www.unenvironment.org

===========
Stop the bleeding

The first rule for ecosystem restoration is to stop the further destruction of forests, wetlands, and other critical ‘green infrastructure’. Conserving natural habitats is always cheaper than restoring it later.

Most new trees do not need to be planted

Most ecosystems in the world have remnant seeds in the soil and natural regrowth can be cheaper and more successful than tree planting. The most cost-effective type of restoration is to work with the forces of nature. For example, across the Sahel, a successful and fast landscape restoration technique is called ‘farmer-managed natural regeneration’. It uses the existence of remnant root stocks below the surface, where the trees above ground have disappeared long ago. Farmers nurture those roots and trees back to life. The results are stunning—within a few years, large trees dot the surface of the once barren and dry savannah, bringing back water, productivity and life.
===========

And the best performing countries to date:

• China 2.8 billion
• India 2.5 billion
• Ethiopia 1.7 billion
• Pakistan 1 billion - known as Billion Tree Tsunami[21]
• Mexico 789 million
• France 723 million
• Turkey 716 million
• Peru 646 million
• Nigeria 626 million
• Kenya 542 million
• Egypt 500 million
• United States 315 million

 

[WelshGas]

As with most things there is confusion over many aspects of Climate Change.
eg: Plastics contamination of the environment. Nothing wrong with using Plastics. What is wrong is the disposal and recycling of Plastics. Get that right and we would reduce environmental contamination, reduce the need for more new plastics from hydrocarbons and reduce the CO2 output to do with the manufacture of plastics.
Just stopping the use of plastics will just pave the way for other materials to be used which may have a bigger environmental impact.
We have to learn to live smarter.

 

[WelshGas]

I try to do my bit and I'm not decrying what others are doing but think about these examples.
1. Using utensils and plates from bamboo, more environmentally friendly. Are they? Bamboo is a plant and has to be harvested and processed and has a limited life span and hence needs to be replaced periodically. Plastics can do the same job almost indefinitely before being, hopefully recycled. Metal utensils and plates can have an infinite life span and can be easily recycled. So which is best for the enviroment?

2. I want new wheels for my California! I don't need them, I want them. So I buy new wheels. Doesn't matter if I buy new or 2nd hand. Somewhere a new set of wheels is produced with the associated pollution of manufacturing. I sell my old wheels or take them for scrap. Ultimately they are recycled with the associated pollution of recycling. So what contribution have I made to climate change. My wheels still go round and round.

3. My neighbour has 2 cars and a Motorhome. They never drive anywhere seperately so only 1 vehicle is ever in use. But they have to bear the responsibility of the environmental impact of 2 excess vehicles being produced to sit on the drive unused.

4. Some advocate oil changes every 5,000 miles instead of the recommended long life interval of 15 to 20,000 miles. A not insignificant enviromental impact and supported by what evidence?

Just think very carefully what you do and does it have an impact. Doesn't matter a jot planting trees somewhere if you have 4 cars sat on the drive and never drive more than 2 at the same time. You'd make a bigger impact getting rid of the 2 not used.

 

[Calimili]

I believe there is a urgent need of clarity to identify what the actual problems are and how to tackle them.
At the moment everything is thrown in the same pot, diesel, plastic, CO2, NOx, coal, nuclear, global warming, meat consumption, cobalt mining, rare earth mining, production and pollution caused by manufacturing wind turbines, etc etc.
Many of the solutions proposed pollutes more than the problem they are trying to solve.
Even worse political views right vs left have been camouflaged as environmental issues, especially from those trying to ban SUV (who can afford them? the rich!) but at the same time flying to holiday or weekends thanks to ever cheaper flight on planes that inject an insane amount of CO2 directly in the atmosphere.

 

[WelshGas]

I believe there is a urgent need of clarity to identify what the actual problems are and how to tackle them.
At the moment everything is thrown in the same pot, diesel, plastic, CO2, NOx, coal, nuclear, global warming, meat consumption, cobalt mining, rare earth mining, production and pollution caused by manufacturing wind turbines, etc etc.
Many of the solutions proposed pollutes more than the problem they are trying to solve.
Even worse political views right vs left have been camouflaged as environmental issues, especially from those trying to ban SUV (who can afford them? the rich!) but at the same time flying to holiday or weekends thanks to ever cheaper flight on planes that inject an insane amount of CO2 directly in the atmosphere.

Totally agree.
CO2 production is responsible for Global Warming/Climate Change.

The rest are related to Enviromental Pollution.

 

[johnyboy]

I'm a walking talking contradiction (pretty much like everyone)
I have solar, a Powerwall for the house, ASHP replacing the oil boiler next month, an EV, bought some woodland, eat organic, have met most of the meat I eat.
What privaledge!
Only paid for by having a jetset job, I go transatlantic and I wipe out any "saving" made and usually end up on a plane way more than average.
But I also feel like it has to start somehow - the costs only go down as demand goes up, and demand is partial influenced by successes.

 

[MattBW]

The population has doubled since I was born! We now have 7.7 billion people in the world when in 1890 we had 1 billion... Let that sink in. In 130 years we have increased our population by 8 times... almost like bacteria expanding to consume all the fuel.

The problem for me is simply too many people and the pressure to keep feeding all those people is half the problem that is causing us to lose forests to grow food. Driving cars and such and eating meat wouldn't be a problem if there werent nearly 8 billion of us but there are and we need to make changes to protect ourselves. Then you have developing nations seeking to raise their standard of living, they aren't going to consume less are they? Only more...

I think sadly the human being needs to learn things the hard way, nature will sort us out even if we can't exercise some good judgement as a species. Hopefully we will adapt sooner rather than too late.

Watched this yesterday, really puts it in perspective.

BBC Two - Horizon, 2020, Chris Packham: 7.7 Billion People and Counting

Naturalist Chris Packham investigates the impact of our growing human population.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Calimili]

And those 3 billions people more compared to when I was born, they are all in countries where people don't have money to afford kids. Isn't that a joke!

 

[Bellcrew]

I'm a walking talking contradiction (pretty much like everyone)
I have solar, a Powerwall for the house, ASHP replacing the oil boiler next month, an EV, bought some woodland, eat organic, have met most of the meat I eat.
What privaledge!
Only paid for by having a jetset job, I go transatlantic and I wipe out any "saving" made and usually end up on a plane way more than average.
But I also feel like it has to start somehow - the costs only go down as demand goes up, and demand is partial influenced by successes.

‘Lord make me pure but not yet!’ – Augustine

 

[MattBW]

I just think those countries approach life from a different perspective, its not about owning things there as much as here.