[Beki]

I think if you haven't heard of Greta Thunberg then you must of been living under a rock for these past few years. If you haven't heard of her here's the low down on this influential young person.

• Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who is universally known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation.

• When she was eight, she started learning about climate change. The more she learned, the more baffled she became as to why so little was being done about it.

• Greta has Asperger syndrome, a condition that affects how people socialise. But Greta views her condition as a positive, calling it her “superpower”! She says it helps her see the world in black and white, and that there are “no grey areas when it comes to climate change.”

• She founded the School Strike for Climate and sat calmly outside the Swedish Parliament to try and get the government to act fast to stop global warming.

• Greta inspired other teenage activists to speak up about other issues, such as gun violence.

• In March 2019, climate campaigners across the world, and inspired by Greta, came together to co-ordinate the first Global Strike for Climate. It was huge – over 1.6 million people from 125 countries took part!

• She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize but sadly didn't receive the award.

I have recently also watched the BBC documentary about her and it is fascinating to see how our environment affects the younger generation. I know my own daughter is very conscious of plastic products and understands why eating local food and buying local is always the best for the planet and with so much information out there about how humans are damaging the Earth and the delicate ecosystems and habitats; is it any wonder that the younger generations have increased mental health issues as a result? Something that really, really, REALLY ticked me off was the media and the comments that people have been making about her. Claiming her to be 'just a child with mental health issues' and people have nothing but horrid things to say about this young person who just wants the suits to wake up and realise that THIS. IS. HAPPENING. Our world is changing and we are literally running out of time to stop it from happening.



I've broken climate change down into things that we (as a family) can take steps towards and also things that the government and leaders of the world need to do - even if we are pushing them like moody toddlers towards the right thing to do. Here are just a few of mine:

- I am a vegetarian. I do not consume dairy but do eat my own chickens eggs and local honey and so I am not classed as a vegan. Dairy and meat industries are some of the biggest sources of CO2 in the world.

- We recycle A LOT!

- We try to buy food in as little packaging as possible and if it has packaging, we make sure it can be recycled.

- I grow my own fruits and vegetables.

- I buy as much as I can second hand or get gifted lots of things - especially children's clothes.

- It seems so cliche writing this, but I have chosen an energy company that thrives on 100% renewable energy and also offers a green tariff! 😉

- I ask for providence. I always ask where my products come from and prefer to buy local.


Sometimes the smaller steps get us further in the long run. I would love to know what steps you have made towards being more eco-friendly, or indeed the reasons why you haven't.

[Landmark]

I drive a hybrid car and am semi demi vegetarian, however, I cut down on dairy and have organic eggs and non farmed (wild) fish. I agree that local food is best. I respect the mixed recycle bin collection system every other week from my local council. I used to live in a new build flat with electric only energy supply including electric boiler with heat pump, however, it was noisy and unreliable and expensive, so this is why I am replacing my current old cheap gas boiler with another more efficient gas boiler at the moment. Hopefully in the near future the government will subsidise electric cars and charging points and electric boilers to make it more affordable. I do not want to carry on with gas, and hybrid motoring but I am not wealthy enough to afford electric only energy supply at present. I would like to be fitted with solar panels and a domestic tesla battery for storage, but I cannot afford it, however I think most people are in my position. I believe not enough investment is going to green energy. The UK government can do much more but its priorities are in HS2 (100 billion pounds) and Covid funding (anyone know how much this is?).

[Tracy]

My daughter also has asbergers and she is very much the same very considerate of the environment we have a joint belief in this wat you put out into the world can only surley come back and after all the place we live in reflects wat we make it to be , we have a very strong determination to wat happens in the environment and in our life's but many seem to dismiss this threw greed selfishness ignorance , that's why some people don't understand her and her ways and her understanding , we have everything provided here it's upto us to use it wisely and keep things as natural flowing as possible , in the end there's nothing ever wasted nothing can go back from earth wat is taken it's just used in many different ways , but wat can happen is that for our own consummation we change the structure of the planet by changing the structure of wat we are given , this is were the trouble lays so then if we have been the bearers of this we must be mindful to make sure we break down those structures properly once used not to cause a reaction to the planet then it would keep on generating has it should and everything would thrive instead of collapsing , we don't need to have more we just need to realise we have everything and use that to our advantage and keep the world moving forward not backwards into ignorance and self gratification because if we keep going that way you really only get wat you want at the time but it's not for the whole and the whole makes the planet survive and our future generations will thrive and so with everything else , she should be in all our hearts because she had a true heart and she was doing this for everyone not just her own beliefs to make a difference and a difference she did make and will continue to do so !

[Beki]

I completely agree with you @Tracy. The consumerist culture is something that we need to address in order to make an progressive impact.

Take Valentine's Day for example. I believe the true meaning of the day has been swept away in a river of non-biodegradable glitter, plastic heart shaped rubbish, mass production of chocolate and imported flowers especially roses that produce nearly 33kg of CO2 with each bouquet.

Have you seen the app from the WWF that tells you your carbon footprint and how to improve it? It's quite cool actually and I highly recommend it for at least a starting place with discovering your impact on the planet.

@Landmark A quick search of the tinterweb came up with over March and April 2020, the government provided £3.2 billion of emergency grant funding and over £5 billion of cashflow support. I have no idea how much it is to date though but I'm sure it is extortionate. I mean COVID 19 has not only had a financial impact on us as a country, it has affected those poorer countries by not reaching to £100billion budget that they needed to make the changes towards climate change. Without all countries involved in climate change, I don't see how the government and world leaders think we will be able to keep the 1.5c rise 'alive'.

Personally I think we are at that point already and SO much more needs to be done. I wish that we could all have electric everything and that it was financially viable, but for your average Joe's like my family, it's sadly not possible....yet.

I will forever remain positive that something drastic will happen and cause a dramatic U turn with climate change. *All my fingers, toes and limbs crossed.*

[Andy65]

I don't really follow the news regarding climate change etc, although I have to admit that I rather selfishly take an interest when it has a more direct impact on me with such things as Smart Meters and EVs.

Personally, I struggle to understand how climate change can be effectively tackled in the long term without dealing with the elephant in the room, and that is the ever increasing population and life expectancy. Surely that is the fundamental cause, the more people there are, the more food, clothing, transportation, utilities, white goods etc. The list goes on and on.

Then there's the supermarkets. They sell as much as they can in plastic because they don't want customers to buy exactly what they want, they want them to buy more, some of which will end up in the bin. Maybe some of it is the fault of the Food Standards Agency et al, for example I don't understand why grapes need to be sold in a non recyclable plastic container when a brown paper bag was more than sufficient. Put milk back in glass bottles, it wasn't a problem years ago from a cost point of view as far as I can remember, but then again the supermarkets weren't making billions back then because they didn't have a monopoly.
I think it was Morrisons who said recently that they were going to remove the Best Before date from milk, sniffing it for freshness was good enough. I don't have a problem with this myself, but isn't that just common sense? More importantly, who put the date on in the first place, who and why are are people pouring it down the drain without checking if it's off etc. The media (BBC) reported this as if Morrisons had just reinvented the wheel!

Anyway, £100 billion for HS2 - I think that once you commit to a project like this then you have to complete it. I wouldn't have spent £13 billion on Smart Meters though. The only likely gain will be the saving on meter readings for the Utility companies, and some of that will be negated by reliability and compatibility issues. I've read my meters every month for years, I use what I need and I don't waste it. I'm on an Economy 7 tariff, on the Day rate I used to use an average of 132 KwH per month. My monthly average now for my Day rate is 43 KwH. My usage pattern hasn't change, all that's happened is that I've replaced two appliances. The point I'm making here is that I have made that saving, it's nothing to do with smart meters. It's about being on the right tariff, knowing what you use, when and making the best use of it.

What I don't know @Beki_EONNext is that if everything was electric, how would all of that electricity be generated? I believe we import 11% on average, and if you remove coal that would need to be nearer 13%. So today we have a shortfall of 13% to make up and then there's the increased requirement for EVs, electric boilers etc. Wind is erratic so that leaves nuclear and gas. I don't have a problem with nuclear but it doesn't seem to be flavour of the month anymore so that leaves gas, which looks like that's becoming less popular than nuclear.

I've no doubt that Governments around the world have set these targets such as 2030/5 for EV's/Hybrids for example, knowing that if they can achieve it all is good, but if not it will be another Government that'll push the date back and they'll just blame their predecessors for setting unrealistic targets, not achieving etc.

[Tracy]

@Tracy the thing Becki the government and the power that be think they are god and can tell us wat is best for us Wen you know in my experience if every human were to use there wisdom and help with each other there would be no global shortage of anything and no greed no people suffering it's very simple yet very hard for humans to grasp and put into play to change lives electric was made to be free by Nikola Tesla he dreamed of free electricity for everyone yet like every great discovery from great people he was soon taken care of and it was put into the hands of others whom then put a price upon it everything in this universe is given freely nothing leaves this globe nothing gets wasted just turned into alternatives and given a pricev , it's such a shame Wen we live in such a wonderfull fruitfull place that many still suffer with poverty Wen so many live in such riches including the ones that put the rules and prices into life if we all actually look deeper it's all there for us the rich get richer the poor get poorer , racism greed status watever they use all causes choes to keep us working like ants for the hive but many know this but like most it plays hard on your mind and you try your best to help heal the world but I wonder how much the leaders had they like to call themselfs help heal the planet or how much they add to weight it down if ur like minded maybe you already see the scales tipped drastically , all I know one positive mind can change many things so keep that thout and keep that light shining brightly for Nikola Tesla's dream , I will look up the website you shared thankyou ,never worry about shortages of money every pound has a zero meaning nothing added to a number numbers run the universe there's nothing to fear but fear itself keeps good story's going around year by year disasters will always be but human souls never die so nothing is ever is has it seems 😁

[HelenaP_EONNext]

I appreciate this is an old thread, but it is always good to keep the conversations around climate change flowing and to have an understanding of peoples views around climate change! It is amazing that younger people are interested in making changes for our planet and we can hope that these positive impacts can influence change and education in others 🌎

I would love to hear more around peoples views when it comes to climate change and what positive changes we can make, how we can be more sustainable and any tips from people who are trying to be more environmentally friendly! 😊

We also have our more recent thread What is Climate Change? 🌳

[meldrewreborn]

@HelenaP_EONNext

on talking pictures there was a repeat showing of “Heavens Above” - a Peter Sellers film.

In it, Sellers plays a vicar appointed to a small town where he puts his Christian values into real action. He lets some travellers stay in the vicarage (they steal from him), persuades a rich women to sell all she has to provide free food for everybody (local businesses shut down and people lose their jobs) and people keep demanding more free things. Eventually the vicar is replaced.

the notion that we should all have unlimited free things might seem attractive but things that get provided free are abused and it leads to waste. Pricing goods and services ensures that people only consume what they need according to their income. If we as a society want to reduce the consumption of things it normally means increasing prices, or else a formal rationing system as happened in WW2.
Inevitably there are knock on effects in the supply chain, and that means some people are put out of work. Thinking through all the consequences is what makes policy decisions difficult.
there are no easy answers and those who think there are perhaps need to think it all through again.

[wizzo227]

I take a much harsher and more definite line than the Thunberg luvvies. If I can live and travel and do everything inside 1 Ton per person per year then so could others, and here I argue that all should, worldwide, at once. Dont panic- I'm not in a position to impose this. Given a planet with net photosynthesis capacity of six billion tons CO_2 per year on average (only untested example numbers sorry; with forest fires and tundra darkening, other feedback events might be decreasing world capacity from that), then that six billion tons per year planet could support six billion people like me. 2023 figures for man made CO2e (that is plus 'equivalent' greenhouse-gas pollutants such as methane and agricultural stink) are above 60 billion tons per year (for comparison). 60 billion tons per year must be vastly in excess of what the world absorbs because Mauna Loa CO2 measurement continues rising faster than ever before and didn't decrease with the covid pandemic. For every person living a ten tons per year CO_2 lifestyle, the number of 1-Ton-people who could live in the far future goes down by nine. The present goal of most governments, towards ever-rising living standards, with most goods and food imported so that the carbon dioxide shows as some other countries' mess, seems to be heading towards ever-decreasing numbers of people in the far future.

To lessen the population contraction shock or future disasters, could be done with a drastic reorganisation which doesn't seem to me to be compatible with expansionist capitalism. An expansionist example is JBS foods. They are expanding Amazon clearfell in order to supply cheaper beef to Vietnam, using American pension-fund-money to build bigger beef factories and squeeze out anything family-owned local or ethical. If for all and any purchases which cause above your 1 Ton per person per year, even if it is only a burger and wrapper, you Must first have a receipt from someone else who decided to give to you a part of their 1 Ton per person per year to spend on your doing what you are doing. They might spend some of their personal carbon allocation towards your boss for your work, who then passes it to you as above-average carbon-pay. Then overspend-actions such as buying fossil fuels could only be done by those people whose work is so much more important than average that they have the CO_2 receipts to spare.

Like £200 to pass GO on the Monopoly board, the most important 6 billion people all start the year with 1 Ton worth of CO_2 carbon credits. What would you spend or save yours on ? 6000 kWh per person of ongoing gas consumption or would you prefer to get enough food ? How much would be left to get cement and windows made for the house which is going to be built for you ?

Now I wonder what the fossil-gas merchants say to that ?

[meldrewreborn]

@wizzo227

Only that the politicians have taken the low hanging fruit as far as emissions savings are concerned, and even now at the beginning of the harder part the public are griping that it’s costing too much.

the voting public of today haven’t really suffered the hardships that were faced by previous generations and always expect to be no worse off that they are today. Dealing with emission issues where the impact is years into the future and not really today’s problem is never going to be an easy sell.