For those interested in global warming, now called climate change!

I don't know what the deal is with the US, but as for China and India,we can hardly blame them for their energy use. They're using all that energy making the stuff we ask them to make.

We want to surround ourselves with stuff. But we won't pay for it. So it has to be low quality mass produced tat made somewhere where it doesn't matter if some kid gets beaten for not working fast enough. It takes a lot of energy to meet our manufacturing demands. We can't do it locally because we have worker's rights and environmental rules. So we outsource it all to places where they don't give a stuff. Then we pat ourselves on the back while criticising those that mass produce our rubbish for a pittance.

 

China can stop churning out tat tomorrow, it wouldn't bother me.

Perhaps we just need that to happen? prices to go up, quality to go up, and people might just start to appreciate what they have rather than the throwaway society we have now.

Not sure China would agree though.

 

So that's anthropogenic global warming causing climate change then isn't it.



Regardless of whether climate change is anthropogenic or not - it is happening (although I strongly doubt greenhouse gas concentrations have risen so highly spontaneously in the last 4.6 billion years and so has global temps).

By 2050 there'll be 9.7 billion people on this planet made worse by an estimated temperature rise of 4C above what we have now, made worse again by land loss due to rising sea levels.

It makes for a grim future!

 

Convince me to do without my heat come February. We experience nasty cold, central heated needed, weather. I already reduce, reuse, recycle, conserve energy, paid for solar panels and paraphernalia to reduce my energy foot print. I havd not used my clothes dryer in over three years. I don't use chemicals unless absolutely necessary. And on and on. Expensive and labour intense for this old broad.

If we each do what we can it's good. Every bit helps.

@silu I'd really be interested in what others here have done to reduce their impact on our climate rather than the continual whining.

Those expressing concern should step up and tell what they have done in realityrather than philosophising (spelling?) about it.

Here in my province no one is allowed to burn autumn leaves. Theh must be composted. No bonfires without special permit. And on and on.....

That said, I refuse to give up my ice making fridge

 

I think we should do what we reasonably and realistically can without compromising our lifestyle.

I'd say the onus should be on those we pay to solve the problems. That's government through tax, and corporations through the goods and services we buy.

For example, at one time, if you bought a new car, emissions and fuel consumption were unimportant. So brand new cars were sold with 50 year old engine design. Nowadays for the same price, quality and performance, efficiency is greatly increased. Thone we pay you solve a problem, in this example the car manufacturers, have applied their expertise to help solve the problem they have to solve in order to meet demand and remain competitive.

 

I don't think that's going to cut it unfortunately.

 

It has to. What is the point in society in general if we have to each act as an individual? Human kind made it this far by working as a collective. Now we face a massive challenge. I can't fix it. You can't fix it. But there are people that can. They can fix it with our support. You or I can't stop some petrochemical company from flaring off thousands of tonnes per year of ethanol. But we can pay government to stop them. And we can buy from companies that avoid such things where practical.

 

That statement is only partially correct. Not many people are aware of the fact that if we go back to say, 1960, there were more different models of vehicle available that meet current emissions standards than there are today.

 

Pete hit the nail on the head. It's the unsustainable population increase that's driving climate change. That's a little bit of a simplification but it's the basis of what's happening. If the world population had stayed at 1 billion, then you'd only be using 12% of the current energy usage. (Over simplification but you get the point.)

Then you can expand further and further on various other points from this theme by, for example, aging populations in western Europe would eventually implode the economies of their countries so they need population increases in order to keep the system going. It's a spiral going ever upwards and upwards. We need to send the Trifids or other alien species in.

 

I am not 100% certain of my facts but do remember that during our fight (successful) to stop a planned wind farm being build right next door to a sizeable village, (not being a nimby as village is about 8 miles from where I live) our legal council produced figures which showed that some power stations were at times having to run at less than full capacity due to electricity companies having to, by law 1st use electricity produced by wind/solar. By running at low levels, increased the pollutants produced by the power stations which somewhat negates any perceived benefits of green energy. Add to this that as of January 2015 according to The Telegraph wind farms were paid over £1,000,000 a week for NOT producing electricity when there is over supply it's no wonder that there are some extremely shady characters involved in making huge amounts of money out of green energy business. I am all for doing my bit to not pollute our country and indeed burn mainly wood (carbon neutral) to provide for heating our house and recycle everything I can, it's the crooks who are making a fortune while being heralded as such caring citizens that I have a serious issue with. Our Leaders are constantly patting themselves on the back with regards to smothering the country with wind turbines to "protect"our land yet are proposing to reduce airport taxes,in the hope of increasing those using Scottish airports, double standards or what?

 

Yes, quite right. I should have made the distinction

 

I think I've said before, we could end a lot of problems if we stopped buying mass produced plastic rubbish from China. China would go back to being poor, meaning they could not afford their imperialistic expansion into disputed territories anymore. They'd use far less energy so less environmental impact, with significantly reduced manufacturing they'd no longer need to buy gas from Russia, so Russia would be weakened and have to behave a bit better. All the while, the rest of the world gets a chance to become competitive again.

 

That is soon to change, thanks to the ever innovative Tesla.

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/powerwall