[Politics] 3rd July 2023 - Hottest day since records began - what to do about climate change?

[Mustafa II]

 

[dadams2k11]

Look to book more holidays in the UK as it is getting hotter over here now and will save on the flights.

Sorted.

 

[AmexRuislip]

You could've started this thread later, as I've just put another log in our woodburner

 

[Seagull]

An emergency stop worldwide is what is required, but of your options a slow 10 year stop is the most radical feasible option. Of course even that won’t happen. Governments will allow the fossil fuel companies that fund them to keep on burning, business as usual, and won’t strand their assets until real disaster hits e.g. massive sea level rise from the collapse of the Greenland or Antarctic ice sheets. By then it may be too late. GHGs already way out of control see https://www.co2.earth/ with 424ppm in May. Be afraid. The short term political cycle cannot deal with the problem.

 

[Coldeanseagull]

Look to book more holidays in the UK as it is getting hotter over here now and will save on the flights.

Sorted.

Won't save on price though....which is the major stumbling block for most people when it comes to 'doing our bit'

 

[Fungus]

You could've started this thread later, as I've just put another log in our woodburner

Yep, 3rd July 2023 in Cornwall, our central heating kicked in

But I’d suggest that just shows how screwed up it is. To balance things up, our gas consumption is 50% of what we were using two years ago, before installing cavity wall insulation.

 

[beorhthelm]

the obvious answer is to have the emergency stop, end all use of fossil fuels. this will bring about close down of most the economy, but if thats necessary then thats what's needed. could go with high carbon taxes, just allow the middle classes and rich to carry on, while making cost of living crisis look mundane. or we could go the carbon capture route, not seeming to be taken that seriously. everything else is just pretending to deal with the issue.

 

[American Seagle]

The time to act was decades ago when we had the knowledge and time to make slow gradual change to technology and attitudes towards it. The horse has bolted. Anything we do now will not be enough. Anything required to stop massive catastrophic problems will fail as they will be seen as "too radical" etc etc. The same people will moan later when it really gets bad.

 

[portlock seagull]

the obvious answer is to have the emergency stop, end all use of fossil fuels. this will bring about close down of most the economy, but if thats necessary then thats what's needed. could go with high carbon taxes, just allow the middle classes and rich to carry on, while making cost of living crisis look mundane. or we could go the carbon capture route, not seeming to be taken that seriously. everything else is just pretending to deal with the issue.

I disagree. The obvious answer now is probably to stop pretending we can prevent climate change. Instead, my advise would be to get what you can from life now because hell is coming. No question.

Every target has been missed. Future targets will also. And btw, targets aren’t ratified by mother nature! All these deadlines and dates aren’t binding ie if we don’t do this, that happens. We’re finding out already that we have no control, things are happening far faster or unexpectedly altogether.

In the last 30 years ie when the science was clear and the case made (unless you were a denier; had cause to deny, typically for financial gain; or simply weren’t interested/didn’t care), we’ve added more pollution and gases than in the previous 1000 so we’re clearly not - as a species - too concerned. Wasted decades, seen further destruction and species extinction.

The uncomfortable truth is many of us on here will be monumentally f***ed by the consequences of climate change. Quite possibly suffering a violent death, as societies break down. Or starvation, because there’s no where near enough food when crops fail on an unprecedented global scale. Remember, we can only feed half the current population of the UK by ourselves. And that’s before 100,000 a month arrive by small boats or even the channel tunnel in the years to come.

Frustration and anger at our ineptitude or ability to prevent are natural consequences of hope. People need hope. It’s fundamental to our existence and survival. We will go on hoping we can prevent or reverse therefore.

The alternative though is to reframe what hope means in the context of climate change. It shouldn’t be prevention. That time has passed. But it could be you hope to see out your days with less material wealth and living space (so that others who might otherwise die as a consequence are able to survive eg Mass migrants). Even that sort of hope is perhaps a fantasy though, because we’re not very good as a species at selflessness. People still want to fly in their hundreds of millions this summer, having ‘earned’ their ‘right’ to etc. Not exactly helping though is it?! You’d think people might rethink, knowing what we’ve seen already and is coming, but I know dozens of people and businesses continuing using planes like others do cars. And cars like others do walking. Such examples are merely the tip of the (melting) iceberg though, there are thousands of everyday individual actions that billions of people take which contribute to climate change. Most of whom either won’t or even can’t stop doing in order to survive. Which is why we should probably be honest enough to admit we’re powerless to prevent, and stop hoping we can.

 

[Flagship]

We could stop measuring a nation's success in % economic growth, after all, its economic growth that is the cause of all this turmoil.

 

[portlock seagull]

Look to book more holidays in the UK as it is getting hotter over here now and will save on the flights.

Sorted.

Just a shame we can’t swim in our rivers and sea for water companies emptying sewage into them. Still, as long as the shareholders get their gross dividends and can thereby afford to go to and enjoy Maldives etc where the water quality is better (but add further pollution by flying, see the vicious cycle we’re in here?!)

 

[portlock seagull]

We could stop measuring a nation's success in % economic growth, after all, its economic growth that is the cause of all this turmoil.

Realistic solutions, please! There are billions of people who believe they should have more than the next person even if they don’t currently have.

This isn’t the Waltons. As families go, the human race sucks.

 

[Stat Brother]

Revealed: UK plans to drop flagship £11.6bn climate pledge

Exclusive: Disclosure provokes fury as Rishi Sunak accused of betraying populations vulnerable to global heating

www.theguardian.com

 

[JetsetJimbo]

When I was a little kid, I thought we were heading for the future portrayed in Star Trek. When I got a bit older and understood capitalism a little better, I figured we were probably heading towards something that looked like Blade Runner. Now I see that both of those were wishful thinking and we're actually gonna get Mad Max.

 

[willalbion]

Revealed: UK plans to drop flagship £11.6bn climate pledge

Exclusive: Disclosure provokes fury as Rishi Sunak accused of betraying populations vulnerable to global heating

www.theguardian.com

Zero political will to do anything - and climate activists are portrayed as the bad guys. Awesome.

 

[nicko31]

Slow stop.

Begin with stopping on all new fossil fuel exploration in these isles.

Need green tax breaks, green grants aimed at the poor, stop the ban on onshore wind and solar, mandate solar & heat pumps on all new housing builds, big insulation push on residential, government and industrial buildings.

Start increasing fossil fuel taxes, stop giving tax breaks for big oil, individual carbon allowance (big polluters need to start paying)

GET RID OF THE TORIES

 

[Lenny Rider]

Until China and India join ‘The Gang’ anything any other country does of note is effectively futile.

 

[A1X]

Don’t think it matters now TBH. It’s too late and politicians globally are too corrupt and / or weak-willed to do anything, especially as the public as a whole don’t want to make the sacrifices necessary.

 

[nicko31]

Until China and India join ‘The Gang’ anything any other country does of note is effectively futile.

China is leaving us in the rear view mirror, what's more without them we'll find to hard to make the transition ourselves.

 

[kjgood]

I can confirm that the 3rd July 2023 here in South Wales was nowhere near the hottest day this summer, let alone the hottest day since records began.