Climate change: Big lifestyle changes are the only answer

[Minusorange]

Finally some reality to the task at hand in order to clean up our act and make the planet a little bit more green

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49997755

The UK government must tell the public small, easy changes will not be enough to tackle climate change, warn experts.

Researchers from Imperial College London say we must eat less meat and dairy, swap cars for bikes, take fewer flights, and ditch gas boilers at home.

The report, seen by BBC Panorama, has been prepared for the Committee on Climate Change, which advises ministers how to cut the UK's carbon footprint.

It says an upheaval in our lifestyles is the only way to meet targets.

The government has passed a law obliging the country to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

It is "going further and faster than any other developed nation to protect the planet for future generations", a government spokesperson told BBC Panorama. "If we can go faster, we will."

Even still, I feel the changes mentioned here will still fall short of what we're going to have to change, likely we'll need to give up land back to nature, stop destroying current areas of nature for new homes, shopping, towns etc and most important of all force a decline in population growth.

The climate is changing, I don't think we're wholly responsible and I'm not even sure our footprint is as bad as some would claim but we do definitely need to curb our pollution be it from plastic, vehicle exhausts and industry

 

[Panos]

Finally some reality to the task at hand in order to clean up our act and make the planet a little bit more green

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49997755



Even still, I feel the changes mentioned here will still fall short of what we're going to have to change, likely we'll need to give up land back to nature, stop destroying current areas of nature for new homes, shopping, towns etc and most important of all force a decline in population growth.

The climate is changing, I don't think we're wholly responsible and I'm not even sure our footprint is as bad as some would claim but we do definitely need to curb our pollution be it from plastic, vehicle exhausts and industry

The Extinction Rebellion demands are for governments to gain more authoritative power and impose complete ban on meat & byproducts. Ban on private ownership of cars. Ban on flights. Restriction on home energy consumption and restrict the size of houses and abolish armies and navies.

Yet if you look who's behind the funding of XR are "environmental subsidiaries" of banks and hedge funds who want to make money on the back of taxpayers (levies) and changes on new consumerism patterns.

Nanny state should be the first one to go extinct otherwise we already live in 1984, soon enough in "Equilibrium" or worse.

 

[dowie]

Even still, I feel the changes mentioned here will still fall short of what we're going to have to change, likely we'll need to give up land back to nature, stop destroying current areas of nature for new homes, shopping, towns etc and most important of all force a decline in population growth.

I think the report is pretty bang on tbh.. Might be nice to plant more trees etc.. and try to make more use of brownfield sites but giving land back to nature etc.. in the UK isn't going to have much impact on climate change. You're right re: population growth though.

 

[Rroff]

IMO we are going about it all wrong - firstly we need to stop building current house designs and build dwellings/urban areas that have better ability to withstand things like flooding, more localised power generation/energy sharing i.e. heating supplying more than one property and integrated growing areas on as much of the surface as is feasible and so on and encourage the development and roll out of efficient basic city car like electric vehicles using the most environmentally friendly tech we can (even if it means compromises in battery performance) - recycling components from current vehicles as much as possible but they'd also need to be engineered for weight, etc. for best efficiency.

 

[4K8KW10]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49997755

"swap cars for bikes"

How about producing clean cars, shall we, idiots?

 

[Rroff]

How about producing clean cars, shall we, idiots?

We would need sweeping changes to work and working patterns as well as massive changes to infrastructure amongst other things to make a wholesale switch to bikes. Though I do think more effort should be being made to open up cycle paths and other ways to make things easier for cyclists and move them away from traffic because the moment you get a bunch of cars stuck doing like 10mph behind a cyclist it completely undoes any contribution the cyclist might be making by not using a polluting vehicle! (not to mention how busy the roads are becoming with the increase in both cars and cyclists makes for an increasingly dangerous place for mixed traffic).

 

[4K8KW10]

We would need sweeping changes to work and working patterns as well as massive changes to infrastructure amongst other things to make a wholesale switch to bikes. Though I do think more effort should be being made to open up cycle paths and other ways to make things easier for cyclists and move them away from traffic because the moment you get a bunch of cars stuck doing like 10mph behind a cyclist it completely undoes any contribution the cyclist might be making by not using a polluting vehicle! (not to mention how busy the roads are becoming with the increase in both cars and cyclists makes for an increasingly dangerous place for mixed traffic).

The problem with bikes is that they are for limited distances uses only. You can't even carry your market purchases with a bike. No chance.
You need clean cars. And there is no technical problem to have clean cars.

 

[Rroff]

The problem with bikes is that they are for limited distances uses only. You can't even carry your market purchases with a bike. No chance.
You need clean cars. And there is no technical problem to have clean cars.

If there was a widespread change to cycling and the infrastructure to support it then things like trailer for bikes would be more practical for loads and/or there are other ways around that - personally in that respect I could get a lot of my shopping into panniers though it would take more regular visits to the shops but things like new home delivery options could help.

No way I could or would take up cycling to work though - the nature of my work makes that prohibitive and the routes I mostly do are pretty lethal on a bike I'd personally not be comfortable with how exposed I'd be not to mention the distance and nature of the terrain.

 

[rubberduck]

How about producing clean cars, shall we, idiots?

Studies have shown that a Tesla will indirectly produce more CO2 over its life than an equivalent diesel will.

 

[mmj_uk]

If the world is serious about all of this then start with China, until then I maintain it's just authoritarianism//communism/fascism/socialism (basically collectivism and big government which is what the left are all about) under the guise of saving the planet, or in other words if people don't submit they'll die horrible deaths type scare tactics.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

^ What's your hot take on 'just' in that sentence? Not needling, I don't think, but what do you mean and, more importantly, what framework do you endorse to help matters?

 

[Rroff]

If the world is serious about all of this then start with China, until then I maintain it's just authoritarianism//communism/fascism/socialism (basically collectivism and big government which is what the left are all about) under the guise of saving the planet, or in other words if people don't submit they'll die horrible deaths type scare tactics.

If things are as bad as the data held up by the likes of Brian Cox, etc. and we are dependant on China to get on top of things, etc. then we are truly ***** - none the less I still think we should be taking radical measures to change some stuff even if that is more adapting to the potential long term range of changes as much as it is about trying to be more environmentally friendly.

 

[413x]

Home working increase.
That would save so much

Skype rather than long haul flights for business

Massive tax on meat and flights

Population reduction

Etc etc etc

There's so much that needs to be done, but it won't happen. Not in time

 

[4K8KW10]

If there was a widespread change to cycling and the infrastructure to support it then things like trailer for bikes would be more practical for loads and/or there are other ways around that - personally in that respect I could get a lot of my shopping into panniers though it would take more regular visits to the shops but things like new home delivery options could help.

No way I could or would take up cycling to work though - the nature of my work makes that prohibitive and the routes I mostly do are pretty lethal on a bike I'd personally not be comfortable with how exposed I'd be not to mention the distance and nature of the terrain.

That means that every human will be turned into a horse needing extra force and muscles to pull all that load behind their back

If we go biking, that means we go back to the 17th century. And our economy will be gone, too.

Studies have shown that a Tesla will indirectly produce more CO2 over its life than an equivalent diesel will.

First, it doesn't matter because you will deplete the diesel in some years time. It will be gone.
Once the electric cars get their energy only from clean green energies and the whole economy/industry needed to produce it / charge it emits zero C emissions, then your studies will be obsolete.

 

[Puzzled]

Good luck trying to get the country to give up cars and meat, let alone the USA although I guess they can keep their guns

I think all the doom and gloom is just going to put people off rather than encourage change, after all if the planet is the ****** why bother giving up things you like. Instead we should push the message of this country becoming a leader in green technology, we've exported fossil fuel based machinery all over the world for centuries and now we can export new green technology to replace it all. Good for us and good for the planet

Hopefully they'll get some Thorium based nuclear reactors going soon, that has real potential to be a green and relatively clean energy source.

 

[Rroff]

Hopefully they'll get some Thorium based nuclear reactors going soon, that has real potential to be a green and relatively clean energy source.

I don't know much about it but at facevalue the benefits seem huge despite the costs - with the harder path from it to nuclear weapons, less potential handling, storage and disposal concerns, etc.

EDIT: Though:

"Thorium, when being irradiated for use in reactors, makes uranium-232, which emits dangerous gamma rays. This irradiation process may be altered slightly by removing protactinium-233. The irradiation would then make uranium-233 in lieu of uranium-232 for use in nuclear weapons—making thorium into a dual purpose fuel."

Is actually quite a big issue.

 

[adolf hamster]

Its gonna take more than just us, want to slash carbon emissions quit messing with passenger vehicles and take on shipping, power generation, logistics, places where you can make real change.

Take shipping- screw diesel engines, if the goods are non perishable put it on a sailboat, y'know, those ones that dont produce any emissions and dont require materials to be transported halfway round the world to build.

Road logistics- sweden had the right idea, and for inner cities why not bring back the trolley bus, also what the hell happened to moving things with trains?

Power generation, well i can think of a few deserts ripe for being covered in solar collectors, and offshore wind power has potential, but ultimately theres a lot of coal oil and gas and at the moment i cant see how else that can be replaced without resorting to nuclear.

Plastic packaging, well we can bring back glass milk bottles for a start, taking a leaf out of the european's book and having reused bottles will make a difference, plastic aint so bad if it isnt being used once then chucked.

On the greater topic of recycling, if stuff was actually fixable by design, and you could actually get replacement parts, it would save a lot of junk.

Even something like phasing working hours in an area to ease congestion rather than the half eight traffic jam, if cars are gonna be running they might as well be moving and taking as short as possible time to get where they're going.

Of course shipping wont wont change because time is money, logistics wont change because the infrastructure will be too expensive, power generation wont change because the politics are too tricky on the larger scale and the "n" word is just too dirty for most to think about, packaging might improve, but based on previous threads on here people would rather die than take their empty bottles back to the shop, stuff is going to become ever more disposable as its too much risk to let the plebs fix their own stuff as well as it means the product will be more expensive up front, and i doubt we'll see the mass end of the 9-5 working day any time this century.

 

[Rofflay]

I am not going to take a flight ever, Thats one thing i will do i can never see a need for it even on honeymoons. Holidays? Why Britain is huge ok the weather sucks but June July Aug can be amazing.

And you support British as well instead of giving the pound to a Turk, Or an Egyptian. Another thing that also needs to do one is oil central heating. Lets see those guys flex thier muscles when we go green and no one buys thier oil or vists them on holiday.

Buy British

 

[Puzzled]

Road logistics- sweden had the right idea, and for inner cities why not bring back the trolley bus, also what the hell happened to moving things with trains?

I think a far better use for HS2 would be a high speed freight network, could connect up with the major ports and deliver to local depots where electric vehicles are used for the last step of the journey. While we are at build another channel tunnel and have that connected as well, think of the improved delivery speeds

I'm sure some people in logistics can tell me a thousand reasons why it wouldn't work but there must be a better way than the current system.

 

[4K8KW10]

With Quantum energy we can achieve Overunity. https://www.google.com/search?q=qun...rome..69i57.4863j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Overunity is when the output energy is higher than the input energy.

Overunity of 8x-9x has been observed with powerful ball lightning.