[reimomo]

The real solutions lie in every one of us doing as much as we can, both as individuals and on the macro scale you talk about.

This.

It's quite seductive to sigh and say 'well, of course China are busy building a coal fired power station every week, so we all may as well do the 700 metre school run in Range Rovers'.

But how do we propose cuts to China's Co2 when we can't even keep our own emissions in check?

In any event, there is a colossal amount that can be achieved with small changes to our behaviour. Since the ban of free bags, plastic bags have fallen by 94%. Who genuinely longs for the days when they were free? Wind power - nearly 20% of the UKs power in the last quarter of 2017. Apart from a few nimbys, who has that hurt? The recent disallowed Iceland ad highlighting the anti-palm oil campaign. Ok, the last one wasn't strictly climate change, but it's woefully short-term thinking to simply point at bigger crimes elsewhere as an attempt to negate our own.

[TLRippon]

Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting we do nothing but I am suggesting that driving two cars and running a private aeroplane while reusing your carriers and doing a bit of recycling is not having a positive impact.
This is the problem, doing all these little things does not do enough even if we all do them. Unfortunately the big things are very difficult to do because they involve major lifestyle changes and we are all basically self centred, greedy things.

[reimomo]

driving two cars and running a private aeroplane while reusing your carriers and doing a bit of recycling is not having a positive impact.

I would try a glass half full approach: it's having less of a negative impact than not doing these things.

Unfortunately the big things are very difficult to do because they involve major lifestyle changes and we are all basically self centred, greedy things.

Ok, so let's at least do the small things, and continue to work on ways to figure out the big ones (some of which are now being nudged in the right direction).

Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting we do nothing

But hay, if it makes you feel good.

[TLRippon]

I suppose the point is being made by the counter arguments here.

If you really want to do something positive for climate change the big changes are the only ones which actually make any difference.

If you want to make a positive personal contribution to climate change.

Stop having two cars.

Stop flying an aeroplane.

Stop taking holidays in distant places.

Stop wasting food, eat a diet which is sustaining not indulgent.

Stop having children.

I'm not for one minute suggesting I'm personally anything but a hypocrite. Aside from not personally producing any children, I do all of the other things. The problem is that it is hard to do the things that really make a difference, which is why almost no one in the Western World is actually doing it, hence the mess we are in. It's easy to kid yourself that a bit of recycling and putting a solar panel on your roof is going to save the world. Change will only come when we stop trying to mitigate the bad things we are doing with other supposedly good things and actually tackle the bad things directly.

I would dispute the "We shouldn't do anything because China is worse" argument a different way. We shouldn't do things which make little or no impact while still doing the decadent things to which the Chinese aspire.

I think it is also important to remember that we are not destroying the Earth. As a planet it will survive quite nicely without us. We are destroying our ability to live on Earth by terraforming our finely balanced environment to no longer be suitable for us.

I'll be thinking about this more when I'm pumping 100 octane leaded avgas exhaust all over the south of England later on.

[Wide-Body]

Just to put a bit of perspective on numbers. This month alone I will burn 875,000 litres ofJet A. This will carry approx 2600 passengers.

[flyingeeza]

Just to put a bit of perspective on numbers. This month alone I will burn 875,000 litres ofJet A. This will carry approx 2600 passengers.

...as will most of these little yellow aeroplanes...and this is merely the few across the pond seen 5 minutes ago!
That's an awful lot of Jet A...

The mind boggles...

[johnm]

I did my bit this morning. I rode to town and back on my bike to buy locally shot venison and boar for my next two evening meals

[reimomo]

If you want to make a positive personal contribution to climate change.
Stop having two cars.
Stop flying an aeroplane.
Stop taking holidays in distant places.
Stop wasting food, eat a diet which is sustaining not indulgent.
Stop having children.

But why stop there? Everything we do, including living a hermit existence in a cave and eating a vegan diet, has at least some effect on climate change.

Yes, I get it, we're all hypocrites and we're all contributing to the problem. But it's demonstrably not the case that fitting solar panels, recycling, walking/cycling instead of driving, cutting down on meat, etc etc etc have no effect. How can they not? 7% of electricity in German is from solar panels - that is an absolutely staggering figure, even accounting for the cost of producing the panels. Per capita I'd be pretty sure that alone negates more Co2 than many pilots produce on here, so we could strike the 'stop flying an aeroplane' from the list above as a kick-off!

[PeteSpencer]

I did my bit this morning. I rode to town and back on my bike to buy locally shot venison and boar for my next two evening meals

Off set against dental charges for damage to yer teeth when you crunch on the shot....

Peter

[johnm]

If you want to contribute to mitigating your impact on the planet, then be efficient in how you use resources. However be aware that in the short term that isn't what the economic policy in the UK says, as it is largely dependent on financial conjuring and retail.

Some ideas:

Keep your car(s) well maintained and hold on to them for as long as possible.
Grow your own food where practicable and have a compost heap
Eat game shot and butchered locally
Get your electricity from water wheels and solar panels and even windmills
Insulate your home
Use rainwater collection for as much of your water consumption as you can
Avoid plastic and use paper from sustainable forests for packing things in
Use wool, cotton and silk and maybe leather for clothes and bags
Use rapeseed oil and olive oil not palm oil for cooking
Use butter and cheese not synthetic spreads

[johnm]

I did my bit this morning. I rode to town and back on my bike to buy locally shot venison and boar for my next two evening meals

Off set against dental charges for damage to yer teeth when you crunch on the shot....

Peter

You need to learn to eat in a more genteel fashion

[GonzoEGLL]

I suppose the point is being made by the counter arguments here.

If you really want to do something positive for climate change the big changes are the only ones which actually make any difference.

No.

Everything makes a difference.

Some changes, when addressed at that macro level, obviously make a greater overall difference, but this isn’t a reason not to make those small changes.

The Chinese govt deciding overnight to ban all plastic bags will obviously have a larger global effect in one day than the cumulative benefits from a small town in Devon (Modbury) which actually banned plastic bags in 2007. However, the environment of Modbury is far more affected by the smaller, local change than anything China did yesterday.

We need to think global AND local, large AND small.

[TLRippon]

Well yes, according to the UN. The very little things will make a difference but not enough to reverse the trend before we reach the point of no return.

[johnm]

Well yes, according to the UN. The very little things will make a difference but not enough to reverse the trend before we reach the point of no return.

Which is why I have been advocating (as many others do) the need for both mitigation and adaptation. Adaptation is pretty tricky as the character and consequences are not well understood, but moving away from coastal regions in case of sea level rise and looking at trends in critical crop growing areas as well as work on GM crops might help.....