Are You Worried About Climate Change?

[dave50]

Is it acceptable for this government to ask us to make expensive changes to our lifestykes such as buying electric cars and scrapping gas fired central heating boilers among other things and enshrining in law that we must be carbon neutral by some arbitrary date when no other country on the planet has made such promises. Add this to the fact we only produce 2% of worlds emissions. Are we cutting our own throats to prove how virtuous we are while the biggest polluters of the world carry on as normal?

[ladybirder]

Dave we are not being asked to scrap our gas fired central heating boilers. We are being asked not to replace them with the same.

[Untitled]

We will be forced to change our lifestyle eventually... it's a question of whether we get a head start or not. The longer we delay the more painful it will be.

[jim360]

Well, obviously it will require some significant changes. But they're bound to be impossible if you insist on treating them that way. The real issue, right now, is that there are still far too many people who either refuse to accept the problem, or refuse to accept humanity's role in it, or who are too defeatist about the ability to change things.

I don't for a second expect that we can undo all the damage we've already done, all the changes that we've already had a huge part in causing. But that's no excuse to continue to let it get any worse. It's within our power to make those changes. Now all we need is to find the will to do so.

[Gromit]

10 years ago 20% of energy produced (largely from polluting fossil fuels) was used for lighting mostly from incandescent lightbulbs.
China makes 70% of the worlds lightbulbs and they have spearheaded the transition to low energy lightbulbs which burn a fifth of the energy that traditional lightbulbs use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_incandescent_light_bulbs

[naomi24]

People aren't going to change their lifestyles significantly. They just aren't. It's wholly unrealistic to think they would.

[Gromit]

// Not without changing our lifestyle very, very significantly - and that simply isn't going to happen. To believe otherwise is unrealistic. //

Wrong.
Last year renewable energy overtook coal and gas in the UK for electricity generation. And we didn’t even notice.

[Untitled]

People will eventually be forced to naomi... our current lifestyles are not sustainable... we can either make the transition early and make it less painful, or wait until things get catastrophic... either way, people will it's just a question of how much suffering will go along with it.

[Untitled]

If it's not obvious I am worried about climate change yes... i think it has the likelihood of doing awful amounts of harm to large swathes of the planet, and the aftermath of that will be dreadful to live through.

I also think that previous generations let us down by ignoring the problem...

[naomi24]

Untitled, //we can either make the transition early and make it less painful//

if some are to be believed either way is simply delaying the inevitable.

[Untitled]

The IPCC says if we can keep warming under 1.5C then we can avoid some of the worst outcomes... the next best threshold after that is 2C and after that, well...

[roadman]

unless the gov are going to buy me the e-Golf im not going electric.

i do think its good to get ahead but the gov are going to have to spend a hell of a lot of money because it cant be down to individual consumers to be able to afford a brand new car

lots of people i know have a car that they got for £1000 or less the average cost to buy an electric car in the UK is around 45k

the gov are stupid if they think everyones can drop that kind of money even if they wanted to

[Gromit]

It is wrong to claim that cutting emissions will radically change our lifestyles and we can’t afford it, because we are already doing it.
A combination of more energy efficient white goods, house insulation, low energy bulbs and double glazing have drastically reduced the UKs consumption of energy.

https://www.cityam.com/assets/uploads/content/2015/08/uk-energy-consumption-energy-consumption-chartbuilder-55bf4a744a17b.png

[beso]

Electric cars are already far cheaper to run than petrol cars and within a few years they will be cheaper to make too.

The whole car market will switch eventually.

[Ryzen]

If clean energy is the way forward, why was the solar feed in tariff scrapped in March 2019?

[Gromit]

roadman
Sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2030 in the UK.
As electric becomes mainstream, efficiencies of scale will result in them getting cheaper.

[beso]

Generous solar feed in tariffs are no longer required to make solar competitive. I only get paid about a third of the amount for what I sell back to the grid compared to the price I pay from the grid.

What I sell still more than covers the connection charge so the grid generally pays me. My system exports enough power to run another house. I have a battery so buy very little power at all.

In Australia, anyone with day time loads is crazy if they don't invest in solar because it saves money even taking into account the borrowing cost.

The two big supermarket chains have embarked on a race to make their operations entirely powered by renewable energy by 2025. The tide has well and truly turned and as more young people reach voting age the future of coal is dead.

We can even trade home delivered beer for powered exported to the grid as part of the renewable energy programs of at least one of our brewers. More will follow.

[Bazile]

This global warming thing is a myth

Just ask Nigel Lawson and New Judge

[William51]

What you say is correct, but what Boris wants is for the UK to lead and inspire the world to do the same. It will be expensive, the government will lose billions of vehicle fuel tax which will have to be raised somehow.

[ichkeria]

Tabloid headlines like “UK can lead us out of climate crisis” don’t help scotch the myth they somehow it’s just Britain and nowhere else

[naomi24]

The one thing I would really like to see - and it is achievable - is for us to clean up our oceans. Then at least if we are on the way out, the innocent wildlife will have a rather more pleasant journey.