Taking it a bit personal like, Drac hates everyone equally, he’s a good guy. Every mod team needs a bad cop, he’s by no means the worst, he doesn’t even swear or tear folk down.

It’s like anything else though. The majority of people will look up from their meals, make all the right noises and say it’s terrible and then carry on as usual. Until something happens directly to them they’ll take no remedial action.

The shock images on Blue Planet II helped reduce the use of plastic bags quite a dramatic change faster than previous levels. Maybe just maybe this show has a similar affect on some to help start the change. Yes there’s always those that will shrug and ignore but hopefully many others won’t.

Taking it a bit personal like, Drac hates everyone equally, he’s a good guy.

I like you Squirrelking you’re a funny guy, that’s why I’m going to ban you last.

perchypanther

The message I got was that it isn’t someone else’s problem and that , in the opinion of lots of clever scientists, it’s not too late to do anything about it.

Message I got that is really it’s just a technological shift that needs to happen, ie the jump from fossil to renewable(or non-emmission power I guess you could term it as), and quicker the better.

The idea that there’s still a debate to be had is mental. (tbf I didn’t really need a bbc programme to tell me either, but it was a decent prog)

Only debate, if there has to be one, is why isn’t this technological jump happening quicker, and when are the shower of shite that are the world politicians going to get their collective fingers out their arses.

The jump isn’t just as easy as switching out generation sources though, the way the infrastructure is run and how it is set up is pretty incompatible with this. So many technical and financial hurdles to overcome before that’s even close to happening.

Of course there is an interim solution but the current tranche of new builds are all but dead in the water as, once again, government have failed to invest and instead kicked the can whilst trying to remover ourselves from the biggest research project in the sector for the next technological leap.

Add in a rail system that costs more to use than air travel despite being roughly the same time door to door and its just business as usual. But God forbid some filthy union driven communist dares utter anything that threatens the private sector “investment” in our national infrastructure.

The shock images on Blue Planet II helped reduce the use of plastic bags quite a dramatic change faster than previous levels

The 5p charge made a bigger change, there’s no voluntary way out. It needs to be legislated for from the top down, then implemented, quickly.

The population as a whole have been apathetic for years the system is outdated and broke it needs wholesale change. Pia Mancini’s TED talk on democracy in the internet age is worth 20 minutes of anyone’s time. The ‘establishment’ needs ousting! Only a complete change in public attitude and actions will change it.

The 5p charge made a bigger change, there’s no voluntary way out. It needs to be legislated for from the top down, then implemented, quickly.

Like I said ‘helped’ not just because of the show. Yes of course some form of legislation also helps.

The scale of the problem is vast and we are not even close to understanding it fully, I work for a conservation charity and the issues surrounding the “balance” of life on the planet is way off kilter. Microplastics in the deepest part of the ocean and on the highest of mountain tops; we are already ingesting this stuff. CO2 pumped out already from the age of the Industrial Revolution to now means the latent effects of global warming from human activity will continue for decades to come. Our children may not even see the benefits of reductions in pollution in their lifetime, animal/marine habitats are in catastrophic decline because we want/need more food, phones, cars, bikes, clothes, etc etc. The diversity of life on the planet is interlinked and there are just too many of us humans and we are not just late to the party but some significant events took places while we were not really paying attention.

Our politicians are a fucken shambles right now and most people sadly, are just ignorant and burying their heads in the sand. Frankly you can’t scare them enough.

Rant over – now go enjoy your rainforest alliance vegan chocolate seasonal products.

The 5p charge made a bigger change, there’s no voluntary way out. It needs to be legislated for from the top down, then implemented, quickly.

I completely agree. Hit people in the wallet. That’ll have way more impact than any TV programme ever could. Don’t charge for plastic bags, stop making them. Ban palm oil from being used. Why tell the individual to recycle more or try not to use certain things. Just stop creating the shit in the first place. Remove the choice.

I like you Squirrelking you’re a funny guy, that’s why I’m going to ban you last.

😂

That’ll have way more impact than any TV programme ever could.

Dunno about that.

The image of that Orang-utan trying to fight a bulldozer will stay with me for a while.

This is what I was referring too, maybe I should of just said plastics.

It shows that searches of ‘plastic recycling’ rising by 55 per cent following the programme’s appeal in the final episode.

https://resource.co/article/attenborough-effect-searches-plastic-recycling-rocket-after-blue-planet-ii-12334

The image of that Orang-utan trying to fight a bulldozer will stay with me for a while.

The Iceland palm oil ad stopped my youngest from eating Nutella overnight.

Why are regular individuals bearing the cost of recycling and ethically living, when manufactures continue to produce increasing amounts of plastics and toxic chemicals?

I work in forestry and we are seen to be part of the solution, yet we wrap millions of trees in plastic weevil nets each year. The company I work with is involved in developing an alternative which is non toxic and biodegradable, unfortunately we haven’t discovered one which is cheaper than plastic. Why isn’t more invested in research and subsidising environmentally friendly solutions than recycling the problem?

(Money, money, money…)

We already have the technology to stop things getting worse.

It’s called an on/off switch

We just need to use it properly

The issue, as ever, is The System. It’s geared towards the exchange of money in order to get by. We can’t pay our rent if we don’t earn an amount each week, there is no alternative way of paying for the roof over our heads or the food in the cupboards. Until it breaks down completely or is broken down by force we’re stuck.

edit- we can start breaking it down by not buying shit we don’t need; make stuff last longer, repair stuff if it’s broken. People have forgotten how to make stuff and mend stuff or are ‘too busy’ (doing what, exactly? Working all hours to buy stuff to make you happy?) to even try.

Fixed that for you.

You didn’t, here is a summary of why we have reduced C02 emissions:

UK CO2 emissions are 38% lower than they were in 1990.

Emissions would have been twice as large today if underlying factors had not changed. Electricity-sector emissions would have been nearly four times higher.

The largest driver has been a cleaner electricity mix based on gas and renewables instead of coal. This was responsible for 36% of the emissions reduction in 2017.

The next largest driver is reduced fuel consumption by business and industry, responsible for about 31% of the emissions reduction in 2017.

Reduced electricity use – mostly in the industrial and residential sectors – was responsible for 18% of the emissions reductions.

Changes in transport emissions from fewer miles driven per capita and more efficient vehicles accounted for around 7%.

Domestic emissions reductions were largely offset by increased CO2 embodied in imported goods until the mid-2000s. However, reductions since around 2007 have not been offset by CO2 in imported goods.

As a country we have made a lot of progress at not insignificant cost, to deny it is just silly.

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a bit.

Politicians don’t care about climate change as they can’t see the big picture beyond immediately unpopular measures and can’t see beyond the end of their political terms; I’d argue that humanity is similarly blinkered and unable to see beyond its own extinction.

It could be argued that the Chixulub impact that destroyed the dinosaurs and reputably triggered a mass extinction event that wiped out 75% of life on earth, was actually good for life (it certainly opened up new evolutionary opportunities). There have been numerous mass extinction events throughout history and life always seems to have moved on and flourished.

I remember watching a news report with a biologist explaining the urgent need for the extermination of rats that had invaded a rare seabird colony; the report went on to described the extreme size that the rats were growing to in the new, predator fee environment.

I remember thinking “so you’ll exterminate a species on the cusp of evolving into something new, to save a few that are on the way out anyway”. The problem here for me, along with the species loss, need to preserve nature exactly as it is now for future generations and negative impact on human life arguments with climate change is that none of these spell impending doom for life on earth and both could be argued to of benefit; we see life on earth and the environment as having no value beyond what it gives to us and, in a sense, are trying to manage the planet the same way we’d manage a manicured formal garden.

We could hypothesise an advanced extra-terrestrial civilisation, with an environmental ethos, visiting earth; I suspect that they’d see us as the rats in the bird colony.

Perhaps we should see climate change as Gaia’s, humanity triggered, immune response.

— Edit —

There is of course one climate change theory that leads to a runaway greenhouse effect that would boil off the oceans and leave the earth in a similar state to venus; this would be pretty catastrophic ☹

and when are the shower of shite that are the world politicians going to get their collective fingers out their arses

Don’t look at Alberta’s new premiers mandate!
Delete funding for the provinces booming renewables sector and increase oil sands extraction… Mind boggling stuff!

UK CO2 emissions are 38% lower than they were in 1990.

No they’re not. First, the national inventory was much less well understood in 1990. Second, the national inventory does not properly account for embodied carbon in the balance of trade.

Ban palm oil from being used.

& don’t forget to check there’s none in your energy bars.

OK, now viewed and tend to agree with bikebouy’s thoughts. The tone was poor and reminded me of a political party broadcast, a missed opportunity for reminding the public (without lecturing or patronising) that they can and should take a long hard look at the way they live their lives now and what do they want to see in the future.

Somewhat surprised that given the credentials of Attenborough he actually wanted to appear in this, do find that disappointing.

that they can and should take a long hard look at the way they live their lives now and what do they want to see in the future.

That’s exactly what I seen it doing, I didn’t find it patronising at all.

So we will ALL not be voting Tory then and moving away from expecting GDP to keep growing?

I chose to not have kids too. There’s my 60 tonne per year contribution.

Everything else is pissing in the wind.

(Not really. Nothing against families! Just plant based ones.)

In the UK we have reduced CO2 emissions by nearly 45% since the late 70s.

Except we haven’t really as we’ve off shored most of our manufacturing and import gas and oil from other countries as well as importing electricity from France.
I seem to remember reading something that our per person impacts on climate change, ecology and pollution is significantly higher than it was at the height of the empire.

I seem to remember reading something that our per person impacts on climate change, ecology and pollution is significantly higher than it was at the height of the empire.

Not really surprising, since the height of the empire was around 1900.

Since then we’ve kinda took to things cars & planes and taken industry and energy usage to silly heights!

As an aside, I think we should probably mention there’s an extra 5.5 billion people kicking about too! 😆

Of course we are. We’re the top species in the food chain, the apex predator. We didn’t get here by shitting rainbows, cuddling puppies and handcuffing ourselves to trees. We’re a bunch of self serving, vicious apes. Is anybody really that surprised that we’ve royally **** the planet?

That’s just STW?. What about the rest of the population?

I thought it was worthwhile and the time for being nice is rapidly passing.

I think the biggest change anyone can make is agitating for political parties to adopt green policies and then voting for them. Long reasoning follows…

I think individual action apart from major lifestyle changes such as big reductions in meat consumption are marginal (although I would point out we are annoyingly pious vegetarian, soft greenies!)

Living a modern life is inherently energy greedy This is why we need a paradigm shift. There are two forms of this being argued – green capitalism, basically more intervention by Government to drive the markets to druve greater energy efficiency and renewables. Basicall we tech our way out of climate change The second goes much further and is a more radical rethinking of global capitalism, which is all the green tech solutions, but also a move away from a model of endless economic growth and wealth accumulation. I think more of the second is needed, others are more optimistic.

Either of those changes requires Government requires Government intervention and so change needs to come by agitating for policies to be adopted and voting for those parties. Which is a very long way of saying the really important change to make us to get political and make the bastards make the changes.

What an over exorbitant use of big words and big nasty images.

Doesn’t change the facts though, does it?

I watched 15mins of it before I felt the need smash the TV.

Not very environmentally friendly then leading to you dumping it in a hedge shortly before a capitalistic spending spree for a new one, with a bag of guns like In Falling Down whilst looking for someone that actually looks like Drac.

Living a modern life is inherently energy greedy

Not for me, I changed all my light bulbs to LEDs and threw the old ones in a hedge.   I glow with pride at now be able to leave the heating on all the time because i’m supplied by Bulb.

So we will ALL not be voting Tory then and moving away from expecting GDP to keep growing?

We don’t have to give up meat, we just eat all the Tories.

Tasty, tasty Tories.

Reduce the population and save the planet. Everyone’s a winner. Or a dinner. Or even a donner.

A few bad bones in there.

Now, if you don’t like me, or my posts Ban me.

First time you’ve posted anything positive on the forum – Drac please do us all a favour.