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Living a more sustainable life in a climate change emergency

Gangu

Living a more sustainable life in a climate change emergency

We are a small family in Dublin. Like many I have to come increasingly aware of the need to change our way of living (thanks Gretter, the guardian and Twitter). We have made some changes such as stopping buying plastic bottles, switching to keep cups, composting, recycling clothes et cetera.

I am sure we could do more. It would be great to have a thread here on boards giving practical tips to ordinary people and families about practical (as opposed to political) changes that they can make to switch to a more sustainable life.

Do you have any tips?

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The J Stands for Jay

onetimecypher wrote: »

https://www.google.ie/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj1qaqc3uXiAhUit3EKHTD5DtYQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fteslamotors%2Fcomments%2F4i3ohx%2Flithium_mine_vs_oil_production_this_is_going%2F&psig=AOvVaw2PDZEaXwzovF4lSMgpuXta&ust=1560490455385177

From actually reading your link, rather then just looking at the picture, the mine is a copper mine and actual satellite images of the Canadian yet sands are here: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/12/pictures/111222-canada-oil-sands-satellite-images/#

Hardcharger

Gangu wrote: »

Living a more sustainable life in a climate change emergency

We are a small family in Dublin. Like many I have to come increasingly aware of the need to change our way of living (thanks Gretter, the guardian and Twitter). We have made some changes such as stopping buying plastic bottles, switching to keep cups, composting, recycling clothes et cetera.

I am sure we could do more. It would be great to have a thread here on boards giving practical tips to ordinary people and families about practical (as opposed to political) changes that they can make to switch to a more sustainable life.

Do you have any tips?

You be must a right pain to live with. Like Catholic maniac 30 years ago who forced his kids to kneel down and say the rosary.
The new religion is climate change diversity inclusion and equity etc

Graces7

most of the recent posts are about as realistic as this ( NOT!)

https://www.radiokerry.ie/kerry-td-cites-belly-buttons-emissions-debate/

Wanderer78

Hardcharger wrote: »

You be must a right pain to live with. Like Catholic maniac 30 years ago who forced his kids to kneel down and say the rosary.
The new religion is climate change diversity inclusion and equity etc

have you seeked help for your judgmental views, you seem unwell?

Gangu

Interesting to see the trolls and climate change deniers try to high jack the thread. Even more interesting to see the type of other posts of these people put up - very telling. Don’t take the bait and let’s keep on topic. It’s just wasted energy dealing in with them.

baaba maal

vladmydad wrote: »

Oh so it’s climate “emergency” now lol. Folks just live your life and enjoy it. Drive your car, go on as many holidays as you can and eat all the wonderful food you can. I promise the world is not going to end and humanity will not destroy the planet. Human ingenuity and technology will solve any climate problems (if there is a problem). For example Carbon capture technology is already in development (google it). And above all please put down the Guardian and let go of your middle class guilt.

Can I be working class and feel guilt? What a telling final point- the objective, measurable climate change occurring now is not somehow the subjective concern of some. Nobody is suggesting the world will end, just that it may become a lot more uncomfortable for humans In the future, as well as potentially leading to mass extinction of other species. Human ingenuity hasn't solved a wealth of other problems in spite of our best efforts- your confident assertion notwithstanding. I'm also aware that people are devoting more effort to their personal footprint than dealing with the systemic flaws in our economies that make profits for the few a higher priority than the common good

While you are encouraging the use of google, head into the google scholar section and search for "climate change"- in spite of your solemn promise it would appear that overwhelming scientific consensus does indeed point to it being an actual thing.

Graces7

Gangu wrote: »

Interesting to see the trolls and climate change deniers try to high jack the thread. Even more interesting to see the type of other posts of these people put up - very telling. Don’t take the bait and let’s keep on topic. It’s just wasted energy dealing in with them.

Yep. whatever anyone says or thinks, I , like many here, have thought this through and made a reasoned adult decision on how we choose to live within scientific and other evidence to support and help this fair world. Little enough I can do but do it I will. As I have been doing most of my life perforce now through willing choice.

Selenophile

I'm more than surprised that people consider recent news and "noise" about climate change as novelty.

When I was a child in lower class levels of primary school, some 35+ years ago, we had lessons about environmental issues, most notably: green house gases, acid rains, DDT etc. If it was passed to school curriculum, it means that people were aware of GHG effects more than 40 years ago.

What happened now, is that scientists were unpleasantly surprised that things were changing much faster than what they predicted. It is due to numerous factors that they couldn't foresee or that didn't looked serious enough to be included in their models. The nature of the problem is that it is spiraling out. As an example, one of the recent news is telling about possibility of some permafrost melting in Russia. The problem is that it releases methane which is a very potent GHG. The surprise is it started happening earlier than expected, and will contribute to global warming, making current expectations optimistic.

The sad part is that many are trying to make it an ideological issue, hence a matter of personal opinions, choices and preferences.

Water John

That is the thinking and the politics of people like Trump. There is no objective scientifically based reality only how you feel.

uluwatu

Wanderer78 wrote: »

This is a very tricky one, but fair play to people like the op, but there's severe limitations that the individual can do to resolve these issues, its a mammoth task for our race to resolve, very deep global changes are required

I Agree with Wanderer78 on this. However, in the end, the sum of all individual actions is what happens or doesnt happen.
One approach would be to calculate CO2 savings and do what saves the most? Another interessting question is, how much ressources is our generation allowed to use up? If you say, we have infinite generations of humans after us, we, basically, are hardly allowed to use any ressources at all, aren't we?

vladmydad

Hardcharger wrote: »

You be must a right pain to live with. Like Catholic maniac 30 years ago who forced his kids to kneel down and say the rosary.
The new religion is climate change diversity inclusion and equity etc

It’s remarkable that they cannot see it, they have become what they hate the most, the church lady. Oh and if you point out that what they are doing individually makes absolutely no difference whatsoever, they get touchy just like someone questioning Church teaching years ago. And whatever you do, DO NOT MENTION CHINA, it’s like saying there is no god, they go crazy. The climate evangelicals can do whatever they want in their private lives but it’s when they guilt vote the greens into power that it starts affecting me, fake carbon taxes etc.

Selenophile

uluwatu wrote: »

One approach would be to calculate CO2 savings and do what saves the most?

It is impossible to make any precise calculations. In fact, it is even the problem to make good enough estimates. There are too many variables involved. Also, some actions may have positive or negative side effects, or more probably a whole chain of side effects.

For these reasons some results and recommendations are disputed or debatable - one example would be that claim that meet consumption leads to worst CO2 emissions than driving car.

Therefore, one thing that we can consider as certain is that any consumption leads to production which leads to CO2 emissions. Of course, we have to live and consume, but we can start doing it sensibly. It means try and not waste food no matter how cheap it is; don't buy/use single use plastic; don't use paper towels if you don't have to, etc. etc.

When they say "think before you print - save a tree," it is not only a tree you're saving. You're saving all the resources needed to produce a sheet of paper, to transport it to you, then to transport it to recycling facility, to recycle it... I guess you get a picture.

Macha

Hardcharger wrote: »

You be must a right pain to live with. Like Catholic maniac 30 years ago who forced his kids to kneel down and say the rosary.
The new religion is climate change diversity inclusion and equity etc

[mod] Thanks for the imagery but you can keep your ad hominem remarks to yourself in future. [/mod]

TimeToShine

The truth is that this is all decided on a governmental policy level, and it will only truly kick into overdrive once the majority of the electorate start to kick up a fuss. I think young people today are very good for that and the UK seem to be leading the way in that regard. We are also doing quite well over here but are limited due to our dependence on imported energy and how small our market is.

If you really want to help on a residential level, stop with this no meat and dairy nonsense. Make sure to eat whatever is in season and source locally, no matter what it is. Find a butcher who gets his chicken, eggs and beef from dairy farmers down the road or in the county, eat (primarily) fruit that we can grow here, obviously making allowances nutrition wise for fruit and vegetables that we simply have zero access to. Going without meat and dairy while eating smashed avocado on toast that has to be imported from Chile (and takes 300 litres of water per avocado to grow) is not helping the environment. You could even argue that eating locally sourced meat is the environmentally friendly option overall but I won't get into that. Unfortunately the "environmentally aware vegan hippy" alongside the big marketing push (qui bono) stereotype has warped the market and therefore the approach to this beyond recognition.

cutelad

denismc wrote: »

Lawnmowers and petrol driven garden equipment are huge polluters, not just CO2 but pollutants such as benzenes NOx.
Figures from the U.S in 2011:

approximately 26.7 million tons of

pollutants were emitted by GLGE (VOC=461,800; CO=5,793,200; NOx=68,500, PM10=20,700;

CO2=20,382,400), accounting for 24%−45% of all nonroad gasoline emissions
(GLGE = petrol driven lawn equipment)

2 stroke engines seem to the biggest polluters.

So maybe consider changing to battery and electric powered garden equipment or better still let some of your garden grow wild.

Let your garden grow wild? Ah here your mad.

Twenty Grand

Stop having kids.
Number 1 thing you can do to protect the environment.

cutelad

We all used to recycle a good bit round our area, but as prices for everything rise I've noticed people are now burning there cardboard plastic etc. I actually see there point, if you want to encourage recycling and everything that goes with it keep costs down.

Capt'n Midnight

Water John wrote: »

That is the thinking and the politics of people like Trump. There is no objective scientifically based reality only how you feel.

Trump's latest is to redefine nuclear waste so they'll save $40Bn on the clean up

cutelad

We should look at what we are doing. Reduce costs for recycling etc more people will do it.
My big worry is Green Party will get into government and put taxes on everything. It will result in punishing country folk with carbon taxes for our cars as an example. They want us go electric what a farce. Sorry rant over

0gac3yjefb5sv7

cutelad wrote: »

We should look at what we are doing. Reduce costs for recycling etc more people will do it.
My big worry is Green Party will get into government and put taxes on everything. It will result in punishing country folk with carbon taxes for our cars as an example. They want us go electric what a farce. Sorry rant over

Farce to move to electric cars? Eh. More like we should get rid of cars and improve public transportation.

cutelad

When you live in the country in Cork, Kerry or Mayo public transport not the solution. Try getting from Belmullet to Castlebar by bus for 8 am start and drop kids to school as no bus service for them. Greens will tax everyone to hilt and make bike helmets tax free so we can cycle 80 km a day to work

Water John

Twenty Grand, didn't know sex was so damaging to the environment.

Gangu

I just want to say that I started this thread looking for some suggestions for me and for others that might be worried about climate change. It’s a commentary on this life now that the thread could not be allowed to run its course. Let people who feel the same concerns answer the requests for suggestions. Instead I and others have had to listen to while noise in terms of quality of comments.

One question to those people. Why bother?

You have one life. Why pile in with your negativity and derision? Did those minutes sending the response make you feel good? Why not do something else with those minutes?

Boards is increasingly like this. It is sad.

Macha

[mod] OK, let's not go down a tangent discussion for why posters can be naysayers on boards (that topic could have its own forum..).

Please stay on topic about what individual changes need to happen to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. Of course that can include comments about the limitations of relying only on individual changes rather than system change. [/mod]

Gangu

Macha wrote: »

[mod] OK, let's not go down a tangent discussion for why posters can be naysayers on boards (that topic could have its own forum..).

Please stay on topic about what individual changes need to happen to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. Of course that can include comments about the limitations of relying only on individual changes rather than system change. [/mod]

Ok. Thanks

Graces7

Macha wrote: »

[mod] OK, let's not go down a tangent discussion for why posters can be naysayers on boards (that topic could have its own forum..).

Please stay on topic about what individual changes need to happen to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. Of course that can include comments about the limitations of relying only on individual changes rather than system change. [/mod]

we can as individuals make changes that will have effect. We can as individuals ONLY make changes in our own lives that will have effect . we can as individuals follow our ideals and consciences .

There should not be ridicule of anyone doing that. It is our freedom as citizens.

Like many here I choose care of the world we live in in whatever way I can express and live that care. Not having a car . Not having oil heating.

Growing as much of my food as I can, and leaving some area wild for pollination.. Using as little electricity as I can.
Not supporting practices that are damaging eg beef farming

. Recycling as much as possible. Using thrift/charity shops. Wasting nothing.

Because I care about this world and do not seek to damage it further by practices that do that and by waste.

is_that_so

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Farce to move to electric cars? Eh. More like we should get rid of cars and improve public transportation.

Nature of modern living means that cars are required. We can reduce their use but not without the public transportation being fixed first.

blackbox

is_that_so wrote: »

Nature of modern living means that cars are required. We can reduce their use but not without the public transportation being fixed first.

For outside the main cities, public transport will only be viable when it can be provided by autonomous vehicles.

[Deleted User]

Stop buying in Penneys and Dealz!!

Its all cheap trash coming in from China and other 3rd world countries. Its disposable throwaway junk filling up peoples houses with clutter and stuff that ends up in landfill a year later. People buy cheap and then think "ah shure it only cost a fiver, I'll throw it out now".

You will NOT find one thing in Penneys that's made in Ireland.

One of the girls I work with buys new pyjamas for her boys and husband every single Christmas even if they don't need them, she buys green T-shirts every single Paddy's Day, cheap holiday clothing every Summer for their 2 weeks in the sun, new cushions and throws every single Autumn! She just doesn't think.
She throws out stuff like cushions just because she fancies a change of colour. She throws out her husbands and kids t shirts because she has just bought new ones. So many people live like this.

I have a sofa for the last 18 years, Its big and comfy but has seen me through cats, dogs, kids, their boyfriends and many other times. I have 3 good rugs which I rotate. They get washed and dried and switched around. Then the dog and cats get them in their beds when they get too old. Same with sheets. I buy good quality and keep them for decades. I buy staple quality clothes that wont date. I don't buy the latest fashion. Before I buy anything I always ask myself "do I REALLY need this"?

I hate throwing out stuff and buy in charity shops, you can get amazing labels in some of the Dublin charity shops. Or else I buy on ASOS Marketplace and make sure its recycled or vintage.

I buy plain candles, not the ones in glass jars that get thrown in the bin and go to landfill. Its alarming how much waste we produce, most of it is coming from an insatiable desire to buy and accumulate junk. This buying is filling an empty hole in so many people - but that's a thread for another day!

AlmightyCushion

There's nothing wrong with Penney's clothes. I've been wearing them for years and they're grand. Obviously not as good as some more expensive brands but they do last (and some of the more expensive stuff is similar quality or worse than Penney's stuff, I've found). I have stuff, I've had years that I still wear and it's holding up well.

The problem is that people treat it as disposable because it's cheap but that doesn't mean it is disposable.