Are you concerned about the destruction of the natural world and climate change?

Things seem to have become particularly apocalyptic the last few weeks and probably rightly so.

Do I feel worried about it. Yes. I figure all things going well I've about 40-45 years before I check out so I hope it happens after that but some recent reports, especially a revisiting of an MIT paper from the 70s show that we've hit all the markers which show a societal collapse in the next 20 years. If that was true that's some scary ****. I mean even billionaires are hedging their bets by purchasing land on lifeboat countries that have been judged the best places to see this out. Luckily enough for us we're one of them but Ireland itself isn't particularly well adapted to deal with weather extremes. We look OK from afar with the amount of rain we get but we don't have the vegetation to deal with droughts and the like.

I find it funny that people mention carbon capture technology etc. Its always some far flung idealist technology like nano mirrors that reflect heat or factories that suck carbon from the air. The moronic thing that trees, healthy soil, peatlands, the ocean.... have been doing it for millennia. They've had plenty time to perfect the process and in the last couple of hundred years we've decided to bulldoze everything in sight giving little credence to the minor things around us that play a part in that process. From the way I see it, we need cede a bit towards nature and give it a chance to recover. I think either way its going to happen with or without us.

Do I think we can change? No. I think such is our standard of living that any change to that will be met with kicking and screaming. If I had kids, I'd be absolutely **** terrified!

It is true that some scientists in the 70s predicted we were imminently heading for an ice age but it was far from a majority position though it got a lot of media coverage. Some scientists being wrong in 1970 or even 1980 isn't a good argument against basically all climate science now though. Vastly more evidence has been gathered and analysed and show a world which is, on average, warming .

Ever think we might be nearer the end of that period of decades than the beginning?

You know, as a race we are just so terribly arrogant. We believe now that we've managed to wreck the climate (and we have contributed) and we believe also that we can repair it. Maybe we can't.

Twice in the 19th Century, two Volcanoes erupted in the South Seas, big enough to eliminate summer for a period after and create crippling winters and localised famine. That was when the population of Earth was less than 1 Billion.

Just one more of those eruptions, say tomorrow and all that climate change will be reversed in an instant. Global agriculture would die off and everyone dependent on solar power would be fecked, at least for a while. In other words, let us not sweat the small stuff.

If you turn off the news then climate change will no longer exist

Edit: i hate this new site

Funny how theres no one catching people or bringing councils to task about mowing hedges to nothing during nesting season. They dont seem to give a sh1t about biodiversity. Do provide examples where greens are doing anything beyond infighting, windowboxes and (lol) wolves and cheering an electric car I cant afford. I see some hooh hah about public transport, you know, for the poors but very little being actually done.

OP to answer your initial question, I'd be more concerned about the destruction the Green Party are trying to bring to rural Ireland, the rules and regulations they are proposing in the name of climate action will cause absolute carnage to rural farming communities such as mine here in rural county Limerick, they haven't a god damn clue about rural Ireland, and as for that bell end Eamonn Ryan, don't even get me started. I intentionally gave the Green Party the very last number on my ballot paper at the last GE and I fully intend doing the same at the next GE.

Good to see the bigger picture being observed there. Any destruction the greens would make to rural Ireland are a drop in the ocean compared to changes in rainfall patterns here and the possible disappearance of our temperate climate.

FFS there is a lad on the farming forum remarking how this year's weather has been all over the place being too cold/wet and warm/dry. That seems to be the issue with agriculture here, its too reliant on absolutely perfect conditions for growing feed/fodder and if it varies slightly from that (which it will do, they lads there themselves are remarking it themselves) the whole system falls apart. Then they have to start importing fodder. Christ the whole thing is mad when you think about it.

What are the greens trying to do which is possibly more detrimental than that? As one poster above put it, they've barely ever been in power and they simultaneously get blamed for being too ineffectual whilst also having implemented disastrous policies.

Op while you started a great thread here and an important topic to discuss I think you need to respect that some people, like that poster, are much more worried by real and current threats to their livelihoods and way of life than of possible apocalyptic scenarios in the future. Many people are already very overwhelmed with day to day worries and environmental issues come well down the list.

But that's human nature. You've stated you don't have kids. People who do are far more concerned about day to day issues such as providing for them as many people's livelihoods have been destroyed by the prolonged Covid regulations. I respect your worry for the planet but I'm simply pointing out that others have more immediate and more tangible worries and that's acceptable and understandable. Not a solution for the environment but still very understandable.