O/T Frack me

[KerrAvon]

Its a fair point about flying Crash. Maybe people should be only allocated so many air miles a year to use for a start. Air craft are big polluters. If you go on flight radar you will see how any aircraft are in the sky all over the world at any one time...

As regards meat. I could happily live without meat but people do need a source of protein etc which meat gives as part of a balanced diet. Could a substitute though put stress on other food sources. There was a suggestion we should all eat insectsas a substitute Plenty of them about and a great source of protein. They already do this in some countries : fried tarantula-ok that aint an insect- the lot. Its only our culture which stops us doing this. Things can be done but it means a change in the way which we live. Maybe governments should reward insect food consumers/ suppliers in some way..

Whatever, the way forward should be reward, reward, reward people who are doing the environmentally correct thing and punish those who aren't. They would soon get the message that to live in tandem with the environment is the best way all round. I know gfire and the likes would call this a fascist policy but tough luck it is for their good as well.

As regards car ownership and 2 car families, yep guilty but in my defence they are small engined cars and mini polluters compared to other vehicles on the road.. The answer of this is of course to provide better more frequent and cheaper public transport and make electric cars cheaper to buy. Car share policies need to be improved as well which some LAS have touched on. Again punish and reward.

What do you think would happen to a political party that proposes an air miles system?

Vegetarians get their protein from vegetable sources - principally pulses and nuts. And no, switching to such sources does not put pressure on them; meat production is hopelessly inefficient, with animals needing to be fed many kilograms of protein (not always vegetable, unfortunately, in the case of cows and sheep) to produce one kg of meat. The same principle applies to dairy and eggs production. The land used for livestock farming can be used to produce much more vegetable protein. So fill your boots, Roly. Time for you to stop talking and start acting.

As for two cars - as you said yourself - guilty. I see you try to excuse that. Fair enough, but maybe the difference between you and gf is that he makes no bones about taking no action, whereas you talk about it, but do nowt. Are you a politician?

P.s. Electric cars run on electricity. Electricity has to be generated.

[rolymiller]

Don't doubt i could do more but at least I recognise there is a problem and would support policies which helped stop global warming. I would be foolish not to.

I do recycle etc and try to do things in an environmentally friendly way so to say i do nowt is not accurate but yes i could do more. It is time i agree but that applies to us all doesn't it. I presume you are doing your bit as well.

We all need some hard leadership on this and it will be a bitter pill to swallow for many when people are forced into changing their lifestyles. All a bit fascist perhaps. All political parties need to be bluntly honest though about this. I would argue that because I dont have a particularly materialistic lifestyle when the crunch comes I will find it less of a pain than many others but pain it will be I'm sure.

One man cannot change the world alone. i could be the most environmentally friendly bloke on the planet but it wouldn't stop global warming. Only seriously collective action would do that which would involve everyone on the planet.

To be fair to gf maybe he takes more action on this than what he suggests on here.

I accept your points about meat production and electricity production by the way. I have already said on here I could live without meat could/ do you?

[CAMiller]

Some great points on here about a variety of topics, allow me to add another which is a particular bugbear of mine. Waste. 40% of food produced in the US goes to waste. WTF? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Think how much energy would be saved if we didn't live in such a wasteful society?

[millmoormagic]

Some great points on here about a variety of topics, allow me to add another which is a particular bugbear of mine. Waste. 40% of food produced in the US goes to waste. WTF? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Think how much energy would be saved if we didn't live in such a wasteful society?

Indeed, we're a throw away society of which we're all guilty and part of....so we should all be a part of the solution....

[great_fire]

What are we meant to do?

Get some pigs in the back garden and feed it to them?

[zouch]

A solution requires a completely different rethink about how economies work. Continued growth is unsustainable because the planet cant support it.GDP as a measure has to be replaced with social, environmental and economic well being measures so that growth is replaced with thrive. Systems of food production to be rethought so that we don't fly home produced products to and from the UK, energy production to be a close to zero carbon as possible etc etc

the question is who is going to show leadership and be the catalyst to a radical reform of how human kind works?




In the mean time i can make more ethical choices about my shopping and lifestyle - i suspect my carbon footprint is bigger than most and yet i make many ethical choices about my lifestyle.

[monty_rhodes]

In the mean time i can make more ethical choices about my shopping and lifestyle - i suspect my carbon footprint is bigger than most and yet i make many ethical choices about my lifestyle.

There's a whole genre of writing on the phenomenon of the "environmental hypocrite". People like John Travolta who speaks out on the theme of "We all have to do our bit to combat global warming" while owning 5 private jets or Trudie Styler, hardline celeb environmentalist who recently flew her entire entourage from New York to Washington including her hair stylist.
As to Zouch's question the answer is NO ONE is going to show leadership on radical reform of how humanity works because the kind of people who might don't become leaders. Carlo Rovelli knows his onions and he reckons we're screwed and are probably in the last two or three generations of humanity. I don't have a problem with that.

[KerrAvon]

Don't doubt i could do more but at least I recognise there is a problem and would support policies which helped stop global warming. I would be foolish not to.

I do recycle etc and try to do things in an environmentally friendly way so to say i do nowt is not accurate but yes i could do more. It is time i agree but that applies to us all doesn't it. I presume you are doing your bit as well.

We all need some hard leadership on this and it will be a bitter pill to swallow for many when people are forced into changing their lifestyles. All a bit fascist perhaps. All political parties need to be bluntly honest though about this. I would argue that because I dont have a particularly materialistic lifestyle when the crunch comes I will find it less of a pain than many others but pain it will be I'm sure.

One man cannot change the world alone. i could be the most environmentally friendly bloke on the planet but it wouldn't stop global warming. Only seriously collective action would do that which would involve everyone on the planet.

To be fair to gf maybe he takes more action on this than what he suggests on here.

I accept your points about meat production and electricity production by the way. I have already said on here I could live without meat could/ do you?

Your post raises an interesting point. gf doesn't act through ignorance (possibly wilful ignorance) whereas you know there's a need to act, but stand behind bland statements about one man not being able to change things, having only two small cars and not wanting to go vegetarian out of an apparent concern for the impact on world bean production.

Which is worse, not accepting that things need to be done or knowing that it does, but waiting for 'leadership' before acting? I know what I think on that.

[KerrAvon]

I should add that I particularly enjoyed I dont have a particularly materialistic lifestyle. Tell that to most of sub-Saharan Africa. You could show pictures of how small your two cars are to illustrate the point.

[rolymiller]

I should add that I particularly enjoyed I dont have a particularly materialistic lifestyle. Tell that to most of sub-Saharan Africa. You could show pictures of how small your two cars are to illustrate the point.

Reasonable. It could be that the poorest people in the world might get some sort of benefit from policies that tackle global warming. I hope so.