Saving the planet / IPCC report on Climate Change Aug ‘21

viz

A few discussions I've been contributing to recently just got me thinking about options we could adopt to do our bit to slow climate change down.

These are some of the things we've done or are planning to do. They've all been embarrassingly easy switches in behaviour, though of course one doesn't really know if they're actually making any difference. I like to think that our carbon shadow has at least shrunk a bit. I know there's plenty of greenwashing going on, but we're consciously trying to avoid those schemes.

I'd like to go much much further, but it starts to get hard and I'm weak - but I'm interested in things other forumites are doing that perhaps we could adopt.


Ditching the car / going electric
Green investment accounts
Going veggie
Voting Green, obviously
Ditching google and using Ecosia (who plant trees every time you use search)
Buying local (clothes, food, etc)
Buying second hand wherever possible
Changing jobs to stop having to fly
Green cleaning products
Switching to electric central heating
Switching to Ecotricity (who use their own windmill estate to generate electricity)
Avoiding plastic packaging in shops


Ideas please!

stickyfiddle

I'm helping steer governments to stop using oil & gas fired power plants and pushing the use of renewables   (it's a chunk of the day job!)

Less scope for the rest of those listed out here, but focussing on the small stuff is doable - buying local as much as possible, reusable shopping bags, less plastic. And we have a big focus on green tech investment.

I'm big on repairing stuff rather than throwing out as well - most friends here find it astonishing that I'm happy (and able..) to mend stuff when it breaks

boogieman

I know a lot of people making relatively tiny adjustments to their lifestyle will have some impact, but the only real way we’ll cut CO2 emissions and hence global warming is to get China and the US to reduce their levels. I read somewhere recently that they’re jointly responsible for something like 47% of the world’s CO2 output between them. China is currently building the equivalent of one coal mine and/or coal fired power plant every week. If you really want to make a difference, then stop buying Chinese manufactured goods…easier said than done I realise with so much coming out of China. 

Stratavarious

Insulate loft and walls, wear warmer clothes in winter, learn to passively control house temperature with curtains and airflow, avoid AC.  Switch stuff off.  TVs and monitors can be hundreds of watts. 

Learn enough DIY skills to fix your own white goods and make stuff.  Recycle and upcycle.  Pay for quality once, rather than cheap multiple times.

Know what you want and what you need are not the same and consumer advertising is incredibly effective at manipulating brains into making non-essentials look vital.

Jury out on electric cars.. lithium mining is brutal on environment and manufacturing just redistributes the waste.  

Get a dog and discover just how great and diverse the local UK is and how sublime a walk in the woods can be.  Stay healthy.  Research and explore the local stuff.. can be amazing what is on doorstep.

Get a decent coffee machine and save a fortune on expensive bad coffee.  Use the old grounds as compost.

Lots of little things can add up.

Creed_Clicks

Guitars made out of material other than wood. There are options currently but they are either too heavy or too expensive for the mass market.
So much plastic on guitars as well. Hopefully these could be replaced as well.
Getting rid of plastic packaging would be great but cannot see it happening. Go into any supermarket and 99% of the products use plastic.
The amount of plastic that litters the roads when you look up closely is shocking. You might not notice when you pass by in the car, but if you are walking you can see bits and bobs thrown everywhere.

Simonh

Stop buying anything made in China

RaymondLin

re Electric cars, i don't think they are that great for the environment.  

I can picture 10 years from now there will be a HUGE amount of used battery we need to dispose of, can lithium battery be recycled?  and have we planned for this?  I can't imagine they are that bio-degradable. 

LastMantra

Stratavarious said:

Insulate loft and walls, wear warmer clothes in winter, learn to passively control house temperature with curtains and airflow, avoid AC.  Switch stuff off.  TVs and monitors can be hundreds of watts. 

Learn enough DIY skills to fix your own white goods and make stuff.  Recycle and upcycle.  Pay for quality once, rather than cheap multiple times.

Know what you want and what you need are not the same and consumer advertising is incredibly effective at manipulating brains into making non-essentials look vital.

Jury out on electric cars.. lithium mining is brutal on environment and manufacturing just redistributes the waste.  

Get a dog and discover just how great and diverse the local UK is and how sublime a walk in the woods can be.  Stay healthy.  Research and explore the local stuff.. can be amazing what is on doorstep.

Get a decent coffee machine and save a fortune on expensive bad coffee.  Use the old grounds as compost.

Lots of little things can add up.

I thought dogs were bad for the environment? 
Certainly don't need one to go for a walk.

Dominic

I wouldn't be doiing many any of those things ; Certainly wouldn't be going vegetarian  or wearing secondhand clothes thanks very much and the electric car thing is a ridiculous oxymoron ......all told more damage to environment than petrol cars .
One huge issue that I notice which really is so simple and a minor inconvenience is why do people have such hot houses with central heating turned up ;totally needless and actually unhealthy .Some homes are just unbearable.
Imagine the savings if everybody knocked it down to a perfectly comfortable 17/18 degrees .....most people seem to run at about 22.
We don't have Central Heating by choice , not for 20 years and are very acclimatised .It really knocks me over when I walk into a home just how hot and uncomfortable it is ......I can't breathe..........yet there they are with the noble Tesla on the driveway doing their bit for the environment !!!
Domestic heating/gas boilers are probably the biggest issue across the globe and far more significant than traffic ......if everybody attuned to a 25% reduction the carbon savings would be a Tsunami of positive action......and just maybe we wouldn't have to consider wearing somebody else's smelly kaks !

Stratavarious

We need to travel and consume less..  the problem is the consumption/capitalist model is is entirely dependent on making stuff and then making it redundant to sell you some new shit.  The model is fundamentally incompatible with the very concept of sustainability.  

Even basics like in family elderly care and extended families living together and supporting each other are on the bonfire in pursuit of the ‘dream’ of a personal wealth of stuff.

Stratavarious

Cook fresh and buy an efficient chest deep freeze.  Can make a soup or stew and freeze for 5-10 meals.  

Ossyrocks

We’re trying to do our bit here too.

We’re eating a lot less meat in general and I don’t buy red meat anymore. 

I’m growing most of our veg and that’s really fun and interesting in it’s own right. I’m sure it’s healthier too.
We are continuing to work from home and I think I may only go into the office once a month in the future, so petrol consumption has gone right down.
The biggest and most impactful decision we’ve made is never to fly again. It doesn’t matter what else you do to reduce your footprint, one flight blows the whole thing out of the water. We’ll be travelling abroad by train in the future.

Rob

p90fool

Mainly do you your own research into what actually is "green".

My main form of transport is easily repairable and has at least an 80 year life span and does 80mpg, but the Green Party would put it in the crusher given half a chance. 

I don't buy meat any more (though I'm not actually a vegetarian), hate central heating, have clothes older than most of my work colleagues and hate flying, but I still can't bring myself to vote for technologically illiterate hippies who rely on trite soundbite tactics just like any other party.

Tech is not the enemy, it will actually be our only escape from this mess.  

Winny_Pooh

Human life and activity on an expanding scale are the largest cause so the most effective solution to climate change is:
Stop having babies.

Thing is, very few people want to do it or have small families, which is why we think science and changing patterns of behaviour will stop the onslaught.

That said doing what you can is good. I'm veggie and do pay attention to where/how I buy and use things. High consumption & waste creation zones like the US & Europe particularly. 

scrumhalf

Given the population growth in both India and China you have to wonder if anything we do as individuals will make any difference other than making us feel individually better.

We no longer have the likes of world wars, Spanish flu, Mao or Stalin to radically reduce populations. Less consumption has to be caused by fewer consumers. 

ThePrettyDamned

I've seen people replace grass lawns with artificial lawns.

How utterly fucking dumb and lazy and vain do you need to be to do that? If you physically cannot mow the lawn, pay a local kid to do it. Or replace the grass with clover and buttercup and other low-lying cover plants for a beautiful garden.

Plastic grass though?! Isn't that just crazy?! What a waste of resources. 

Stratavarious

Air conditioning and increasing temperatures are a vicious circle. I read that in a few years 40% of our energy will be spent on AC keeping people cool in otherwise uninhabitable parts of US and Asia. 

Need to be more basement and underground structures.  Houses could be radically better designed.

Passive solar capture is barely looked at as we pursue EV.   A well insulated tonne of water heated passively with drip panels on roof will warm a house for three days.  

https://www.nrel.gov/research/re-passive-solar.html

Creed_Clicks

Electric cars are well and good but how much plastic is in them and how much water and oil is used while making one..?

Danny1969

Everybody needs to try. For me it's a case of using a bike for 90% of travel. Using as little electric as possible by cooking with Halogen, don't own a tumble dryer, have all LED lights and never leaving anything on. I eat almost no red meat and almost never throw anything away ... sometimes going to ridicules lengths to repair something for myself or customers. 

Unfortunately a lot of people won't change if it means any kind of inconvenience or more effort on their part to achieve something. Here's some things a lot of people could do 

Stop driving short distances when your aren't carrying anything - get a bike or walk - share a car don't have one each unless you really have to

Stop driving the kids to school if it's less than 2 miles - make em walk

Stop buying dishwashers  - wash up manually it takes less than 15 minutes 

Stop buying a new phone / TV / PC etc ever year - try and get a few years out of something

If something breaks try and repair it or get it repaired

Eat less red meat and stop buying mc crap food 

Don't buy anything with palm oil in it, they lie about their responsibly grown and harvested status while torching vast areas to grow that shit

Here's my take on electric cars

Yes electric cars have a carbon footprint to manufacture but so do ICE cars. However an ICE vehicle also has a massive after manufacture carbon footprint because it needs Oil, precious metals in the CAT, cam belts, Clutch, exhaust, waterpump, starting motor and fuel pump replacements etc.   An electric car needs none of these things. 

Batteries deplete but so does the efficiency of an ICE engine. My 2010 Focus is only 80 % as efficient as it was when new due to wear on the rings, bore, con rods etc. The battery in my 2012 Macbook is about 70 % as good as it was when new. Batteries are far better than people think. 

When you're driving your electric car in the city you aren't forcing me to breath your vile fumes, that alone is worth something.

The new breed of wind turbines are staggering good, basically one single turn of the new 107M model will power a UK home for 24 hours. That's one single turn of the rotor ! These huge offshore turbines can easily replace a coal power station and is the way forward for the UK. Other countries are solar rich inc the Middle East, they just need make the most of this natural resource instead of oil. Texas, once a great oil state is now a great solar state with a potential of 20 odd TWh per annual.

People travelling less and buying less will lead to job losses .. but is that more important than saving the planet ? the answer is no and people just need to learn to live with less money. Look on the brightside if you aren't buying new shit all the time and wasting money out of laziness you won't need as much money and might live a longer and healthier life

crunchman

Creed_Clicks said:

Electric cars are well and good but how much plastic is in them and how much water and oil is used while making one..?

The environmental cost of extracting the lithium for the batteries is the bigger problem.

There is also the ongoing cost of the energy it takes to move 2 tonnes of electric car on an unnecessary journey.

One of the biggest things we can do is make less car journeys.  Something like two thirds of car journeys are under 3 miles.  The majority of those journeys should be cycled or walked.

As said above, the other big thing is the temperature that central heating is set to.  We set ours around 19 or 20C.  As others have said, I find it unbearable in some buildings where the thermostat is set ridiculously high.  The government could put in some rules on thermostats.  Make it illegal to sell a thermostat that goes above 21C.

Stratavarious

Idiocracy is not a great movie but its opening premise is spot on.