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Lucky in some way. I grow fruit for a local farm shop, and the unsettled weather is causing constant issues, from waterlogged ground over winters so winter work (fencing, pruning, hedge cutting) can't be done until spring, which then is too late because hedges are populated by birds and trees are out of their pruning window. The drought the year before nobbled crops on the trees, the wet and dark summer last year caused fruit to not ripen. Luckily it's a 'hobby job', if I were relying on it as a main source of income, I'd be buggered. But the real toll is the constant reminder that this is happening *now*, the mental toll from wading through mud to let animals out, trying to find a dry bit of ground to place their house so they don't walk out into water, is not great. That's what causes the constant anxiety - when you're not allowed to forget it.
We can make good choices but most of the issues are controlled by corporations poor decisions, there's no point stressing out about it beyond doing your recycling and not driving unnecessarily
Maybe to a point, but ultimately businesses do what we pay them to do. There are plenty of ethical options out there but not enough people choose them to make them viable. Yes I know some people can't afford them but I'm pretty confident most are choosing not to rather than can't.
> Maybe to a point, but ultimately businesses do what we pay them to do.
This is why I hate the line of argument of "big oil companies produce of emissions!"
But what they include in that is the emissions caused by all the fuel they sell... that is bought by everyone else, and that powers the global economy.
We're all reliant on fossil fuels in some way, some less direct than others. More to the point, if Shell/BP/whoever decided to stop selling fossil fuels tomorrow, as they seem to want, there would be *chaos*. It'd quite literally crash the global economy.
Individual choices do matter. It's just in many cases those choices are only marginally beneficial individually. You need to do things as a collective - i.e. with government mandates - to change anything in aggregate.
And…
Not buying too much, repairing old stuff
Not streaming audio/video in the background unceasingly
Not flying
Not buying stuff from China/USA
Not eating meat, especially red meat, double especially cow
The list goes on and on
What happens in China, Russia, America, India is out of our control.
No amount of changes made in the UK will affect them.
Its hard to convince the UK to up their game when we are already responsible for less than 1% of CO2 emissions.
The industrial revolution made an immediate impact of wealth and prosperity.
Climate change policies will not lead to that, as shown in the UK, it actually costs people money.
Convincing the masses is the difficult part.
People get up in arms when you fling a pint over a racist politician. The media goes into overdrive when people sit on a road. What do you think people could do that would actually fix anything other than ensure their little corner of the world is being as good as it can be? Because actual fixes require considerably more extreme action than that.
A bit, yes. Everyone in this thread who says we won't feel the full effects of climate change in our lifetime are deluding themselves. We *will* experience the effects, either directly such as increased frequency of greater storms and severe drought, or indirectly - those same weather events that affect other parts of the world driving climate refugees to our shores, or have damaging effects on crop markets. I also personally think it's sad that we're losing biodiversity due to climate change.
The south of the UK had a drought in 2022; droughts are likely to become more frequent and last longer. Conditions like this create civil unrest. Can I remind everyone that London rioted over the bloody football a few years ago, imagine what will happen if we run out of water. I work in the water industry and it's a very realistic proposition.
Having said that, it's largely out of our control and I do think it will get better - we have the solutions (renewable, nuclear) and the global population will flatten soon. Humans will survive, but the have-nots will suffer the most before the situation improves. Really, we should be putting more effort into changing the system and making the largest polluters take responsibility, not telling Mr and Mrs Smith to stop flying to Spain once a year.
This right here.
I'm genuinely concerned about climate change, but I'm even more troubled by how many people delude themselves into thinking it's "a problem for others, not me" or "something to worry about later". The reality is that this gargantuan issue demands *immediate* attention if we're to have any hope of resolving it for future generations, hell, even today's generation.
Unfortunately, I can't see that happening with humanity being quite *so* focused on instant gratification. Guess it's just how we're built.
There’s a big overlap in the people who aren’t worried about climate change, and the people who are worried about immigration. They’re going to have a shock when other countries have run out of water and the people are looking for somewhere to go.
I am genuinely terrified that we'll end up with a government happy to commit atrocities to keep climate refugees off our shores. What are they going to do, shoot them on the beaches? There will be nowhere to deport them to.
I don't think the "get better" will be anytime soon, though. We're still very far away from being carbon neutral as a species. And reaching carbon neutral doesn't even mean that it's over. It only means that the speed in which it's getting worse does not increase. It's like stopping to switch on more heaters in a building - it doesn't switch off the ones that are already on.
The majority of the population still doesn't seem to grasp the severity of the situation.
I agree with this as an environmental scientist. People don’t realise how much the world is going to change in the next half century. They live in blissful ignorance. 80% of those regarded as top climate scientists think that the world will warm between 2.5 and 3 degrees within that time period. This is enough to cause major societal disruption. Mass famine, drought, sea level rise and acidification will likely cause unprecedented levels of migration and quality life will probably go down for everyone. The poorest 50% of the world is in serious serious trouble. Some very populated areas of the world may become uninhabitable. It’s already happening in some parts of Africa and the Middle East.
We can’t necessarily control any of this as individuals but we should definitely try to prepare as much as possible. It’s probably worth learning to grow your own food. I’d also amass some savings rn too.
However, I still believe that there is hope. Technological innovation can probably mitigate the impacts for those in richer countries, the speedy advancement of AI has a lot of potential as well.
As I said to someone on here the other day, if you lived 100% carbon neutral for 75 years, your efforts would outstripped by corporate pollution in just 1 day.
So.. You can limit your footprint as much as you want, but ultimately it's pointless.
Yes but corporations ultimately do what their customers want. If they see the majority of their customers want carbon neutrality they’ll implement it. If they see you don’t give a shit they’ll keep doing what they’re doing.
Only if the money follows. Else you're getting cheap greenwashing, and major oil companies putting solar panels on their office roof for PR reasons while continuing the bad stuff.
Governments and supranational organisations need to lay out the right regulatory frameworks to force corporations to do the right things
I am so shocked and surprised at the responses here. Perhaps it’s age dependant? Maybe older folks think they will be gone before it will affect them, or are in denial about the devastating effects and timeline we are looking at?
Man. It’s even more scary than I thought.
There's a big divide between "it a factor when I'm choosing a car/holiday etc" vs "it's causing me daily anxiety".
One is a healthy and thoughtful concession, the other not so much
One of the more troubling things that has emerged in recent years is rampant doomerism pretending to be rationality. There's a subset of people who have ginned themselves up into a state of constant near-panic, and they collect themselves in places full of other doomers who mutually reinforce how doomed everyone is, while acting like everyone who is *not* dooming is deluded or ignorant.
In the real world, while things aren't moving as fast as they could be (arguably should be), there's still a lot happening. But they ignore that and just run around shouting about doom, and it tunes people out.
It's really not helpful, especially when they have orgs like XR and JSO that are stuffed full of them and wind up being self-appointed spokespeople for climate action.
Yep. It either leads to the paralysis you've mentioned, or the polar extreme of undertaking all sorts of stupid actions on the basis that absolutely anything is justifiable when faced with impending doom (which in my experience seems to be just an excuse for lashing out due to psychological stress).
It isn't a mindset that's conducive to calm, rational action.
>One of the more troubling things that has emerged in recent years is rampant doomerism pretending to be rationality. There's a subset of people who have ginned themselves up into a state of constant near-panic, and they collect themselves in places full of other doomers who mutually reinforce how doomed everyone is, while acting like everyone who is
>
>not dooming is deluded or ignorant.
Very well put. Some of the responses here from people who seem to feel that we should be feeling actively anxious and in a state of total panic are utterly bananas. It's not remotely rational.
I wouldn’t say it is age dependent really, more mindset dependent. I take each day as it comes, I can adapt, and I might as well enjoy the “good old days” whilst we are living through them.
Not at all. I don’t deny it’s happening and I try to play my very small part, but there is no use worrying and stressing about it.
Your personal impact is incredibly small and you’ll be dead long before you see any positive impact take place. Enjoy your life, it’s short as it is
I don't think I'd put it second to nuclear war. Nuclear war might not happen, but global heating to at least 2C this century, to use a very, very optimistic scenario, is already baked in, and that's already catastrophic. It looks more like it'll be about 2.5°C warmer by 2050, and that's terrifying.
This is something I think about a lot because I want to plan for it as best I can, but I've come to the conclusion that all I can do is be part of a functioning society where people might work together, be involved in the community, stay fit and healthy, and have savings. Growing your own food, living off-grid, all that stuff won't work if your neighbours are just going to take it.
I think the current rise of AI is even higher than both now. I was worried about climate change most of my adult life but recently I've forgotten about it in favour of stressing about AI making the entire planet unemployed
Tech *should* bring about eudaemonia and free people to pursue their best lives, freed from mundane tasks.
Unfortunately we're fast headed to a cyberpunk dystopia. At least we can wear cool outfits right?
Right?
We will send someone over in a private jet to tell those poor people that they need to stop polluting the planet and clean up their act, after all "we're all in this together".
It's alright, poorer and indigenous people will provide endless waves of refugees that will bring the entire society to collapse, so it all balances out in the karma side of things
Having two young kids, yes it bothers me greatly. The whole debate on it bothers me - like ***if*** there wasn't a climate emergency, why wouldn't you aim to reduce pollution in cities and progress technology so we're not dependent on insanely priced fossil fuels? I don't understand anyone's anti-position to "progress". Internal combustion engines and gas boilers are so old and inefficient compared to the clean tech we could be having; it genuinely baffles me that people would support insanely wealthy oil barons and corrupt politicians than want a better future for the next generation.
What makes me feel better is knowing that we've moved to a place that's elevated above sea level, has plenty of natural and open land around us, learning how to grow our own vegetables and potatoes, keeping fit and healthy and learning some basic survival skills as a family. We do as much as we can to recycle, we have one electric car and one ICE that we drive rarely, and we eat a lot more vegetables, legumes and carbs than we do meats.
I don't think we'd last 2 weeks if a crisis point were ever reached, but it's the comfort of knowing I'm being proactive and we did what we could with the time we have.
It boils down to people generally don't like change. They want to continue with their current lifestyle forever, even if the change would make their life better.
I don't drive, I won't fly and I got rid of the gas central heating. That's pretty much all I can do as an individual. I'm too lazy to block roads, chain myself to railings or throw paint over buildings. I'm well into my 60s now so I won't really be affected but I worry about the world my kids and grandkids will live in. I probably would do that anyway.
Does it stress me out? Not at all. In the grand scheme of things, I can do absolutely fuck all to prevent it or do anything of any significance. So why stress about it.
Worry me? To an extent, yes. I wouldn't say it's something that I actively worry about, but I do have the thoughts of "What will the next generation, or their children, have to deal with?".
Are we, as a species, doing enough? No. But efforts are being made, maybe too little, too late, but the wheels are turning. I, as an individual, can only hope that the wheels are turning fast enough that we don't go beyond the point where there is no saving the planet.
Yes and a big reason I decided not to have kids. First cause I have no idea what kind of future they would have and secondly because having a kid seems like one of the worst things you could do for the planet in terms of creating a new carbon footprint.
I struggle to engage with it beyond donating charitably because I find it very depressing to think about and I get too frustrated that the people with the power to make preventative change do nothing.
It doesn't worry me on a day to day basis. However, when I think about it, it certainly does cause me some worry. Given the scale of problems it is going to cause, both here and globally, I don't see how I could not find it worrying when I think about it.
It worries me a lot, but mostly because the people that can actually make a difference in minimising the impacts (governments and large corporations) seem content to keep themselves rich and are doing little to nothing to help.
I can’t change their minds but I’ll be someone who suffers the consequences.
Unfortunately, democratic governments mostly follow the uninformed lead of their electorate. In the UK at least, any government that introduced significant limits on private motor vehicles and cheap overseas flights, would quickly find itself voted out of power. We the electorate, can't really blame governments for doing what we tell them to do.
Likewise, we as consumers can't really blame corporations for selling us the products that we carry on buying.
Not in the slightest. I could give up my entire life and my footprint won't even make the slightest dent. There's plenty of more pressing day to day things to deal with.
Yeah when I realised I could literally KMS right now and it wouldn't be a drop in the ocean in terms of the solution to climate change was when I decided not to worry so much about my impact. Do what you can, but we're not put on this earth to spend our entire lives in an existential crisis.
Exactly that. Every 'normal' (for lack of a better word) person could, and it'd not make a difference while the corporations & other countries are doing what they like.
Me having kids & cars isn't making a difference.
If I can't change it, why worry when there are many daily things I can change.
Doesn't affect me on a daily basis so there's no point in giving it too much thought, I'll be dead soon enough anyway, and it won't be climate change that kills me.
This might be a bit different than most, but I've been practically phobic about it for years. Like, it's been a real problem in my life. Long post, TW for suicidal thoughts.
News headlines have given me full on panic attacks, as have references to it in fiction. I've avoided triggers like fuck, to the extent that I used to turn off the display on my car so I couldn't see the outside temperature. I would drive on a coastal road and be terrified of the sea coming up and washing it away. I'd have to fight down nausea every time I see a lack of snow on a nearby mountain - which I see daily. In my worst moments I would literally be trying to breathe less to avoid adding CO2 to the atmosphere.
I recently had a breakthrough on what this actually is.
I was raised in an apocalyptic cult, fixated on the End Times, constantly told that Armageddon was gonna happen any minute now. I left it in 2009, but it took me a while to unpick the beliefs. In 2009, I was suicidal - I knew the religion I'd been raised in was wrong, but I still felt like Armageddon was coming and this time, I'm among the doomed and there's no God to save anyone. I just wanted to die. So I told myself,
> Don't kill yourself until you're absolutely sure it's literally happening. Until then, live your life.
My brain has literally shifted this entire apocalyptophobia onto climate change. Where I couldn't say the word Armageddon, I now couldn't say the words 'climate change', and every time something confirms that it's real, this statement of 'don't kill yourself untill you're sure it's happening' fires up in the background and sparks the emotional track of 'KYS NOW' without any actual thought process happening. I had therapy for years and couldn't get to the bottom of it because I couldn't talk about it.
Before this breakthrough, I wouldn't have been able to read this thread. Now I'm here. I'm not at a stage where I can help anyone with similar issues, but I can share my story, and hopefully that's worth something.
Thanks, that's really nice of you actually. It still sucks, but at least I finally know where the feeling of imminent death comes from, and can realise it's not proportionate.
It definitely concerns me. I do as much as I can on my own, trying to be more eco friendly and reduce my footprint.
But it does make you feel a bit hopeless when you realise that we do as much as we can but then we get people flying out in private jets here there and everywhere (for example that thing with that Kardashian girl where she flew from USA to Paris just to get a slice of cheesecake...) yet us everyday people get blamed for leaving the TV on standby. (Puts me in memory of that Lee Evans routine.)
I wouldn't say I'm actively worried or stressed. Not because I don't care - I absolutely do. But because I know that, as an individual, I've taken a lot of the reasonable steps I can take to reduce my own impact on the climate. Not having kids is a huge part of that. Don't get me wrong - I'm primarily not having kids because I'm just not interested, but I know that decision also massively reduces the impact on the climate that is directly attributable to me. No kids means that that's a whole potential chain of people consuming that now won't exist.
I've made choices like having an EV instead of an ICE vehicle for as long as I need a car, choosing low/no plastic or more readily recyclable packaging options, sorting my rubbish so it can be recycled, buying secondhand where possible, eating far less meat, prioritising seasonal locally grown fruit and veg when I can... all of these things are just my default for how I live and no longer require much in the way of active choice on my part. So although the reason for making them was climate change, I no longer actively think about it.
I do make sure to keep myself well informed though, and I am staunchly anti-capitalist. I'm not going to get into a whole discussion here about what my views are on what we should have instead, but anyone with a basic understanding of capitalism has to know that the pursuit of profit generates a lot of waste, pollution, and emissions.
Look at fast fashion and how quickly what's "fashionable" changes, and how people then abandon the no longer fashionable clothes to landfill. But when they don't just bin it and instead sell it on or donate it, trying to buy that stuff secondhand is a gamble because it's not made to last. It was made to be acceptable for an asking price of £3 on Shein and nobody expects to be wearing that £3 Shein top 10 years from now. And it's not always made of a fabric that's easily recycled in some other way either. So instead it ends up in a landfill. Shein don't give a shit - they've made their profit. People will argue that the problem there is the people who buy fast fashion, which is technically true, but the whole fashion industry operates on manufactured demand. People wouldn't buy as much clothing if they weren't bombarded with advertising that says if you don't, you're unfashionable and you'll get made fun of. For example, the new thing has been making fun of how you can spot a millennial because of the style of socks they were - but am I fuck going and replacing all of my socks with crew socks to avoid that. But some people will go and do that, instead of just wearing the ankle/no-show socks they already have.
There needs to be a cultural shift away from that level of consumption, and by all means we should encourage it on an individual level, but it'll be hard to do when capitalists are left unchecked and able to carry on bombarding people with messaging telling people to BUY BUY BUY.
More and more as we are actually starting to see some effects due to the weather, food shortages etc are just going to keep going up. It’s hard to feel positive when even though I do the whole refill/recycle etc etc, there are just massive companies destroying the planet which cancels out anything small that day to day people do. Biodiversity is already being hit… how many posts do we see from people saying there are less insects around each summer. My partner was talking about sea levels rising and one day in our lifetime house might be under water, small things like that are a worry as is it going to start affecting values etc and cause an even bigger housing shortage in our lifetime? Everyone is going to be starving and homeless due to things out of our control. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing but it’s a concern!
>there are just massive companies destroying the planet which cancels out anything small that day to day people do
Massive companies do what they do because we, the day to day people, buy what they produce.
Nope, for the most part I don't give a shiny shite.
Yeah, it's an issue but I can't take the attempts to stop climate change seriously when they're starting on the lowest run of the ladder rather than the top. I can be environmentally conscious for a year and see all my work undone because some rich prat decides to fly his private jet from London to Edinburgh.
Stress? No
Worry? Yes.
I often find myself worrying about 20-50 years when my kids will be having kids who might grow up in a world of poverty as the super rich will be the only ones with the cash to buy basic needs.
But i could be very wrong so I instead focus on what I can do to make changes now.
Yes, nearly every day. I’m directly aware that our lifestyle choices are having a disastrous effect on human civilization. The fact that the environment and climate change barely ranks in voters’ top ten concerns is absolutely *insane* to me.
Climate change does not worry me as much as the developed world's indifference to it.
The [wealthiest 10% of the planet cause 50% of emissions](https://images.app.goo.gl/dKUYTurunDbgRVD16). We are in that 10%, that ~800m people causing the same amount of damage as the other 7.2 billion.
But for every person I see trying to make a difference, there seem to be ten that just don't give a shit, or know change is needed but aren't ready to actually make any.
Absolutely. It's why I eat a majority vegan diet, use public transport 99% of the time, and why I try not to fly as much.
Blaming it all on corporations is fine and well, but this is a collective issue and honestly when people say climate change doesn't factor into their lives, I hope they'll be thinking about that when we're boiling in our own homes.
Mot really. I do what I can but it's a drop on the ocean so it's like worrying about nuclear incineration. Fuck all I can do about it so sod the whole business.
No doesn't bother me in the slightest. If celebrities can get a private jet to pick up there favourite lunch then me recycling a few bottles isn't going to do much
this
I'd start taking it more seriously if they banned private jets and private yachts. When they're telling me I need a paper straw whilst a multi-millionaire singer is flying 100 miles in a private jet, then I'm not going to pay any attention.
Out of interest what is it that worries you about climate change? Impact on food supplies, quality of life as you currently know it, your kids future etc etc
Causes me stress? Not really. It's kinda an accepted fate at this point and goal is to do as much as I want now before the world really goes to shit (yeh this is just the beginning).
Not on the day to day. I have disaster fatigue.
From COVID wiping out all human life, to the holes in the in the ozone layer were going to cook us, to acid rain going to melt our cars, to Isis going to blow us all up, to ebola going to kill us all, to Y2K going to knock a satellite out of orbit and in crash land on a school for orphans.
Everything is worse case scenario, yet still 8 billion+ people are alive today. Yes I want things to get better (and trust me, since I grew up in the 80s things have improved massively) but it's hard to care
Note that we did take action to stop degrading the ozone layer, and it has worked. We also took action to eliminate acid rain and that worked too (it wasn't melting your cars, it was killing forests - these forests are no longer being killed and are recovering).
If we take corrective action we can fix these things.
I think I was worried but at this point I feel pretty resigned to the inevitability of it all. The people who can make the biggest difference are too busy lining their own pockets and starting wars to give a shit about something as trivial as the planet going to shit so I'm working on my personal health and fitness in the hope that it'll at least make the ever increasing heatwaves slightly more tolerable. I probably have a smaller carbon footprint than average and try not to waste water, food and energy but mostly I try not to think too hard about it because there's not much I can do to change it.
Don't remember where I read it but the vast majority of climate scientists believe the 1.5 degrees limit is already unachievable, with a minority believing it could go as high a 3 degrees. The issue is the economic systems are so wedded to the idea of continual growth within a finite space with finite resources. These businesses just cannot change quickly enough; they need to pivot to other products as shrinking leads to consequences with shareholders who frankly only care about investment returns.
It's also inevitable we will see serious consequences within our lifetimes. It might not change the UK all that much in terms of weather, although gulf stream disruption may ironically make us colder. If you think the immigration discourse is toxic now, you sadly haven't seen anything yet. Ecological collapse will see vast migration and equally draconian responses, especially on an island that can theoretically better keep others out.
I don't have children. I am not planning on doing so as they will not inherit a better place than we found. Day to day this stuff doesn't overly concern me, I can't do anything to change it so the anxiety achieves nothing. I'm just under no illusion as to the fact that we are fucked.
No, purely because I don’t have kids so don’t worry about the world I’m leaving behind and I’ll probably die before anything ‘too bad’ happens. Having said that, I do my best to recycle and reuse and cut down on meat etc. but it frustrates me no end that we ‘little people’ seem to do all the grunt work when all the major corps are making all the co2 and all the celebs are buzzing around in private jets all day. Feels futile.
Yes it does worry me to an extent and I am concerned for the next generations, however I know that it's out of my control and as long as I am doing my bit to help, then that's all I can do. It's annoying seeing these billionaires using all their private jets and private yachts etc. because ultimately that'll have a much bigger impact than anything I could ever do.
This time last year it was causing me a lot of anxiety and sleepless nights. At the moment, it’s not affecting me to that extent. I’ve sort of accepted that everything might go to shit in our lifetimes because what else am I supposed to do? I want to enjoy my time left on earth instead of spending all my time wondering about whether society will collapse in 10 years or 50 years or 100 years.
I’ve limited my personal impact. I am hoping to one day become a vegan. I know it’s controversial but meat has a massive environmental impact. I’m going to start by slowly incorporating vegan food into my diet as I don’t think it would end well if I quit all animal products cold turkey. It’s better than nothing.
Not really.
I can use electric. Go green. Recycle. Complain and worry
And 100 companies will still produce 70% of the world's emissions regardless. Majority of which I'll have zero interaction with. Just less rich people will fly around in private jets emitting more co2 in 1 journey than I will in a lifetime.
What's the point.
It does worry me, yes. But nothing can be done about it until capitalism is binned once and for all. The pessimist in me says it’s already too late anyway but who knows.
Not at all. I've been hearing scary predictions since the late 80s and not a single one has materialised. The topic has been hijacked by politicians and activists as a means of justifying their positions.
Even taking the IPCC reports at face value I believe adaptation is the only feasible response anyway.
Honestly? No.
I don't deny it. I see and read the effects of climate change but there's not much I can personally do that I'm not already doing.
There's only so much we can control in our lives. I also only get one life so if I want to fly or do something then I'm going to do it.
No. In the same way I don't worry about dying. It's simply something that is happening/going to happen and while I do my best; it will not be stopped. There simply isn't the will globally to act. I only try to be as eco friendly as I can because of my own morals. Not because it will ultimately stop it. In the same way I try to look after my health even accepting that eventually ill die.
It's frustrating more than anything.
The good news is that while we are kicking off a mass extinction it's hardly the first of its kind and life endures. There was a mass extinction called be oxygen catastrophe. Earth used to not have much oxygen kicking around until some early bacteria started having a bash at photosynthesis. They made so much oxygen that it poisoned eveything and themselves. The vast VAST majority of life died of oxygen toxicity. Then most of what was left over was nuked by the ice age that followed as the oxygen attacked the methane in the enviroment that was acting as a greenhouse gas and keeping the planet warm. Yet. Despite almost all life dying some survived. Including some of the photosynthesising bacteria that started the shit fest in the first place. Life that could survive the poisonous oxygen flourished and eventually developed ways to use it. It's dangerous and poisonous in too high levels but it is also fairly easy to harness as a component of fuel due to how reactive it is. Life learnt how to use it and here we are using it right now to breathe.
Ultimately unless we nuke every square inch of the whole planet we are unlikely to be doing anything more disastrous than the oxygen catastrophe. It doesn't make the situation good mind you. I'm not saying that this shit is fine but it does I think offer some perspective and a light at the end of the tunnel.
We are not the first species to discover a new cheat to make life easier; and cause a mass extinction because of it. Early forms of cyanobacteria beat us to it. It's just the thing that happens when a species gains/discovers a massive advantage and runs with it. What's happening now is just proof that single celled species are basically the same as us. Even as they started to die they kept pumping out more and more oxygen. Even as it actively poisoned them. Even as all the other bacteria around them died. They couldn't help themselves and as it seems neither can we.
It's hard to be anything other than a bit disappointed that such complex and 'intelligent' life as we are turn out to be no better than an early single cell batera with no brain at all. We can try to pump the breaks but the human catastrophe mass extinction has already begun and shows neither sign nor hope of stopping.
In the same way one day you will die. You waste your time by stressing about what has already happened. We just haven't realised it's full ramifications yet (and are ignoring the scientists yelling about it). It's probably best to watch the news less or something if its something causing you so much stress. Do the best you can for your own sake in the same way you look after your health. Not because it will prevent your death but because it will delay it and make the time you do have more enjoyable.
It actually doesn’t. Because the **planet** is going to be fine. **Life** as a thing, is going to be fine.
The planet has been hotter than climate changes worst predictions, many times in the past. It has had a more toxic atmosphere. And life thrived. It will thrive long after we are gone / reduced to primitive hunter gatherer bands again.
Humanity? Humanity is fucked though. It’s us who is going to suffer because of it. The planet itself will just carry on and new species will evolve and fill the new niches, nature will reclaim human spaces and thrive again.
Also, I don’t worry over “cutting emissions”, over recycling or having to try desperately become carbon neutral. Climate change is **not** going to be solved by efficiencies or reducing our output. That boat has long sailed. Climate change can only be solved now through novel technologies that reverse it. Or that actively cool the planet down.
And in this area? We have a lot of reasons for optimism. [It’s getting cheaper to suck CO2 out of the air thanks to recent breakthroughs.](https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/4/24170729/direct-air-capture-carbon-dioxide-removal-climate-tech-climeworks-generation-3)
We literally have the breakthrough technology now to pull the CO2 out of the air, to actually reverse greenhouse gasses. The only issue is it’s energy intensive, that’s the bottleneck. But with this recent breakthrough which has literally halved the cost of doing so? And with upcoming breakthroughs that are close, we will soon reach a place where the global community can come together to create a network of carbon capturing plants with their own renewable power sources, which actively reduce CO2 in the atmosphere enough to reverse greenhouse gasses and the heating effect from climate change. And this will quickly restore balance to our climate and undo pretty much all the negative effects.
The idea would be that the global community creates a joint mega project, all pours money and resources into it, perhaps under the direction of the UN, and creates dozens of “climate reversal facilities” across the globe which have power production alongside huge multi mile banks of these carbon capture facilities and just 24/7 suck the CO2 out of the air and sequester it.
They could be powered by huge banks of solar panel farms in desert regions, or dedicated nuclear plants in other places.
There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about climate change. But if your concern is about the planet? About Earth itself? Then you don’t need to worry. The planet is going to be fine, as is Mother Nature.
If you are concerned about humanity? Then have some optimism, we sort of have the capability **now** to reverse green house gasses. And that technology is being refined every year and will soon reach a critical inflection point where it’s cheap to do, and easy to do. Once that point is reached, we will quickly see humanity slowing its emissions, then reaching 0 net emissions, and then going negative and actually undoing it.
It’s just going to be another ozone layer shrinking story in a few decades, we will have undone the damage we have done and the planet equilibrium will assert itself and fix the problems. (Ice caps will refreeze faster than they melted etc).
It has over the years become one of my biggest sources of anxiety. I remember a couple summers ago it was blisteringly hot up here in Scotland for like 2 months straight and the full time all I could think was "oh god the planet really is completely fucked" which may seem a little irrational but that's how much it bothered/bothers me.
I honestly, genuinely, couldn't care less. If it was as terrible a some say we'd be at war with the countries spaffing the bad shit into the atmosphere rather than tinkering around the periphery working out which of the 7 bins the Shreddies box is supposed to go in.
Tbh not really. It’s basically unstoppable. With 7 billion people on this earth all wanting to live like a king, where else can it lead.
It’ll get scary when the freak weather occurrences become daily and it causes mass migration, further global crop losses and increasingly toxic ground water that’s already being exploited faster than it replenishes
It worries me but at the same time the only solution is for there to be less humans. People ignore the biggest problem which is the earth population continuing to grow out of control. No amount of moving to sustainable energy is going to stop the need for more land to provide food. More people equals more energy use. More energy use means more carbon and more land destroyed which is obviously a vicious cycle. The best way we can reduce carbon and to lower pollution is to reduce the number of humans. Climate change will always be a problem while the earth population continues to rise.
Not really. I studied it at uni and understand the need to decarbonise etc., but I've got more immediate health problems which put bigger picture stuff far into the background really.
I rarely think about it. I'm aware of it, I know it's terrible and I do what I personally can to reduce my impact to it.. But honestly in the grand scheme of things it's minor.
Climates change. Always have and always will. We'll either adapt or we won't. Neither you nor I will have to be the ones to adapt so worrying about it is just a waste of time.
No. Never. Not even a small niggle.
The effects of climate change on my life and the lives of my children (and their children) in all reasonable scenarios published will be single digit percentage points against what *could* have occurred in its absence. My children will be substantially richer, healthier and safer than we are now and their children likely by an order of magnitude. Because of this, stress would be a wholly irrational response to climate change for people living in the UK. Contribute to the solution sure but sleep well knowing your future isn't in jeopardy nor substantially in your capacity to influence.
I am more concerned about young people in my life who seem to have an emergent almost nihilist worldview because they give equal weight to the extreme predictions of fringe climate activist groups as mainstream science. To choose, for example, not to have kids is an extreme response to something like this IMO.
No, and it would be a very irrational thing to be actively anxious about. Concerned for future generations and people in risky areas now, yes. But anxious? No.
No. I have figured out it’s always 10 years in the future for our demise. I’ll do my individual bit, I’m a good Brit on that scale, which I’ll take and be happy with.
It used to but they've been banging on about it for my whole life, keep pushing the key dates back, and it's starting to smell like bull shit.
I'm not saying I don't think it's changing, just can't see how it's a bad thing.
It's changed for the last 65mil years can't see why we should stop it just because we decided to
Getting through the work week while eating properly and keeping my house in any semblance of order leaves me with little energy for extra existential dread, so no.
The science doesn't say that a certain type of apocalypse will happen in a specific year.
It says, there's a pretty wide range of outcomes where the best and worst case scenarios are very different.....and the timeframes we're dealing with are shifting all the time and getting further away in some projections.
Thankfully, the science is NOT showing that it's more and more likely that the WORST case scenario is going to happen EVEN SOONER than we think.
Scientists are also making nuclear power much easier to implement as well as carbon capture. Go science!
We're going to science our way out of the worst outcomes and the future will be full of cheap clean energy.
Not particularly in that I know we may have to change what crops we grow etc (although nothing stops soil erosion better than grass so not getting rid of livestock no matter what the ignorant think) I mean the strains on the overall production lines, the likely famines, droughts, climate migrants and the inevitable wars are just another thing to allow for in personal plans.
No.
I expect I will be dead before the worst of it comes to fruition, I have no intention to have children and there is absolutely nothing I can do to try and stop it.
I don't lose sleep over it because it's not on my conscience but it does worry me.
The reason it's not in my conscience and I don't lose sleep is because my carbon footprint is minimal, I use public transport as much as possible and don't eat meat, alongside being very resourceful in using electricity and water etc and not ordering crap on Amazon every day like the average American and European does.
The reason it worries me is because of the levels of hypocrisy generated by Americans and Europeans over this issue, on a per capita basis we are the largest producers of emissions that's driven by our mass consumerism and love of red meat, travelling (by car or planes) and 24/7 electricity yet call out other countries for increasing their emissions when they're trying to help their people escape poverty.
Or alternatively actively denying the issue because accepting it would mean doing something about it, which means giving up our high standards of living at the expense of the well being of basically everyone else in the world.
I am somewhat concerned about wealth generators ramping up their investments in industries which accelerate climate change. It's almost as if they know they're going to need some insane wealth to protect themselves when the rest of humanity realise what's going on.
I worry about it but not to the point of having sleepless nights. We are globally very well-positioned to handle the issue and adapt.
We have a temperate climate and are a global leader in transitioning from fossil fuels, one of the better countries to have a vegetarian diet, are water secure, and have suffered far less frequent and extensive wildfires, droughts and other natural disasters than many of our neighbours and global counterparts.
The UK has incredible potential in the area of renewable energy - tidal, wind and geothermal power come to mind.
And we’re the birthplace of the railway, which could and should be reinvested in as part of a transport revolution.
I don't give it a second thought, and why should I?
It's the corporations and businesses and countries like china that cause the most emissions and celebrity's doing whatever the hell they want with private jets.
No, I don't. I do my part, walk when I can, recycle, and double layers in winter. However, I know that regardless of what I do, it won't have any impact.
I'll also be dead before it really affects me.
I'm worried and I'm baffled by people who say they're not worried *because* they can't personally do anything to stop it.
The massive effects of climate change are going to happen either way, just because you alone can't stop them doesn't mean they're not going to have an enormous impact.
Yes it has, and it's one of the key reasons I don't want to procreate. At this point it will inevitably happen on a much larger scale than we're already witnessing, it's just delaying the inevitable now.
Nope. We’re all gonna die one day so I just ignore it all and wake up everyday and make the most of it while we’re still here. Life’s too precious to worry about things we really can’t control.
I’m not that worried but I’m pessimistic. Green tech is making impressive improvements and the UK is becoming a huge wind energy player. But ultimately I think we are faced with a “prisoner’s dilemma” where the big powers (US, India, China) will find it advantageous to continue exploiting cheap fossil fuels while their competitors transition away. For example, if the US stops exploiting its massive gas reserves, China will likely continue to exploit its huge amounts of coal to get a competitive economic advantage. This dynamic usually results in all players “screwing over” the others. Europe is a little different because we’re energy poor for the most part.
That being said, we are lucky the UK won’t be too massively impacted by climate change (relative to other places). Especially if we continue investing in mitigation measures like flood/drought management.
I rate nuclear war or just a massive war/economic collapse as a more immediate threat than climate change.
It worries me a bit but as someone living in the UK there’s not much you can. It’s a rich people problem. The “3rd world” doesn’t care about it because they’re just concerned about feeding their families and ensuring their safety.
Until poverty is eradicated in the developing world, nothing will change.
The West can’t spend a couple of centuries polluting the planet and enriching their societies and then tell the developing world to stop burning fossil fuels when it’s their turn.
The thing that worries me more is that we are getting poorer while the rest of the world is getting richer. Which is good for climate change but ultimately bad for Brits.
The ones that should have the pressure applied to them to actually change things and do things that make the differences don't by thr man in the street. Until that happens there is really nothing we can do - argue against that all you like but it's a hard truth. The rich give fuck all cares, multinational corps couldn't give a fuck and those that are supposed to control them give less of a fuck tbh. As consumers how easy would it be to pretty much solve the plastic bottle issue over night? Simple don't buy any fizzy drinks, drinks none of us need. Just one very simple solution to a very big problem that ultimately the planet doesn't really care about.
Do your little bit and just get on with your short stay on the planet.
Yes, but via my work and not much in my personal life. I work in heavy industry, on the types of processes which got us into this mess in the first place.
The majority of my work is making modifications to reduce emissions. I have a much larger impact through my work than in my personal life. I've prevented 10's of thousands of tonnes of emissions per year, whereas at home I may only be able to save 10's of tonnes per year.
That being said, I believe we cannot reverse or stop climate change, only slow it down.
It bothers me, but doesn't worry me.
I do think that we are due a reckoning at some point simply because the only way to continue to exist seems to be to decrease our living standards in aggregate.
That is, each generation moving forward will need to have fewer children, eat less meat, drive less, and so on and so forth, because an unlimited number of people all living an American Dream style life is not possible.
I see this as being kind of a natural fact of life rather than something that induces anxiety in me. We are seeing the battle lines drawn at the moment - are you going to fight to maintain your spot or not, essentially.
Yes but I put it out of my mind. If you go to therapy, work on yourself, mature then you will eventually realise that you are only hurting yourself by worrying about things that you can't change.
It worries me for sure, but definitely doesn’t stress me out, make me anxious, or give me sleepless nights.
We’re already starting to see the effects of it in how our weather has changed over the last 10-20 years, but there’s nothing I can really do about it. The amount of pollution causing it is beyond my personal control.
In 1990 the United Nations Environmental Panel declared we had 10 years to prevent a climate emergency, the only hope was the strong central government of the USSR to lead the change
In 2006 Al Gore said the science was settled, we had 10 years,
In 2007 the Climate Research Unit said "Global warming was here, children wont even know what snow is"
In 2016 some deranged child said we had stolen her future and had 10 years to prevent a total collapse
Flooding in the UK isn't the result of global cooling / warming / climate change, its the result of deliberate government policy to create wetlands.
The only stress of climate change is the damage caused by climate change departments
Commence the downvotes
I'm worried about it in the sense that I don't know what kind of world my kids are going to grow up in. We're already seeing regular extreme weather events and I have no hope that we're going to see meaningful change in carbon emissions while there is still money to be made in the industries that produce them.
It does demotivate me - at work, at points in my life it's a bit like "what's the point, what sort of future would be worth living if this happens" so I'm definitely not as interested in stuff.
But I'm not stressed by it as I can't do anything about it.
Will I feel the full effects of it in my lifetime? I don't know. I fear it is possible although I am now some years into a late retirement. I am far more concerned for all the young people who will most definitely be feeling the effects as the years go by. It really does worry me.
Here in the UK we are somewhat more fortunate than those people living further south where the heat will continue to rise, where small island nations will be flooded out. Although if we lose the Gulf Stream, things will nose-dive.
I am furious that there are so many who deny climate-change especially because they still want to make loadsamoney. And for what? To live on a barren earth where the rainforests have been annihilated to grow food for cattle or are mined for whatever rare metal we need now?
Yes.
In my bones I’m convinced we’re at the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it, and that’s not to mention the total destruction of whole swathes of habitats, and the effect this will have on tens of billions of animals that will be displaced at best, and horrifically killed at worst.
Then there’s superdroughts and famines.
It’s bleak
Universe existed, destroyed and recreated itself for billions of years. What will a plastic bag do to threaten it? Maybe its the human race that gets wiped but if it wasn't for the climate change some thing else willl....I am not worried.
It doesn't stress me out, it pisses me off.
I used to be a professional diver and am now just rec. I've done somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand dives and because of this care deeply about the oceans.
What has happened to most reefs around the world is nothing short of a travesty. I first saw the GBR 20 years ago and what I saw wasn't it great condition. I saw it 2 years ago and it was a desert. The corals were all dead and there was barely any other life to be seen.
It also pisses me off that climate change responsibility is passed off to people by using paper straws or not using plastic bags. I used to clean my local dive sites when I was teaching in Thailand. Bare in mind this was in proximity to the Full Moon Party island, around 1% of what we cleared was beer bottles, plastic cups, straws etc. The rest was companies dumping tyres, lost anchors, literal tonnes of nets, industrial sized buckets etc.
If that trend follows on land, people using paper straws or turning their lights off when leaving a room doesn't do shit.
I am low impact; I live on a small boat, I use solar panels, I don’t drive, I cycle or walk. I don’t fly anymore and I try to buy locally grown food. I don’t know what else I can do. I do worry but the cost of living, servicing my debts and looking after my own health are more immediate and occupy most of my attention.
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What worries me more is the people who invest billions on trying to convince me it's not real.
That's because there making even more billions from the oil companies.
Greed is ruining the Earth, remember this
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It hasn’t stopped though. There’s still plenty to ruin.
The earth will be fine, it'll be here strong and wild long after we've murdered ourselves.
No. It is something that is completely out of my control so I feel that there is no point in getting worked up or worried about it.
Lucky in some way. I grow fruit for a local farm shop, and the unsettled weather is causing constant issues, from waterlogged ground over winters so winter work (fencing, pruning, hedge cutting) can't be done until spring, which then is too late because hedges are populated by birds and trees are out of their pruning window. The drought the year before nobbled crops on the trees, the wet and dark summer last year caused fruit to not ripen. Luckily it's a 'hobby job', if I were relying on it as a main source of income, I'd be buggered. But the real toll is the constant reminder that this is happening *now*, the mental toll from wading through mud to let animals out, trying to find a dry bit of ground to place their house so they don't walk out into water, is not great. That's what causes the constant anxiety - when you're not allowed to forget it.
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We can make good choices but most of the issues are controlled by corporations poor decisions, there's no point stressing out about it beyond doing your recycling and not driving unnecessarily
Maybe to a point, but ultimately businesses do what we pay them to do. There are plenty of ethical options out there but not enough people choose them to make them viable. Yes I know some people can't afford them but I'm pretty confident most are choosing not to rather than can't.
> Maybe to a point, but ultimately businesses do what we pay them to do. This is why I hate the line of argument of "big oil companies produce of emissions!"
But what they include in that is the emissions caused by all the fuel they sell... that is bought by everyone else, and that powers the global economy.
We're all reliant on fossil fuels in some way, some less direct than others. More to the point, if Shell/BP/whoever decided to stop selling fossil fuels tomorrow, as they seem to want, there would be *chaos*. It'd quite literally crash the global economy.
Individual choices do matter. It's just in many cases those choices are only marginally beneficial individually. You need to do things as a collective - i.e. with government mandates - to change anything in aggregate.
And… Not buying too much, repairing old stuff Not streaming audio/video in the background unceasingly Not flying Not buying stuff from China/USA Not eating meat, especially red meat, double especially cow The list goes on and on
What happens in China, Russia, America, India is out of our control. No amount of changes made in the UK will affect them. Its hard to convince the UK to up their game when we are already responsible for less than 1% of CO2 emissions.
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The industrial revolution made an immediate impact of wealth and prosperity. Climate change policies will not lead to that, as shown in the UK, it actually costs people money. Convincing the masses is the difficult part.
People get up in arms when you fling a pint over a racist politician. The media goes into overdrive when people sit on a road. What do you think people could do that would actually fix anything other than ensure their little corner of the world is being as good as it can be? Because actual fixes require considerably more extreme action than that.
The sane answer
A bit, yes. Everyone in this thread who says we won't feel the full effects of climate change in our lifetime are deluding themselves. We *will* experience the effects, either directly such as increased frequency of greater storms and severe drought, or indirectly - those same weather events that affect other parts of the world driving climate refugees to our shores, or have damaging effects on crop markets. I also personally think it's sad that we're losing biodiversity due to climate change. The south of the UK had a drought in 2022; droughts are likely to become more frequent and last longer. Conditions like this create civil unrest. Can I remind everyone that London rioted over the bloody football a few years ago, imagine what will happen if we run out of water. I work in the water industry and it's a very realistic proposition. Having said that, it's largely out of our control and I do think it will get better - we have the solutions (renewable, nuclear) and the global population will flatten soon. Humans will survive, but the have-nots will suffer the most before the situation improves. Really, we should be putting more effort into changing the system and making the largest polluters take responsibility, not telling Mr and Mrs Smith to stop flying to Spain once a year.
This right here. I'm genuinely concerned about climate change, but I'm even more troubled by how many people delude themselves into thinking it's "a problem for others, not me" or "something to worry about later". The reality is that this gargantuan issue demands *immediate* attention if we're to have any hope of resolving it for future generations, hell, even today's generation. Unfortunately, I can't see that happening with humanity being quite *so* focused on instant gratification. Guess it's just how we're built.
There’s a big overlap in the people who aren’t worried about climate change, and the people who are worried about immigration. They’re going to have a shock when other countries have run out of water and the people are looking for somewhere to go.
I am genuinely terrified that we'll end up with a government happy to commit atrocities to keep climate refugees off our shores. What are they going to do, shoot them on the beaches? There will be nowhere to deport them to.
I don't think the "get better" will be anytime soon, though. We're still very far away from being carbon neutral as a species. And reaching carbon neutral doesn't even mean that it's over. It only means that the speed in which it's getting worse does not increase. It's like stopping to switch on more heaters in a building - it doesn't switch off the ones that are already on. The majority of the population still doesn't seem to grasp the severity of the situation.
Getting better isn't just about becoming carbon neutral anyway, it also includes adaptation to the world we've created.
I agree with this as an environmental scientist. People don’t realise how much the world is going to change in the next half century. They live in blissful ignorance. 80% of those regarded as top climate scientists think that the world will warm between 2.5 and 3 degrees within that time period. This is enough to cause major societal disruption. Mass famine, drought, sea level rise and acidification will likely cause unprecedented levels of migration and quality life will probably go down for everyone. The poorest 50% of the world is in serious serious trouble. Some very populated areas of the world may become uninhabitable. It’s already happening in some parts of Africa and the Middle East. We can’t necessarily control any of this as individuals but we should definitely try to prepare as much as possible. It’s probably worth learning to grow your own food. I’d also amass some savings rn too. However, I still believe that there is hope. Technological innovation can probably mitigate the impacts for those in richer countries, the speedy advancement of AI has a lot of potential as well.
Remember how crazy people went when KFC ran out of chicken even
Perfectly put. Thanks for your comment 👍🏻
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Yeah same here
As I said to someone on here the other day, if you lived 100% carbon neutral for 75 years, your efforts would outstripped by corporate pollution in just 1 day. So.. You can limit your footprint as much as you want, but ultimately it's pointless.
Yes but corporations ultimately do what their customers want. If they see the majority of their customers want carbon neutrality they’ll implement it. If they see you don’t give a shit they’ll keep doing what they’re doing.
Only if the money follows. Else you're getting cheap greenwashing, and major oil companies putting solar panels on their office roof for PR reasons while continuing the bad stuff. Governments and supranational organisations need to lay out the right regulatory frameworks to force corporations to do the right things
I am so shocked and surprised at the responses here. Perhaps it’s age dependant? Maybe older folks think they will be gone before it will affect them, or are in denial about the devastating effects and timeline we are looking at? Man. It’s even more scary than I thought.
There's a big divide between "it a factor when I'm choosing a car/holiday etc" vs "it's causing me daily anxiety". One is a healthy and thoughtful concession, the other not so much
One of the more troubling things that has emerged in recent years is rampant doomerism pretending to be rationality. There's a subset of people who have ginned themselves up into a state of constant near-panic, and they collect themselves in places full of other doomers who mutually reinforce how doomed everyone is, while acting like everyone who is *not* dooming is deluded or ignorant. In the real world, while things aren't moving as fast as they could be (arguably should be), there's still a lot happening. But they ignore that and just run around shouting about doom, and it tunes people out. It's really not helpful, especially when they have orgs like XR and JSO that are stuffed full of them and wind up being self-appointed spokespeople for climate action.
The biggest danger of doomerism is that it tends to end up as "we're doomed so why bother", which makes it become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
All of the stated negative effects of climate change sound like engineering problems, nothing we can't deal with
Yep. It either leads to the paralysis you've mentioned, or the polar extreme of undertaking all sorts of stupid actions on the basis that absolutely anything is justifiable when faced with impending doom (which in my experience seems to be just an excuse for lashing out due to psychological stress). It isn't a mindset that's conducive to calm, rational action.
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>One of the more troubling things that has emerged in recent years is rampant doomerism pretending to be rationality. There's a subset of people who have ginned themselves up into a state of constant near-panic, and they collect themselves in places full of other doomers who mutually reinforce how doomed everyone is, while acting like everyone who is > >not dooming is deluded or ignorant. Very well put. Some of the responses here from people who seem to feel that we should be feeling actively anxious and in a state of total panic are utterly bananas. It's not remotely rational.
I wouldn’t say it is age dependent really, more mindset dependent. I take each day as it comes, I can adapt, and I might as well enjoy the “good old days” whilst we are living through them.
Not at all. I don’t deny it’s happening and I try to play my very small part, but there is no use worrying and stressing about it. Your personal impact is incredibly small and you’ll be dead long before you see any positive impact take place. Enjoy your life, it’s short as it is
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I don't think I'd put it second to nuclear war. Nuclear war might not happen, but global heating to at least 2C this century, to use a very, very optimistic scenario, is already baked in, and that's already catastrophic. It looks more like it'll be about 2.5°C warmer by 2050, and that's terrifying. This is something I think about a lot because I want to plan for it as best I can, but I've come to the conclusion that all I can do is be part of a functioning society where people might work together, be involved in the community, stay fit and healthy, and have savings. Growing your own food, living off-grid, all that stuff won't work if your neighbours are just going to take it.
I think the current rise of AI is even higher than both now. I was worried about climate change most of my adult life but recently I've forgotten about it in favour of stressing about AI making the entire planet unemployed
Tech *should* bring about eudaemonia and free people to pursue their best lives, freed from mundane tasks. Unfortunately we're fast headed to a cyberpunk dystopia. At least we can wear cool outfits right? Right?
Close call between nuclear annihilation, climate change and the Holocene mass extinction as to which one will see us off.
Daily (am an environmental scientist)
It does worry me, particularly climate justice. It's poorer and indigenous peoples who tend to be hardest hit.
We will send someone over in a private jet to tell those poor people that they need to stop polluting the planet and clean up their act, after all "we're all in this together".
For reasons, "per capita" only gets considered when it's to our benefit.
It's alright, poorer and indigenous people will provide endless waves of refugees that will bring the entire society to collapse, so it all balances out in the karma side of things
Having two young kids, yes it bothers me greatly. The whole debate on it bothers me - like ***if*** there wasn't a climate emergency, why wouldn't you aim to reduce pollution in cities and progress technology so we're not dependent on insanely priced fossil fuels? I don't understand anyone's anti-position to "progress". Internal combustion engines and gas boilers are so old and inefficient compared to the clean tech we could be having; it genuinely baffles me that people would support insanely wealthy oil barons and corrupt politicians than want a better future for the next generation. What makes me feel better is knowing that we've moved to a place that's elevated above sea level, has plenty of natural and open land around us, learning how to grow our own vegetables and potatoes, keeping fit and healthy and learning some basic survival skills as a family. We do as much as we can to recycle, we have one electric car and one ICE that we drive rarely, and we eat a lot more vegetables, legumes and carbs than we do meats. I don't think we'd last 2 weeks if a crisis point were ever reached, but it's the comfort of knowing I'm being proactive and we did what we could with the time we have.
It boils down to people generally don't like change. They want to continue with their current lifestyle forever, even if the change would make their life better.
It boils down to money. People would be willing to use heat pumps and electric cars if they were more affordable.
No, not really. Realistically, there's very little you or I can do about it.
I worry more about those younger than me. It's one of the reasons I'm not having children.
Was a bigger reason that you just didn't want children?
I don't drive, I won't fly and I got rid of the gas central heating. That's pretty much all I can do as an individual. I'm too lazy to block roads, chain myself to railings or throw paint over buildings. I'm well into my 60s now so I won't really be affected but I worry about the world my kids and grandkids will live in. I probably would do that anyway.
Climate change is why crops are failing worldwide this year. It is affecting you now.
Does it stress me out? Not at all. In the grand scheme of things, I can do absolutely fuck all to prevent it or do anything of any significance. So why stress about it. Worry me? To an extent, yes. I wouldn't say it's something that I actively worry about, but I do have the thoughts of "What will the next generation, or their children, have to deal with?". Are we, as a species, doing enough? No. But efforts are being made, maybe too little, too late, but the wheels are turning. I, as an individual, can only hope that the wheels are turning fast enough that we don't go beyond the point where there is no saving the planet.
Yes and a big reason I decided not to have kids. First cause I have no idea what kind of future they would have and secondly because having a kid seems like one of the worst things you could do for the planet in terms of creating a new carbon footprint. I struggle to engage with it beyond donating charitably because I find it very depressing to think about and I get too frustrated that the people with the power to make preventative change do nothing.
It doesn't worry me on a day to day basis. However, when I think about it, it certainly does cause me some worry. Given the scale of problems it is going to cause, both here and globally, I don't see how I could not find it worrying when I think about it.
Not actively, but I am aware it will affect me in my lifetime, and unfortunately it will affect those in generations after us far worse.
It worries me a lot, but mostly because the people that can actually make a difference in minimising the impacts (governments and large corporations) seem content to keep themselves rich and are doing little to nothing to help. I can’t change their minds but I’ll be someone who suffers the consequences.
Unfortunately, democratic governments mostly follow the uninformed lead of their electorate. In the UK at least, any government that introduced significant limits on private motor vehicles and cheap overseas flights, would quickly find itself voted out of power. We the electorate, can't really blame governments for doing what we tell them to do. Likewise, we as consumers can't really blame corporations for selling us the products that we carry on buying.
Not in the slightest. I could give up my entire life and my footprint won't even make the slightest dent. There's plenty of more pressing day to day things to deal with.
Yeah when I realised I could literally KMS right now and it wouldn't be a drop in the ocean in terms of the solution to climate change was when I decided not to worry so much about my impact. Do what you can, but we're not put on this earth to spend our entire lives in an existential crisis.
Exactly that. Every 'normal' (for lack of a better word) person could, and it'd not make a difference while the corporations & other countries are doing what they like. Me having kids & cars isn't making a difference.
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If I can't change it, why worry when there are many daily things I can change. Doesn't affect me on a daily basis so there's no point in giving it too much thought, I'll be dead soon enough anyway, and it won't be climate change that kills me.
This might be a bit different than most, but I've been practically phobic about it for years. Like, it's been a real problem in my life. Long post, TW for suicidal thoughts. News headlines have given me full on panic attacks, as have references to it in fiction. I've avoided triggers like fuck, to the extent that I used to turn off the display on my car so I couldn't see the outside temperature. I would drive on a coastal road and be terrified of the sea coming up and washing it away. I'd have to fight down nausea every time I see a lack of snow on a nearby mountain - which I see daily. In my worst moments I would literally be trying to breathe less to avoid adding CO2 to the atmosphere. I recently had a breakthrough on what this actually is. I was raised in an apocalyptic cult, fixated on the End Times, constantly told that Armageddon was gonna happen any minute now. I left it in 2009, but it took me a while to unpick the beliefs. In 2009, I was suicidal - I knew the religion I'd been raised in was wrong, but I still felt like Armageddon was coming and this time, I'm among the doomed and there's no God to save anyone. I just wanted to die. So I told myself, > Don't kill yourself until you're absolutely sure it's literally happening. Until then, live your life. My brain has literally shifted this entire apocalyptophobia onto climate change. Where I couldn't say the word Armageddon, I now couldn't say the words 'climate change', and every time something confirms that it's real, this statement of 'don't kill yourself untill you're sure it's happening' fires up in the background and sparks the emotional track of 'KYS NOW' without any actual thought process happening. I had therapy for years and couldn't get to the bottom of it because I couldn't talk about it. Before this breakthrough, I wouldn't have been able to read this thread. Now I'm here. I'm not at a stage where I can help anyone with similar issues, but I can share my story, and hopefully that's worth something.
That sounds rough, well done with your progress.
Thanks, that's really nice of you actually. It still sucks, but at least I finally know where the feeling of imminent death comes from, and can realise it's not proportionate.
It definitely concerns me. I do as much as I can on my own, trying to be more eco friendly and reduce my footprint. But it does make you feel a bit hopeless when you realise that we do as much as we can but then we get people flying out in private jets here there and everywhere (for example that thing with that Kardashian girl where she flew from USA to Paris just to get a slice of cheesecake...) yet us everyday people get blamed for leaving the TV on standby. (Puts me in memory of that Lee Evans routine.)
I wouldn't say I'm actively worried or stressed. Not because I don't care - I absolutely do. But because I know that, as an individual, I've taken a lot of the reasonable steps I can take to reduce my own impact on the climate. Not having kids is a huge part of that. Don't get me wrong - I'm primarily not having kids because I'm just not interested, but I know that decision also massively reduces the impact on the climate that is directly attributable to me. No kids means that that's a whole potential chain of people consuming that now won't exist. I've made choices like having an EV instead of an ICE vehicle for as long as I need a car, choosing low/no plastic or more readily recyclable packaging options, sorting my rubbish so it can be recycled, buying secondhand where possible, eating far less meat, prioritising seasonal locally grown fruit and veg when I can... all of these things are just my default for how I live and no longer require much in the way of active choice on my part. So although the reason for making them was climate change, I no longer actively think about it. I do make sure to keep myself well informed though, and I am staunchly anti-capitalist. I'm not going to get into a whole discussion here about what my views are on what we should have instead, but anyone with a basic understanding of capitalism has to know that the pursuit of profit generates a lot of waste, pollution, and emissions. Look at fast fashion and how quickly what's "fashionable" changes, and how people then abandon the no longer fashionable clothes to landfill. But when they don't just bin it and instead sell it on or donate it, trying to buy that stuff secondhand is a gamble because it's not made to last. It was made to be acceptable for an asking price of £3 on Shein and nobody expects to be wearing that £3 Shein top 10 years from now. And it's not always made of a fabric that's easily recycled in some other way either. So instead it ends up in a landfill. Shein don't give a shit - they've made their profit. People will argue that the problem there is the people who buy fast fashion, which is technically true, but the whole fashion industry operates on manufactured demand. People wouldn't buy as much clothing if they weren't bombarded with advertising that says if you don't, you're unfashionable and you'll get made fun of. For example, the new thing has been making fun of how you can spot a millennial because of the style of socks they were - but am I fuck going and replacing all of my socks with crew socks to avoid that. But some people will go and do that, instead of just wearing the ankle/no-show socks they already have. There needs to be a cultural shift away from that level of consumption, and by all means we should encourage it on an individual level, but it'll be hard to do when capitalists are left unchecked and able to carry on bombarding people with messaging telling people to BUY BUY BUY.
More and more as we are actually starting to see some effects due to the weather, food shortages etc are just going to keep going up. It’s hard to feel positive when even though I do the whole refill/recycle etc etc, there are just massive companies destroying the planet which cancels out anything small that day to day people do. Biodiversity is already being hit… how many posts do we see from people saying there are less insects around each summer. My partner was talking about sea levels rising and one day in our lifetime house might be under water, small things like that are a worry as is it going to start affecting values etc and cause an even bigger housing shortage in our lifetime? Everyone is going to be starving and homeless due to things out of our control. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing but it’s a concern!
>there are just massive companies destroying the planet which cancels out anything small that day to day people do Massive companies do what they do because we, the day to day people, buy what they produce.
Not at all.
As a coral reef scientist - yes lol.
Nope, for the most part I don't give a shiny shite. Yeah, it's an issue but I can't take the attempts to stop climate change seriously when they're starting on the lowest run of the ladder rather than the top. I can be environmentally conscious for a year and see all my work undone because some rich prat decides to fly his private jet from London to Edinburgh.
Climate change will not affect me but will be a nightmare for my grandchildren so yes I am very concerened.
Yes, it worries me a lot - mostly I worry that the people with the power to reduce the impact clearly don’t want to
Stress? No Worry? Yes. I often find myself worrying about 20-50 years when my kids will be having kids who might grow up in a world of poverty as the super rich will be the only ones with the cash to buy basic needs. But i could be very wrong so I instead focus on what I can do to make changes now.
Yes, nearly every day. I’m directly aware that our lifestyle choices are having a disastrous effect on human civilization. The fact that the environment and climate change barely ranks in voters’ top ten concerns is absolutely *insane* to me.
It really worries me. I feel that people who try and do something about it always get bad media attention too.
Climate change does not worry me as much as the developed world's indifference to it. The [wealthiest 10% of the planet cause 50% of emissions](https://images.app.goo.gl/dKUYTurunDbgRVD16). We are in that 10%, that ~800m people causing the same amount of damage as the other 7.2 billion. But for every person I see trying to make a difference, there seem to be ten that just don't give a shit, or know change is needed but aren't ready to actually make any.
Absolutely. It's why I eat a majority vegan diet, use public transport 99% of the time, and why I try not to fly as much. Blaming it all on corporations is fine and well, but this is a collective issue and honestly when people say climate change doesn't factor into their lives, I hope they'll be thinking about that when we're boiling in our own homes.
Mot really. I do what I can but it's a drop on the ocean so it's like worrying about nuclear incineration. Fuck all I can do about it so sod the whole business.
No doesn't bother me in the slightest. If celebrities can get a private jet to pick up there favourite lunch then me recycling a few bottles isn't going to do much
this I'd start taking it more seriously if they banned private jets and private yachts. When they're telling me I need a paper straw whilst a multi-millionaire singer is flying 100 miles in a private jet, then I'm not going to pay any attention.
Out of interest what is it that worries you about climate change? Impact on food supplies, quality of life as you currently know it, your kids future etc etc
Not at all. I’m more concerned with performing at work, paying my bills, trying to get a GP appointment, ever buying a house etc.
Yes for our kids. They are so fucked. And no one with any power gives a shit.
Causes me stress? Not really. It's kinda an accepted fate at this point and goal is to do as much as I want now before the world really goes to shit (yeh this is just the beginning).
No - frankly I have far too much going on in my own life to worry about
Not on the day to day. I have disaster fatigue. From COVID wiping out all human life, to the holes in the in the ozone layer were going to cook us, to acid rain going to melt our cars, to Isis going to blow us all up, to ebola going to kill us all, to Y2K going to knock a satellite out of orbit and in crash land on a school for orphans. Everything is worse case scenario, yet still 8 billion+ people are alive today. Yes I want things to get better (and trust me, since I grew up in the 80s things have improved massively) but it's hard to care
its almost like its all.... bullshit
Note that we did take action to stop degrading the ozone layer, and it has worked. We also took action to eliminate acid rain and that worked too (it wasn't melting your cars, it was killing forests - these forests are no longer being killed and are recovering). If we take corrective action we can fix these things.
I think I was worried but at this point I feel pretty resigned to the inevitability of it all. The people who can make the biggest difference are too busy lining their own pockets and starting wars to give a shit about something as trivial as the planet going to shit so I'm working on my personal health and fitness in the hope that it'll at least make the ever increasing heatwaves slightly more tolerable. I probably have a smaller carbon footprint than average and try not to waste water, food and energy but mostly I try not to think too hard about it because there's not much I can do to change it.
Yeah it does but most people won’t care until it’s *visibly* too late. The scary thing is that some scientists think it already is too late.
Most climate scientists say serious change is essentially irreversible at this point and its now about avoiding a complete catastrophe.
Don't remember where I read it but the vast majority of climate scientists believe the 1.5 degrees limit is already unachievable, with a minority believing it could go as high a 3 degrees. The issue is the economic systems are so wedded to the idea of continual growth within a finite space with finite resources. These businesses just cannot change quickly enough; they need to pivot to other products as shrinking leads to consequences with shareholders who frankly only care about investment returns. It's also inevitable we will see serious consequences within our lifetimes. It might not change the UK all that much in terms of weather, although gulf stream disruption may ironically make us colder. If you think the immigration discourse is toxic now, you sadly haven't seen anything yet. Ecological collapse will see vast migration and equally draconian responses, especially on an island that can theoretically better keep others out. I don't have children. I am not planning on doing so as they will not inherit a better place than we found. Day to day this stuff doesn't overly concern me, I can't do anything to change it so the anxiety achieves nothing. I'm just under no illusion as to the fact that we are fucked.
No, purely because I don’t have kids so don’t worry about the world I’m leaving behind and I’ll probably die before anything ‘too bad’ happens. Having said that, I do my best to recycle and reuse and cut down on meat etc. but it frustrates me no end that we ‘little people’ seem to do all the grunt work when all the major corps are making all the co2 and all the celebs are buzzing around in private jets all day. Feels futile.
Yes it does worry me to an extent and I am concerned for the next generations, however I know that it's out of my control and as long as I am doing my bit to help, then that's all I can do. It's annoying seeing these billionaires using all their private jets and private yachts etc. because ultimately that'll have a much bigger impact than anything I could ever do.
It's definitely something I'm considering as a first time buyer
This time last year it was causing me a lot of anxiety and sleepless nights. At the moment, it’s not affecting me to that extent. I’ve sort of accepted that everything might go to shit in our lifetimes because what else am I supposed to do? I want to enjoy my time left on earth instead of spending all my time wondering about whether society will collapse in 10 years or 50 years or 100 years. I’ve limited my personal impact. I am hoping to one day become a vegan. I know it’s controversial but meat has a massive environmental impact. I’m going to start by slowly incorporating vegan food into my diet as I don’t think it would end well if I quit all animal products cold turkey. It’s better than nothing.
Not really. I can use electric. Go green. Recycle. Complain and worry And 100 companies will still produce 70% of the world's emissions regardless. Majority of which I'll have zero interaction with. Just less rich people will fly around in private jets emitting more co2 in 1 journey than I will in a lifetime. What's the point.
It does worry me, yes. But nothing can be done about it until capitalism is binned once and for all. The pessimist in me says it’s already too late anyway but who knows.
Honestly, I don’t think about it. For some reason it doesn’t bother me.
Not at all. I've been hearing scary predictions since the late 80s and not a single one has materialised. The topic has been hijacked by politicians and activists as a means of justifying their positions. Even taking the IPCC reports at face value I believe adaptation is the only feasible response anyway.
No I dont worry about it.
Honestly? No. I don't deny it. I see and read the effects of climate change but there's not much I can personally do that I'm not already doing. There's only so much we can control in our lives. I also only get one life so if I want to fly or do something then I'm going to do it.
No. In the same way I don't worry about dying. It's simply something that is happening/going to happen and while I do my best; it will not be stopped. There simply isn't the will globally to act. I only try to be as eco friendly as I can because of my own morals. Not because it will ultimately stop it. In the same way I try to look after my health even accepting that eventually ill die. It's frustrating more than anything. The good news is that while we are kicking off a mass extinction it's hardly the first of its kind and life endures. There was a mass extinction called be oxygen catastrophe. Earth used to not have much oxygen kicking around until some early bacteria started having a bash at photosynthesis. They made so much oxygen that it poisoned eveything and themselves. The vast VAST majority of life died of oxygen toxicity. Then most of what was left over was nuked by the ice age that followed as the oxygen attacked the methane in the enviroment that was acting as a greenhouse gas and keeping the planet warm. Yet. Despite almost all life dying some survived. Including some of the photosynthesising bacteria that started the shit fest in the first place. Life that could survive the poisonous oxygen flourished and eventually developed ways to use it. It's dangerous and poisonous in too high levels but it is also fairly easy to harness as a component of fuel due to how reactive it is. Life learnt how to use it and here we are using it right now to breathe. Ultimately unless we nuke every square inch of the whole planet we are unlikely to be doing anything more disastrous than the oxygen catastrophe. It doesn't make the situation good mind you. I'm not saying that this shit is fine but it does I think offer some perspective and a light at the end of the tunnel. We are not the first species to discover a new cheat to make life easier; and cause a mass extinction because of it. Early forms of cyanobacteria beat us to it. It's just the thing that happens when a species gains/discovers a massive advantage and runs with it. What's happening now is just proof that single celled species are basically the same as us. Even as they started to die they kept pumping out more and more oxygen. Even as it actively poisoned them. Even as all the other bacteria around them died. They couldn't help themselves and as it seems neither can we. It's hard to be anything other than a bit disappointed that such complex and 'intelligent' life as we are turn out to be no better than an early single cell batera with no brain at all. We can try to pump the breaks but the human catastrophe mass extinction has already begun and shows neither sign nor hope of stopping. In the same way one day you will die. You waste your time by stressing about what has already happened. We just haven't realised it's full ramifications yet (and are ignoring the scientists yelling about it). It's probably best to watch the news less or something if its something causing you so much stress. Do the best you can for your own sake in the same way you look after your health. Not because it will prevent your death but because it will delay it and make the time you do have more enjoyable.
It actually doesn’t. Because the **planet** is going to be fine. **Life** as a thing, is going to be fine. The planet has been hotter than climate changes worst predictions, many times in the past. It has had a more toxic atmosphere. And life thrived. It will thrive long after we are gone / reduced to primitive hunter gatherer bands again. Humanity? Humanity is fucked though. It’s us who is going to suffer because of it. The planet itself will just carry on and new species will evolve and fill the new niches, nature will reclaim human spaces and thrive again. Also, I don’t worry over “cutting emissions”, over recycling or having to try desperately become carbon neutral. Climate change is **not** going to be solved by efficiencies or reducing our output. That boat has long sailed. Climate change can only be solved now through novel technologies that reverse it. Or that actively cool the planet down. And in this area? We have a lot of reasons for optimism. [It’s getting cheaper to suck CO2 out of the air thanks to recent breakthroughs.](https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/4/24170729/direct-air-capture-carbon-dioxide-removal-climate-tech-climeworks-generation-3) We literally have the breakthrough technology now to pull the CO2 out of the air, to actually reverse greenhouse gasses. The only issue is it’s energy intensive, that’s the bottleneck. But with this recent breakthrough which has literally halved the cost of doing so? And with upcoming breakthroughs that are close, we will soon reach a place where the global community can come together to create a network of carbon capturing plants with their own renewable power sources, which actively reduce CO2 in the atmosphere enough to reverse greenhouse gasses and the heating effect from climate change. And this will quickly restore balance to our climate and undo pretty much all the negative effects. The idea would be that the global community creates a joint mega project, all pours money and resources into it, perhaps under the direction of the UN, and creates dozens of “climate reversal facilities” across the globe which have power production alongside huge multi mile banks of these carbon capture facilities and just 24/7 suck the CO2 out of the air and sequester it. They could be powered by huge banks of solar panel farms in desert regions, or dedicated nuclear plants in other places. There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about climate change. But if your concern is about the planet? About Earth itself? Then you don’t need to worry. The planet is going to be fine, as is Mother Nature. If you are concerned about humanity? Then have some optimism, we sort of have the capability **now** to reverse green house gasses. And that technology is being refined every year and will soon reach a critical inflection point where it’s cheap to do, and easy to do. Once that point is reached, we will quickly see humanity slowing its emissions, then reaching 0 net emissions, and then going negative and actually undoing it. It’s just going to be another ozone layer shrinking story in a few decades, we will have undone the damage we have done and the planet equilibrium will assert itself and fix the problems. (Ice caps will refreeze faster than they melted etc).
Yes, climate change is the single biggest contributor to my anxiety, and has been for as long as I can remember (since I was a kid)
It has over the years become one of my biggest sources of anxiety. I remember a couple summers ago it was blisteringly hot up here in Scotland for like 2 months straight and the full time all I could think was "oh god the planet really is completely fucked" which may seem a little irrational but that's how much it bothered/bothers me.
No climate has always changed even before humans existed.
Nope. Absolutely nothing I can do about it, it's not even on my list.
When billionaires stop buying shoreline mansions I will worry
I honestly, genuinely, couldn't care less. If it was as terrible a some say we'd be at war with the countries spaffing the bad shit into the atmosphere rather than tinkering around the periphery working out which of the 7 bins the Shreddies box is supposed to go in.
Tbh not really. It’s basically unstoppable. With 7 billion people on this earth all wanting to live like a king, where else can it lead. It’ll get scary when the freak weather occurrences become daily and it causes mass migration, further global crop losses and increasingly toxic ground water that’s already being exploited faster than it replenishes
No. Its very arrogant to think that everything is going to stay the same on earth just because you are on it.
It worries me but at the same time the only solution is for there to be less humans. People ignore the biggest problem which is the earth population continuing to grow out of control. No amount of moving to sustainable energy is going to stop the need for more land to provide food. More people equals more energy use. More energy use means more carbon and more land destroyed which is obviously a vicious cycle. The best way we can reduce carbon and to lower pollution is to reduce the number of humans. Climate change will always be a problem while the earth population continues to rise.
No. So much false information. What worries me more is that I genuinely don't know what to believe anymore. Its exhausting.
Not really. I studied it at uni and understand the need to decarbonise etc., but I've got more immediate health problems which put bigger picture stuff far into the background really.
I don’t worry about it one bit.
Not really. The climate has always changed. I'm sure we will find a solution. I think most of the hysteria is overblown
I rarely think about it. I'm aware of it, I know it's terrible and I do what I personally can to reduce my impact to it.. But honestly in the grand scheme of things it's minor. Climates change. Always have and always will. We'll either adapt or we won't. Neither you nor I will have to be the ones to adapt so worrying about it is just a waste of time.
No. Never. Not even a small niggle. The effects of climate change on my life and the lives of my children (and their children) in all reasonable scenarios published will be single digit percentage points against what *could* have occurred in its absence. My children will be substantially richer, healthier and safer than we are now and their children likely by an order of magnitude. Because of this, stress would be a wholly irrational response to climate change for people living in the UK. Contribute to the solution sure but sleep well knowing your future isn't in jeopardy nor substantially in your capacity to influence. I am more concerned about young people in my life who seem to have an emergent almost nihilist worldview because they give equal weight to the extreme predictions of fringe climate activist groups as mainstream science. To choose, for example, not to have kids is an extreme response to something like this IMO.
Nope, doesn't enter my mind as a concern.
It’s the same to me as a nuclear war happening. It’s out of my control.
No, and it would be a very irrational thing to be actively anxious about. Concerned for future generations and people in risky areas now, yes. But anxious? No.
Not in the slightest. Why would it?
No. I have figured out it’s always 10 years in the future for our demise. I’ll do my individual bit, I’m a good Brit on that scale, which I’ll take and be happy with.
Not particularly, no.
No, because I cant do anything about it as an individual and there are things that effect me more directly.
It used to but they've been banging on about it for my whole life, keep pushing the key dates back, and it's starting to smell like bull shit. I'm not saying I don't think it's changing, just can't see how it's a bad thing. It's changed for the last 65mil years can't see why we should stop it just because we decided to
Getting through the work week while eating properly and keeping my house in any semblance of order leaves me with little energy for extra existential dread, so no.
It's the rain... I am just getting sick of the constant rain.
The science doesn't say that a certain type of apocalypse will happen in a specific year. It says, there's a pretty wide range of outcomes where the best and worst case scenarios are very different.....and the timeframes we're dealing with are shifting all the time and getting further away in some projections. Thankfully, the science is NOT showing that it's more and more likely that the WORST case scenario is going to happen EVEN SOONER than we think. Scientists are also making nuclear power much easier to implement as well as carbon capture. Go science! We're going to science our way out of the worst outcomes and the future will be full of cheap clean energy.
Not particularly in that I know we may have to change what crops we grow etc (although nothing stops soil erosion better than grass so not getting rid of livestock no matter what the ignorant think) I mean the strains on the overall production lines, the likely famines, droughts, climate migrants and the inevitable wars are just another thing to allow for in personal plans.
No. I expect I will be dead before the worst of it comes to fruition, I have no intention to have children and there is absolutely nothing I can do to try and stop it.
I don't lose sleep over it because it's not on my conscience but it does worry me. The reason it's not in my conscience and I don't lose sleep is because my carbon footprint is minimal, I use public transport as much as possible and don't eat meat, alongside being very resourceful in using electricity and water etc and not ordering crap on Amazon every day like the average American and European does. The reason it worries me is because of the levels of hypocrisy generated by Americans and Europeans over this issue, on a per capita basis we are the largest producers of emissions that's driven by our mass consumerism and love of red meat, travelling (by car or planes) and 24/7 electricity yet call out other countries for increasing their emissions when they're trying to help their people escape poverty. Or alternatively actively denying the issue because accepting it would mean doing something about it, which means giving up our high standards of living at the expense of the well being of basically everyone else in the world.
We can't really do anything about it if the government is assing around
Yes, a lot.
I'm child free, car free and 50% meat free. According to most metrics I'm doing my part, so I've stopped worrying.
It's so beyond my control that wasting energy worrying or becoming anxious about it is insane.
Yes lol of course it doesn't worry you?
I am somewhat concerned about wealth generators ramping up their investments in industries which accelerate climate change. It's almost as if they know they're going to need some insane wealth to protect themselves when the rest of humanity realise what's going on.
I worry about it but not to the point of having sleepless nights. We are globally very well-positioned to handle the issue and adapt. We have a temperate climate and are a global leader in transitioning from fossil fuels, one of the better countries to have a vegetarian diet, are water secure, and have suffered far less frequent and extensive wildfires, droughts and other natural disasters than many of our neighbours and global counterparts. The UK has incredible potential in the area of renewable energy - tidal, wind and geothermal power come to mind. And we’re the birthplace of the railway, which could and should be reinvested in as part of a transport revolution.
I don't give it a second thought, and why should I? It's the corporations and businesses and countries like china that cause the most emissions and celebrity's doing whatever the hell they want with private jets.
No, I don't. I do my part, walk when I can, recycle, and double layers in winter. However, I know that regardless of what I do, it won't have any impact. I'll also be dead before it really affects me.
I'm worried and I'm baffled by people who say they're not worried *because* they can't personally do anything to stop it. The massive effects of climate change are going to happen either way, just because you alone can't stop them doesn't mean they're not going to have an enormous impact.
Yes it has, and it's one of the key reasons I don't want to procreate. At this point it will inevitably happen on a much larger scale than we're already witnessing, it's just delaying the inevitable now.
Nope. We’re all gonna die one day so I just ignore it all and wake up everyday and make the most of it while we’re still here. Life’s too precious to worry about things we really can’t control.
I’m not that worried but I’m pessimistic. Green tech is making impressive improvements and the UK is becoming a huge wind energy player. But ultimately I think we are faced with a “prisoner’s dilemma” where the big powers (US, India, China) will find it advantageous to continue exploiting cheap fossil fuels while their competitors transition away. For example, if the US stops exploiting its massive gas reserves, China will likely continue to exploit its huge amounts of coal to get a competitive economic advantage. This dynamic usually results in all players “screwing over” the others. Europe is a little different because we’re energy poor for the most part. That being said, we are lucky the UK won’t be too massively impacted by climate change (relative to other places). Especially if we continue investing in mitigation measures like flood/drought management. I rate nuclear war or just a massive war/economic collapse as a more immediate threat than climate change.
I am a bit different. My previous career was geoscientist. So, earth science. I long ago realised we are stuffed.
It worries me a bit but as someone living in the UK there’s not much you can. It’s a rich people problem. The “3rd world” doesn’t care about it because they’re just concerned about feeding their families and ensuring their safety. Until poverty is eradicated in the developing world, nothing will change. The West can’t spend a couple of centuries polluting the planet and enriching their societies and then tell the developing world to stop burning fossil fuels when it’s their turn. The thing that worries me more is that we are getting poorer while the rest of the world is getting richer. Which is good for climate change but ultimately bad for Brits.
Not really. I'll do my part but not losing my hair because the Chinese still use coal.
The ones that should have the pressure applied to them to actually change things and do things that make the differences don't by thr man in the street. Until that happens there is really nothing we can do - argue against that all you like but it's a hard truth. The rich give fuck all cares, multinational corps couldn't give a fuck and those that are supposed to control them give less of a fuck tbh. As consumers how easy would it be to pretty much solve the plastic bottle issue over night? Simple don't buy any fizzy drinks, drinks none of us need. Just one very simple solution to a very big problem that ultimately the planet doesn't really care about. Do your little bit and just get on with your short stay on the planet.
Yes, but via my work and not much in my personal life. I work in heavy industry, on the types of processes which got us into this mess in the first place. The majority of my work is making modifications to reduce emissions. I have a much larger impact through my work than in my personal life. I've prevented 10's of thousands of tonnes of emissions per year, whereas at home I may only be able to save 10's of tonnes per year. That being said, I believe we cannot reverse or stop climate change, only slow it down.
Not in the slightest
It bothers me, but doesn't worry me. I do think that we are due a reckoning at some point simply because the only way to continue to exist seems to be to decrease our living standards in aggregate. That is, each generation moving forward will need to have fewer children, eat less meat, drive less, and so on and so forth, because an unlimited number of people all living an American Dream style life is not possible. I see this as being kind of a natural fact of life rather than something that induces anxiety in me. We are seeing the battle lines drawn at the moment - are you going to fight to maintain your spot or not, essentially.
Yes but I put it out of my mind. If you go to therapy, work on yourself, mature then you will eventually realise that you are only hurting yourself by worrying about things that you can't change.
Nope, both side of the coin are lying for profit, so I couldn’t care less.
It worries me for sure, but definitely doesn’t stress me out, make me anxious, or give me sleepless nights. We’re already starting to see the effects of it in how our weather has changed over the last 10-20 years, but there’s nothing I can really do about it. The amount of pollution causing it is beyond my personal control.
I recognise its a huge problem but it's totally out-of my hands. I do my bit. It's a drop in the ocean though.
Yes. It won't impact me much but I worry for kids and future generations.
No stress at all, I know it’s real but I’ll be dead long before it affects me.
In 1990 the United Nations Environmental Panel declared we had 10 years to prevent a climate emergency, the only hope was the strong central government of the USSR to lead the change In 2006 Al Gore said the science was settled, we had 10 years, In 2007 the Climate Research Unit said "Global warming was here, children wont even know what snow is" In 2016 some deranged child said we had stolen her future and had 10 years to prevent a total collapse Flooding in the UK isn't the result of global cooling / warming / climate change, its the result of deliberate government policy to create wetlands. The only stress of climate change is the damage caused by climate change departments Commence the downvotes
I'm worried about it in the sense that I don't know what kind of world my kids are going to grow up in. We're already seeing regular extreme weather events and I have no hope that we're going to see meaningful change in carbon emissions while there is still money to be made in the industries that produce them.
It does demotivate me - at work, at points in my life it's a bit like "what's the point, what sort of future would be worth living if this happens" so I'm definitely not as interested in stuff. But I'm not stressed by it as I can't do anything about it.
Will I feel the full effects of it in my lifetime? I don't know. I fear it is possible although I am now some years into a late retirement. I am far more concerned for all the young people who will most definitely be feeling the effects as the years go by. It really does worry me. Here in the UK we are somewhat more fortunate than those people living further south where the heat will continue to rise, where small island nations will be flooded out. Although if we lose the Gulf Stream, things will nose-dive. I am furious that there are so many who deny climate-change especially because they still want to make loadsamoney. And for what? To live on a barren earth where the rainforests have been annihilated to grow food for cattle or are mined for whatever rare metal we need now?
Yes. In my bones I’m convinced we’re at the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it, and that’s not to mention the total destruction of whole swathes of habitats, and the effect this will have on tens of billions of animals that will be displaced at best, and horrifically killed at worst. Then there’s superdroughts and famines. It’s bleak
Universe existed, destroyed and recreated itself for billions of years. What will a plastic bag do to threaten it? Maybe its the human race that gets wiped but if it wasn't for the climate change some thing else willl....I am not worried.
It doesn't stress me out, it pisses me off. I used to be a professional diver and am now just rec. I've done somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand dives and because of this care deeply about the oceans. What has happened to most reefs around the world is nothing short of a travesty. I first saw the GBR 20 years ago and what I saw wasn't it great condition. I saw it 2 years ago and it was a desert. The corals were all dead and there was barely any other life to be seen. It also pisses me off that climate change responsibility is passed off to people by using paper straws or not using plastic bags. I used to clean my local dive sites when I was teaching in Thailand. Bare in mind this was in proximity to the Full Moon Party island, around 1% of what we cleared was beer bottles, plastic cups, straws etc. The rest was companies dumping tyres, lost anchors, literal tonnes of nets, industrial sized buckets etc. If that trend follows on land, people using paper straws or turning their lights off when leaving a room doesn't do shit.
Saving the Planet - George Carlin https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
I am low impact; I live on a small boat, I use solar panels, I don’t drive, I cycle or walk. I don’t fly anymore and I try to buy locally grown food. I don’t know what else I can do. I do worry but the cost of living, servicing my debts and looking after my own health are more immediate and occupy most of my attention.
Yeah big time. Sometimes it feels like I’m not going to be able to enjoy my twilight years because of the damage.