Eco Matters: Climate change is not always an easy conversation

Climate change and adverse weather conditions (flooding, heat waves etc) are in the news more.

The vast majority of people are concerned about it.

We wonder if some people are so concerned that they feel hopeless about it or possibly just put it to the back of their minds.

On top of all this it is very difficult to change habits about what we do.

So, we talk with friends and family about the climate crisis.

This is not always an easy conversation!

So, what do we say?

No one knows all the answers to the difficult questions but we often hear these views expressed:

“No point until China does it”

Did you know that China produces more green electricity that all of Europe combined?!

Of course, it was the UK who started the Industrial Revolution (which started the rapid rise in carbon emissions) so maybe we could lead on solving it?

If we constantly wait for other countries to do more then we are just delaying tackling the crisis.

”I do my bit by recycling”

That’s great but… Everyone recycles because central and local governments have promoted doing it for a very long time so it has become a habit.

Yes, recycling helps but not nearly as much as many other things.

What we need is more publicity and help from central government to improve our homes to be more energy efficient (saves us money and reduces CO2).

The other biggest contributors to carbon emissions are transport (burning fossil fuels creates CO2) and diet (meat and dairy).

Both of these need publicity to change mindsets and lifestyle in the way that promoting recycling did.

”I like flying overseas for holidays”

Our lifestyle has ‘improved’ enormously over the last 30 years or so but we haven’t understood the consequences of all our actions (e.g. fast fashion).

Also, government’s decisions to not charge VAT nor tax aviation fuel means flying does not reflect the true carbon cost.

We know that our actions can reduce the number of planes flying. We saw that during COVID.

When we say that we need to achieve net zero by 2050, that is based on reducing our emissions rapidly year on year until 2050.

If we don’t reduce rapidly then the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will continue to rise beyond the safe limits.

So, to keep the adverse weather conditions to a manageable level we should pursue these tricky conversations, take action to reduce personal emissions, work with others in the community and lobby central government to make the fundamental changes we need.

The Eco Matters Column is a community-led project run by local volunteers. Views expressed are the contributor’s own.

For information or to contribute to the column contact Andrew Ingram on ecomatters.today@gmail.com