Environment v quality of life

Problem as I see it that the majority of people who can make a real difference with the decisions they make are to frightened of it effecting their lifestyles/jobs, it will not happen

Reading the posts it seems that others, like myself, are aware of the problem, even though we see that there are major difficulties in finding a workable solution, which will have to be actioned by global agreement.  A typical negative response is that of the Brazilian president, when challenged about the seriousness of fires and clearance of the Amazon rain forest, simply stating that other countries should mind their own business.  And this is where the danger lies in the risk of doing nothing until it is too late.  What nobody knows, is at what stage and how far away is the point where an unstoppable runaway situation might become catastrophic and take over events for us.

The sci-fi disaster movies we have watched with mild amusement are beginning to look a bit too realistic to me! 

The temperatures we are experiencing are a good indicator that something isn’t quite right. Not particularly at the moment, but the temps we had up here in February in Yorkshire were unreal. Folks were outside in t shirts and shorts. That’s not February in Yorkshire. We need snow to kill off the bugs, keep the slugs at bay.... I’ve got roses that flower all year round, even had carnations flowering through Winter, admittedly in pots up off ground, but I no longer bother to automatically put some plants into greenhouse now, just check weather daily.

But the President has backed down hasn't he? The Rain Forest debacle has been going on for thirty years or so, I remember our children were brought up on the perils of rain forest loss. Progress is slow but we are seeing more concerted efforts to work together and improve air quality otherwise whole nations will be poisoned by foul air. China has had to start cleaning up it's act which hasn't been helped over recent years  by consumer demands from the west. We have cleaner air here because we've cut back on polluting manufacturing but we'll tolerate other countries making stuff for us. 

I don't think it's an unstoppable situation, once people understand it affects everyone.

It might just be my imagination but for the last few years it seems to be generally more windy and with more real gales at the wrong time of the year.

Windspeed averages do seem to be climbing. Although I no longer sail, I often think that I would have had fewer opportunities due to excessive wind strength.

The balance of nature is a very precarious system.  Only in recent times  has any real scientific work been carried out to understand how Man is affecting it, and that understanding is probably very limited in the overall  complexity of nature.   Vast amounts of money have been spent on the exploration of space, compared to 'chicken feed' on understanding and caring for the planet that supports our existence and upon which our very lives depend.

No matter what we do now, or how urgently we address our problems, they will need to be tackled globally and with all nations in concert with each other.  The damage has been caused over a great many years of blind ignorance (centuries in fact), and the repair work will take a lot longer to heal than it took to do the damage in the first place.

I believe that future generations will be forced into lifestyles very alien to those that we take for granted today.  But that pales into insignificance against the alternative risk of life becoming extinct!

Whilst Greta Thunberg reduced her carbon emissions by crossing the Atlantic by yacht, am I being too cynical in pointing out that the crew then re-crossed by air and a relief crew were then sent out, by air, to recover the yacht?

 How many trees did that little caper need to achieve carbon zero?

Alternatively, how many trees might she have saved by raising awareness?

Apart from the loss of the Amazon Rain Forest the High Speed Rail proposed and started in this country will decimate large tracks of some of our oldest forests, all to save a few minutes for the rich to get from Brum and M/C to the "Golden" city!!