Environment v quality of life

I’m becoming more of a convert since the effect on the flora & fauna of the planet has & is being proved widely to be detrimental. Add to that my own backyard is showing stresses annually of lack of rain & increases in temps of 30c+.

We still seem to be incentivising population growth or we would have scrapped child benefit. I'd best be careful lest we stray to far into politics though.

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The two key factors without a doubt are population and consumerism. Mankind has become a little bit too savvy in terms of protecting itself from the kind of diseases that would have ravaged it last century, no world wars to decimate it further, although certain countries sadly are doing their best on that score. 

I think somehow, folks everywhere need to be persuaded not to have as many children, and to make a few simple changes that could help. Not as many flights per year? Cut out the face to face meetings and use technology to discuss where required? Relearn how to mend things instead of just throwing things away? Get back to local schools and work if possible? Substitute a few none meat meals per week? above all, share more instead of the me, me, me greedy culture we have now.

It wont happen. The genie is out of the bottle. Who are we to deny other cultures what we have enjoyed for decades? Religious beliefs and constraints still have to be overcome in a lot of places, and Capitalism is running rife with a few wanting unbelievable wealth at the expense of the many. It will reach a point where resources and space run out, and then it will be survival of the fittest. How long that will take will vary from country to country, but it will happen. Not in my lifetime hopefully.

I'm a great believer in Nature, Dorset Driver, and I think that she(?) will create something to address the problem.  But a word of warning - nature did not create Earth with human beings having any particular worth, so she might have something else in mind which eliminates the presence of Homo Sapiens.  That, of course, is before our Sun expands into a red giant and vaporises the whole lot.

As for us looking after the environment, we live near to a primary school and a day nursery, and pupils pass to and fro along our road to attend college.  The discarding of litter and often food can occasionally be enough to be an eyesore, so many parents and the ones who will eventually "look after" the planet seem to not as yet got the message.

I agree with the litter problem ,he heads of both our local primary and comprehensive, when advised that their pupils/and parent's are in need  of advise about litter tried to pass the buck on to "others?"until the were told that there is not a problem out of school term times

I don’t think you can blame the schools to be honest. I was taught by my parents at a very early age that dropping litter isn’t a nice thing to do, so I didn’t and don’t do it. Granted schools probably have vending machines nowadays that doesn’t help, but it’s parenting that is the key. 

We can but hope that the new eco warriors will try and educate their parents, as well as their future offspring.

Convenience packaging is very much an evil of the last four decades, and has changed our diets and eating habits. I am constantly astonished at how much recycling we do daily. There’s only two of us and a dog, so heaven help families. Lots of packaging is just so unnecessary. Why do I need a bit of cardboard to hold together four bottles of cider? Why do three onions require a plastic net? Why do three trifles in plastic pots need some cardboard around them? Bonkers. Only plus thing is we use cardboard in stove to help light it. Not sure that’s eco friendly but we would be drowning in the blinking stuff at times.

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The trouble is there are far too many facets in this dilemma, many fighting against each other. Take the red meat argument for example. There are vast areas of 'upland' Britain that are totally unsuitable for producing anything but red meat. They are far to steep to cultivate and the soil quite poor but OK for sheep and beef cattle. What arable land we do have isn't sufficient  to produce all the vegetables that we as a nation need especially if we go down the veggie route.  To add to this, in my own area alone there are many hundreds of acres of good fertile land now under bricks and mortar to try to help with the increasing housing demand. Yes we need housing but we also need arable land. To counteract this shortfall we will have to import much more fruit and veg but also remember that the countries that we are buying from also have an increasing population so the quantities available for export to us will be diminished, or greatly increased in price. And as we know, imported food increases our carbon footprint.

Those of us born in the decade or two after WW2 probably have had it the best even with the food shortages immediately after the war, the H bomb threat that we had to live with and not forgetting the 15% mortgage rate.

We applaud, and perhaps rightly, the school achievements of our younger folk but I do worry about what capabilities they will have in their adult life. I worry that 22% is a pass rate in maths. It means that 78% of the time they can't get the right answer. Many also seem so unstreetwise (if that is a word) spending much of their time looking at social media or playing games on their various devices. These are the people that will be running the country and our industries in the not too distant future.

Unfortunately I just don't think we can win whatever we do or don't do. How long the situation can go on for is anyone's guess but Regretfully I think that even though we might improve some things it will be at the detriment of others. There won't be a win / win outcome. We have made the way we live in the world far too complex, with or without politicians.

 

 

Another here who was taught not to litter and bring rubbish home if no bin available. Once emptied my pockets of rubbish, leaving it on the side - as per house rules -not allowed to open the Rayburn fire door. Sadly I'd also put my mouth brace in a tissue on the draining board and gone out to meet friend. When I came home ALL had gone 😲. Asked about brace in tissue on the fire 😲😲😲. Oh boy were there sparks and cross words??

I always pick up litter that blows along our road. Considerably more when in term time, we are enroute for 3 schools and a dual site college. There's often lots on bin day too especially as apart from a black bin for household rubbish and a brown bin for garden waste sorted recycling, card, paper, plastic are collected in sacks which often aren't emptied fully and blow about the road distributing their wares 😤. On a windy day the plastic ones are often full and blown into the road, householders make no attempt to weight them down or hang them, then cars drive over them and make a bigger mess. 😢😤

I recycle as much as I can and am, like takethedogalong, appalled by the unnecessary additional packaging used. And the non recyclable bags things are packed in. We cannot do anything about this as individuals but complain to the companies, I have, brings a platitude of rubbish responses but no action 😤😤