Climate change - what can we do?

Haakon said:
If I see that “we only produce 1.3%” thing again I’m going to scream... Drives me nuts.

Mind you, with our continued abdication of any moral authority on the international stage, it’s starting to mean more... Like the US, we were very effective at driving large emissions reductions in other parts of the world through assorted international fora and generally being good global citizens.

This was when we were putting our money where our mouth is and nowadays we are more known for being the only country to ever repeal a working climate policy. It dents out cred a bit and has “encouraged” other countries to delay or can their own mitigation efforts.
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If you subtract the "only" from the 1.3% thing then I'm more comfortable with it as it just becomes a statement of fact. Is there any new data available to show if our contribution as a global percentage is increasing?
 
I don't get why we needed a second thread- the first one started out like this too. I guess we'll get to the bun fight soon enough.

My personal resolve is to not eat meat, and not have kids. The second one I don't mean as an offence to anyone with children, but my partner and I have no desire to bring a child into this world - thats the decison we've made for us.

Plane travel is a hard one - I typically do 1 international per year, and 5 domestic trips. 90% for work - and thats something we are trying to change with more video conferencing etc. But hard to replicate a conference or workshop online as so much of the productivity comes from the relationships made around those events. Plus, travelling internationally has other benefits and I think has been a largely good thing for society, so my hope is that we have better ways of doing it in the future.

I guess riding your bike to work is an easy one we should all be doing too. I get slack in winter haha.

The Reverend said:
As @Haakon said, go vegan. I recall a report in the Economist stating that the single biggest thing to help climate change is for people to eat less meat.

It does pose the question of where protein sources will come from and in many places around the world it's insects, rather than meat which provides this.

Just avoid soy / tofu.
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I definitely agree on the eat less / no meat part. But plants contain protein too, especially legumes etc, you can live quite happily just on plants if you eat a wide variety. Insects are another source of animal protein - but a much more efficient one at that. I don't eat insects because of other reasons (potential allergens), but am not opposed to them one bit.

And soy is fine, all the phytoestrogen fears would require you to basically live off the stuff, rather than just having a couple of serves a week.
 
cokeonspecialtwodollars said:
If you subtract the "only" from the 1.3% thing then I'm more comfortable with it as it just becomes a statement of fact. Is there any new data available to show if our contribution as a global percentage is increasing?
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And as I said, the 1.3 or any other percentage is not the point.
 
cokeonspecialtwodollars said:
It's not but if you can show an increasing or decreasing trend then we can evaluate the effectiveness of our actions.
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There are many good emissions accounting publications available online, including on the environment departments website and the UNFCCC.

All signatories to the UNFCCC are required to provide an inventory of emissions over time, Australia included. All publicly available
 
Most people on here wouldn't consider not cleaning up after themselves out on the trails. I take it a step further and plant trees to clean up my own unseen mess. It isn't hard to collect a bit of seed when you're out over summer and for southern Aus., plant them out this time of year. I've done about 50 she oaks and maybe 20 local acacias this year so far.
It's not much work and really puts a smile on your face when you ride past a few years later and see your trees.
 
I'm enjoying 25° days in the mountains during July, why stop the warming?


Seriously though I missed autumn this year and winter is a bloody warm event so far and I love those freezing cold misty morning rides.

Our finance system demands we consume, buy and upgrade and build more, breed more and if we don't it'll all go to hell in a hand basket.

My FU to the system is running old cars and keeping them running rather than buying some new fancy thing I'll just throw away every 5 years. We're too much a throw away and replace society which needs to change, sadly repairs can cost almost as much as new so that the direction we take. If you have the skill or can afford it repair stuff rather than replace.
 
No we can't do it.

For every suggestion in this thread I would challenge folks to do the sums and see what sort of dent it could make in the climate equation.

In order of impact it would go something like:
  • Don't have kids
  • Don't fly
  • Don't drive
  • Don't eat meat
  • Don't use air conditioning
  • Don't buy new stuff

Aside from the first one, all other actions won't even leave the slightest impact on CC.
 
Calvin27 said:
No we can't do it.

For every suggestion in this thread I would challenge folks to do the sums and see what sort of dent it could make in the climate equation.

In order of impact it would go something like:
  • Don't have kids
  • Don't fly
  • Don't drive
  • Don't eat meat
  • Don't use air conditioning
  • Don't buy new stuff

Aside from the first one, all other actions won't even leave the slightest impact on CC.
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Even the first one won't make much of a dent. 1-3 divided by 7.5 billion is not a lot.

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Stop using your car. Live where you don't need it. Petition for genuine public transport infrastructure rather than opportunities to privatise.
 
Haakon said:
....That old saying about if you’re not part of the solution etc...
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This^

We are all entitled to 1/7,500,000,000 of the remaining CO2 budget...which as far as I can tell is...ZERO for each of us

BUDGET(doesn't matter what number you use) and divide by 7,500,000,000 the answer is ZERO.

So how close can each of us get to being carbon neutral? What would it cost each of us to be carbon neutral? Can we do that? How do I measure it as an individual?
 
What we are proposing to do:
Our house needs a new roof as the current asbestos one is falling apart. Our plan is to replace with new roof and integrated solar (probably Tractile). That will mean that we consume no electricity from the grid which is a good start - be putting back into the grid.

I ride to work mostly but we are still doing around 15,000km's year in the car which I will need to do something about of offset - I have no answer for this at the moment. Half those k's are visiting dad, he is 80 so hard to avoid them.

Food wise we grow some of our food at home, probably can increase production but will not be self sufficient in the short term. mrs wants chickens which will help
 
MARKL said:
This^

We are all entitled to 1/7,500,000,000 of the remaining CO2 budget...which as far as I can tell is...ZERO for each of us

BUDGET(doesn't matter what number you use) and divide by 7,500,000,000 the answer is ZERO.

So how close can each of us get to being carbon neutral? What would it cost each of us to be carbon neutral? Can we do that? How do I measure it as an individual?
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Interesting take!

With a remaining budget of 580Gt CO2, that means everyone has 77t CO2 each left to emit.

Which is where rationing & carbon pricing should come in. But it won't happen fast enough.

Hence I have no meaningful answers in include in this thread.
 
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