Europe IV: The Final Hour

[Neon Ignition]

So we're set for Meaningful Vote 4 on Saturday with DUP, Lib Dem, Brexit Party and SNP support ruled out. All rests on Labour rebels now or chaos Part 5 begins

[Hirst]

Then lets have proper action, lets see them fund solar panels for everyone, or forestry schemes.

I reckon it should be mandatory for all new housing to have solar panels, with a gradual roll-out for existing housing too.

Makes me laugh when they say about using public transport instead of cars - round here they're still running the same worn-out Pacers I used to ride when I was a kid! Over 30 years has passed and we're supposedly being upgraded from Pacers (1987 at newest) to 153 Sprinters (1988 at newest) with less seats and still powered by smoky old clatterbox diesels because some of the line round here still isn't electrified (and probably never will be).

[vanpeebles]

All these stars and groups like ringpeace could fit solar panels to every school in the country for starters.

[Neon Ignition]

Trouble with fitting solar panels is it'd require every home, school, business etc to maintain them and they won't. It'll ever remain the issue that unless international governments force major industry companies to tackle the issue then nothing will move the needle.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/17/corbyn-refuses-to-confirm-backing-for-second-referendum-on-johnsons-deal

Because he absolutely insists on failing at everything he does in the role, Corbyn is more than now happy to have a referendum on his own deal but won't back one on the Tories because Labour just can't cope with the concept of a scenario where they don't have a GE and get into power.

[vanpeebles]

They could maintain them too, they seem to have plenty of time for sitting about or gluing themselves to things.

[MartyG]

I can't say the tube struck me as a great idea. But something stayed with me from London riots years ago. It was just a tiny sound bite on some news show after there was violence somewhere or maybe windows were broken (I can't remember the details) and the interviewer asked this kid why they had resorted to violence. And the kid just looked at the camera and said something along the lines of "You're here now and you're reporting us and, until we did this, you weren't." And I couldn't argue with it and it stuck with me.

The trouble with this is that it's the bad actors that get the attention and the underlying messaging about climate change action gets lost. XR then becomes the nutters that stop tube trains, not the group that's trying to reverse climate change.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I was under the impression that UK emissions aren't actually that bad for a developed country. We went 2 weeks recently on only renewable energy and only 5% of the country actually has anything built on it. I just feel extinction rebellion could be targeting other countries, i mean they are kind of preaching to the choir here.

[vanpeebles]

I was under the impression that UK emissions aren't actually that bad for a developed country. We went 2 weeks recently on only renewable energy and only 5% of the country actually has anything built on it. I just feel extinction rebellion could be targeting other countries, i mean they are kind of preaching to the choir here.

They should try it on in China or Russia

[MartyG]

I was under the impression that UK emissions aren't actually that bad for a developed country. We went 2 weeks recently on only renewable energy and only 5% of the country actually has anything built on it. I just feel extinction rebellion could be targeting other countries, i mean they are kind of preaching to the choir here.

We're 13th on the list on a per capita basis, one behind China: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/eac...-co2-emissions

[Dogg Thang]

The trouble with this is that it's the bad actors that get the attention and the underlying messaging about climate change action gets lost. XR then becomes the nutters that stop tube trains, not the group that's trying to reverse climate change.

Yep. And yet with our media and society generally (because let's face it - we all just want to get on with things without hassle, even if that means ignoring major problems), it's that versus no attention.

[Cassius_Smoke]

We're 13th on the list on a per capita basis, one behind China: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/eac...-co2-emissions

16th according to that link, behind Australia. Still higher then I thought.

edit...ignore me...just saw the 2nd graph...Still higher then I thought....

[MartyG]

The per capita is more poignant I think given it's emissions based on population size, which is why I referenced that rather than the headline total.

[Asura]

... though it's interesting to see that we are approximately a third of the value of the US, or Canada, Australia or Saudia Arabia.

Or if the countries above us reduced their emmissions to the same as ours, it'd save ~11 UK peoples' worth of emmissions per year.

This makes me wonder, what is the acceptable value? Is it zero? Like if they work out a per-capita across all of humanity, what is the acceptable value that won't result in disaster?

[Hirst]

I would imagine the climate of each country is going to be a pretty big factor. Heating and air conditioning will be almost mandatory in some places.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think the main problem is that we have built a level of living standard we are unwilling to change and its all built on fossil fuel. Reducing our own personal energy use will help a bit, but ultimately we have to swap coal and gas for clean energy. Unfortunately it costs money and BP and Shell are not likely to help foot the bill.