Are you concerned about the destruction of the natural world and climate change?

We don’t need new technologies, we have a proven system for carbon capture. Protect and restore habitats and the carbon will be captured. Inventing machines to pull carbon out of the air is madness.

Also, sorting out the carbon content of the atmosphere without tackling reduction of habitats, pollution and the excessive population, still means the planet will be destroyed.

On the carbon front I just hope we can find some chemical process that can lock it away or precipate it to the bottom of the ocean without having a pile of unintended side effects or taking a pile of energy itself. I don't think a net zero world is possible without carbon capture since we are so dependent on it.

It looks like we will be able to decarbonise electricity generation pretty quickly and a lot of transport also but it is harder to see how we'll get around some of the other sectors.

No. Im not worried. I never tend to worry much about things I can do next to nothing about.

Which would just increase airfares for us plebs.

If I could tax the hell out of private jet use and taking helicopter trips to get to the golf course I would.

It matters in that climate change, weather whatever you want to call it isn't really anything other than a cashcow for the usual suspects, everyone from the Goldman Sachs to the Kinahans are buying windfarms , hand wringing about flooding but not allowing dredging of rivers in flood areas, moaning about sea levels but refusing to fund sea walls, telling people to sort their rubbish only for them to see the bins all going in the same truck, Green movement have fallen into the same category as the charity industry now, just a bunch of scammers trying to take people's hard earned cash

It would prompt the airlines and closed shop aircraft industry to innovate. Its time we reevaluated those whacky designs and once again have Zeppelins and maybe even Ekranoplans.

Is it a concern - yes. Will I lose sleep over it - no.

I'm sure it will get a lot worse before it will get better but I won't rule out human ingenuity getting to grips with it in a fashion that does not require us all going back to the middle ages while the high and mighty get to lecture us on what we should do but still jet around the world (to climate change conferences and so on).

I think this is the biggest problem at the minute - the various eco warriors and tree huggers have no answers other than saying "stop doing it" to ordinary people while at the same time opposing sensible options like nuclear power. This will never fly. The great majority of people simply will not accept a significant reduction in standard of living.

People need to see stuff being done with all the extra taxes being collected , forestry planting is at its lowest ever, windfarms need to be community owned with the profits going back into the locality, as it stands its just a money laundry for criminality

I am concerned about the habitat destruction of the Amazon, but there just is nothing someone living in Ireland can do about it. I am concerned about the discharge of plastics into the oceans, but it's mostly via rivers in Asia/India, and a couple in Africa, so nothing can be done about it. I am extremely concerned by overfishing of the oceans, but again, nothing can be done about it as there is too much financial and social pressure for it to continue, so it's a lost cause.

I am not even slightly concerned by CO2 or global warming, but even if I were, fecking around with EV and solar panel toys in Ireland is less than meaningless in the face of China's building coal fired power stations as fast as European car makers are being in chasing those EV dollars.

If you are in Ireland, there is nothing you can do, and nothing you do can make the slightest difference.

I'm not sure the cost argument can be just hand waved away. Yes it's expensive per unit of electricity generated but not by wide margins. It also doesn't involve destroying the landscape with piles of windfarms everywhere and has other advantages such as not depending on the sun being out or the wind being brisk enough.

Also the cost of phasing it out in Germany:

“The phase-out resulted in more than 1,100 additional deaths per year from increased concentrations of SO2, NOx, and (particulate matter),”

Edit: Srsly. Ordinary bbcode doesn't work here anymore? ffs.

Oh I'm not totally against it. I thought it was silly to close it in Germany and just increase dependence on russian gas. If we had a few nuclear plants here I wouldn't be rushing to close them prematurely.

Thanks for the link. What portion of the plastics in Asia are from exported European "recycling" I wonder? Your headline figures seem to indicate that c. 20% by weight of plastic is in the north Atlantic which would seem to indicate we contribute more than our fair share by population.

You're in the wrong thread mate.

The Irish independent had an article on him recently and was a interesting read once it got over the unnecessary plamasing his appearance and discussed what he did on the farm and it's a bit more in-depth. Even Jeremy Clarkson has devoted a part of his farm to re-wilding on his Amazon show and it was a good watch. Hope more farmers devote some of their land to re-wilding as the death of insect species in recent years is scary.

Saw a Joanna Lumley travel show about Haiti,

Just dumping plastic on the beach,

Absolutely we dont know the full extent any changes would have. Totally agree. The gulf stream collapsing could usher in a new ice age for all I know.

As I've said before, the outcome of a sudden dramatic climatic change within my lifetime is something I'm happy to accept/face.

I enjoy seeing the world and do not wish to sacrifice my ability to fly relatively cheaply to "potentially" reduce MMCC.

I don't litter (intentionally) I've no idea what happens to the contents of my bins when they're collected. I cycled a few days a week when I was in the office. I buy local. I help clean my local park once a month and if at all possible I will switch to green energies when they're fully green and it doesn't cripple me financially.

But that's about as far as I'm willing to go personally and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. To slightly mis-quote Drago, if we die, we die.