Assessing Environmental Impact

[KneesUp]

With it becoming increasingly clear that we as a species are ruining the planet, if we haven't ruined it already, I find myself thinking more and more of the environmental consequences of my actions, and it occurs to me that I have not a clue how to do this.

For example, I use an Aeropress coffee maker at work, and I am low on filters - it came with a few hundred paper filters which are now running out. I can buy more single-use paper filters, or I can buy a metal filter that you can use over and over again. How do I compare the impact of producing and shipping lots of paper filters (albeit they are biodegradable) versus one metal filter? And come to think of it, is the impact of either totally insignificant compared to putting more water in the kettle than I actually need once every 10, 50, 100 coffees?

Similarly with cars - I can't afford a new one at the moment, but if I could I would have no idea how to compare the impact of just using my current one until it falls to bits versus getting a new one.

Do you consciously make decisions with the environmental consequences in mind - and if so, how do you decide what to do?

 

[Drago]

Increasingly, i do make such decisions. I read, I research, i make a judgement. Sometimes I'll be wrong because I made an error in my guesstimations. Other times I'll be wrong because science moves on, new knowledge comes to light, or the public discover that certain large companies have been cheating on a grand scale.

I do feel i'm pithing in the wind. A lot of people talk a good fight when it comes to environmental damage, but most then boast gleefully about thei fast car, or how their new car will be bigger and shiner. Even those that make money doing something halfway useful - such as installing solar panels, say - will spend the profits on cars, polluting foreign holidays etc. The more I look at my own damaging consumerism, the more I fear that our society in its current form is very much doomed.

 

[numbnuts]

I'm on the way out so that should help the planet

 

[raleighnut]

It used to 'get' me that environmental protesters all drove around in 2CVs or old V dubs that wouldn't even run on unleaded or old busses that belched black smoke everywhere, they never seemed to see the irony of it.

 

[snorri]

It used to 'get' me that environmental protesters all drove around in 2CVs or old V dubs that wouldn't even run on unleaded or old busses that belched black smoke everywhere, they never seemed to see the irony of it.

You say "It used to get me", do I take it you now consider these vehicles just may have been less environmentally damaging than the latest models of BMW and VW?

 

[Piemaster]

Anything decisions I make pale into insignificance vs. the amount of emissions produced by 4 dirty great diesels powering the ship I work on. I do what I can to reduce it. Irony of it is currently working on windfarm installation project.
I don't see that as a reason not to look at reducing my personal impact though.

 

[Drago]

It used to 'get' me that environmental protesters all drove around in 2CVs or old V dubs that wouldn't even run on unleaded or old busses that belched black smoke everywhere, they never seemed to see the irony of it.

Like the high ranking climate scientists that flew around the world on polluting airliners, only to then preach to everyone else that climate change is about to slaughter us all. It gets to something when even those supposedly most cognisant of the problem behave just as badly as those they are blaming for it.

 

[Dirk]

It used to 'get' me that environmental protesters all drove around in 2CVs or old V dubs that wouldn't even run on unleaded or old busses that belched black smoke everywhere, they never seemed to see the irony of it.

They never do.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I don't feel guilty as long as I'm trying to do my bit, which I do. And I educate my son likewise. Don't litter, don't waste energy or water, always recycle if possible etc etc. This won't change anything, but I will feel better doing it.

 

[snorri]

Like the high ranking climate scientists that flew around the world on polluting airliners, only to then preach to everyone else that climate change is about to slaughter us all. It gets to something when even those supposedly most cognisant of the problem behave just as badly as those they are blaming for it.

Give us names and a full resume of their lives rather than just an anonymous snapshot.

 

[raleighnut]

You say "It used to get me", do I take it you now consider these vehicles just may have been less environmentally damaging than the latest models of BMW and VW?

No I just ignore it now but as a non-driver I have a pretty low carbon footprint (probably as low as I can get it) and have made a lot of positive actual improvements to the environment ( I've planted around 60 trees and literally thousands of Hawthorn 'whips' at what is now Watermead Country Park)

 

[Drago]

Give us names and a full resume of their lives rather than just an anonymous snapshot.

Professor Jim Skear of the Intergovernnmental Panel on Climate Change is one of those that thinks teleconferencing is beneath them. I don't know which primary school he went to though.

 

[snorri]

[QUOTE 5426802, member: 9609"]https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16882788.climate-change-conferences-are-pointless/[/QUOTE]
Written by the same guy who covers numerous and wide ranging topics as he attempts to monopolise the Readers Letters pages of the national press. It would be better for the environment if he got on his bike instead of calling for cyclists to be licensed and bikes to have registration plates, as he has done.

 

[snorri]

Professor Jim Skear of the Intergovernnmental Panel on Climate Change is one of those that thinks teleconferencing is beneath them. I don't know which primary school he went to though.

Yebbut where do we draw the line?
If Prof Skea was holed up in his attic firing off academic journals he would be criticised for never getting out into the world and witnessing what was actually going on.

 

[Shortandcrisp]

Just as soon as I’ve perfected my own personal antidote to the homo sapiens eradication virus I’ve recently patented I’ll get right on it.