Have you considered...
'No matter how hard some folk might campaign for us to live a greener, more planet-friendly lifestyle, most of us won't, because it's more expensive, more difficult and less fun. '
Imagine how much more expensive, difficult and less fun it'll be once global temperatures have risen 2/3/4/5degC!
'Most of the people alive right now will be dead before global oil reserves run critically low'
Global oil reserves aren't the limiting factor - the deterioration of global climate is, which will come far sooner.
'The massive reduction in Carbon Dioxide/Nitrogen levels over China in the early weeks of the lockdown shows that potentially we do have time to make a change.'
We do still have time to make changes - but let's be clear about the scale of the challenge at hand. Reductions in daily global CO2 emissions during lockdown were around 17%, but we need to have reduced projected 2030 global carbon emissions by over 50% to have a decent chance of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5degC. The consequences of missing that and hitting 2degC is pretty catastrophic, let alone 3/4/5degC.
'It's just not in society's perceived interests to do what's best for the greater population when it means a higher level of personal discomfort.'
Again, society needs to realise that the consequences of not taking action are far, far, far, far, far worse than the compromises required to limit global temperature increase to 1.5degC.
'Because, realistically, the only way we're going to stop or reverse the damage we're doing is by dropping the Planets population back to nearer where we were in the 50's or 60's.'
Global population is a really important topic; the way to manage it is via the empowerment of women. However, consider that the top 10% of wealthiest people in the world generate almost half of all global emissions. If you limited the emissions of the top 10% to that of an average EU28 citizen, we'd reduce global emissions by a third. Saying its someone else's problem is ignorant - wilful or otherwise.
(, Sat 4 Jul 2020, 10:56, Reply)