How many think it is too late - whatever we do, the planet's stuffed?

Question

Don't get me wrong - I'm as much a hippy (& happy to admit it) as anyone else who uses a mobile phone & computer, but I really think that we've left it too late.
Posit: America, Russia, China have done their damage, and we're all stuffed, no matter what we do?
I think that all these local Council recycling schemes & G8 conferences, etc. are just a government's way of paying lip-service. It is now a case of Too Little, Too Late.
For example, we ALL know that cars only contribute a small proportion of the UK's 'carbon footprint', yet loads of us seem to think extra car/fuel/road/congestion tax is FINE. We all eagerly recycle our plastic bottles, but how many new plastic products are we buying each day? How many plastic things in your home? In front of me now: Dell VDU, mobile phone, keyboard, DVD & CD cases & disks, 2 laptop PCs from work & 2 cycle helmets! Plus the plastic trays from dinner in the bin because I had to work late & did not have time to properly cook for me & my son!

Hrm - do I mean "Life on this" or " the Planet? I'm talking about us humans, of course. No point caring about dumb animals or a dumb planet, surely? Or maybe there IS? What do your INSTINCTS tell you?

Answer 1

As long as we exist, we are not stuffed. You are able to identify some problems. Other people are working on these problems. There's always a solution.

Answer 2

Thank you so much for asking this question!

I don't think the planet is stuffed, just a bunch of the life forms currently living here. Which means that other life will arise - this is the cycle.

Yeah - politicians don't have a clue as to what this is or what to do about it. After all, they are concerned with activities that generally use up a lot of resources and add to the pollution of the environment.

If politicians really were concerned, they would stop printing all that stupid campaign stuff that uses paper products and chemical printing dyes. Stuff that gets thrown away in a couple of days into the landfills.

You are right - we need to think about what we are buying BEFORE we buy and arranging our lives so that we can leave as small a footprint as possible.

Carbon credits are not an answer yet - its an interesting idea, but the practice of them is laughable.

Please, please keep talking to people about what they can do, even just the small things, and we can buy at-risk lifeforms some time until we can figure out a really good way to get through these changes.

Answer 3

I don't think it's too late for our planet, it will continue to exist until the Sun goes nova. Is it too late for LIFE on this planet? Maybe. The higher you are on the food chain, the more environmental change affects you.

Minimum ... the next 20 generations (@20 years/generation) are gonna have it rough. The 100 Year storm is now the 10 year storm, and it will get worse long before it gets better.

In other words, the most likely outcome of a worst case scenario would not be Planet of the Apes, it would be Planet of the Insects. The organisms that are closer to the source of the energy that feeds life on Earth have a better chance of survival.

If you are feeling guilty now that you realize how your own consumerism has contributed to it, you aren't alone. Complaining about it after the fact is 20/20 hindsight, though. Next time you have an itch to empty your wallet, include the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle into your purchasing habits:

1. Do I NEED this or just want it?
2. Is it single use / disposable, or can I use it over and over?
3. What is it made of? Can this material be broken down and made into something new?

You can do just as much as the government.

Answer 4

I don't think the planet is stuffed, far from it. Some people complain about the amount of plastic we are using but we need plastic. It's light and durable and can be recycled. Can you amagine how heavy your car would be if it weren't for plastic. If we could eliminate the dickheads that can't stay on their side of the road, we could make cars totally out of plastic and ceramics.
Recycling is all well and good if you aren't the one producing the original item but if you were the one making money out of the original item then the last thing you want is recycling.
It all comes down to economics and as soon as we realize that we can't do it the way we have been doing it, the better.

Answer 5

In the last 80 years the population of the planet has more than doubled to over 6 billion and is expected to be 9 billion by 2060 and 14 billion by 2100. The planet can't support that number of people if everyone wants a western lifestyle, which they do. Personally I think that Gaia will prevail, but only by wiping out a huge percentage (90%) of the current human population, probably as a result of a global pandemic.

Answer 6

It's always the same story. Most governments don't give a damn about global warming or anything else for that matter. You can't enter politics if you have a conscience, morals or scruples ask any politician after they've had a few drinks. Take paper recycling for example. Where does most of your paper come from junk mail. Stop the junk mail then you save the trees and reduce the cost of recycling. In addition a large proportion of junk mail now comes in plastic sleeving. Sunday newspapers are the same. Does the government do anything about it. NO. They don't give a damn. Bast**ds the lot of them

Answer 7

Different people think in different ways. I myself believe that we still have some time,, maybe a few 30or 40 years. Talking about geological time that is very short, but maybe in such a short time we might turn the world back to normal, nobody knows. There is as you say lots of plastic products on everyone's desk, I have lots of plastic products on my desk at this moment. But recycling is helping and if we do stop using fuel then it is not too late as long as we are still alive the world is not stuffed. Also as long as there is life, there is hope.

Answer 8

Feeling our own mortality? You are not alone. History is littered with those who believe "the end is near". 100% of those died dead wrong. We have plenty of people alive today that have "miraculously" lived through potentially civilization ending catastrophes.

So, a bunch of bureaucrats have hitched their wagon to a hypothesis than sets a nebulous "tipping point" that may or may not mean that you'll never get the full wear out of your sweaters.

Well, boo-fricken-hoo!

Millions of heart beats are snuffed out every year before reaching term, primarily due to human selfishness. Of those that make it to term, millions more will never see puberty. Millions will never know the feel of a full belly. Millions will never have shelter against the elements. Never know about refrigeration or modern medicine. Meanwhile, we are worried about which car we should drive, what lightbulb to use, plastic or paper, organic or factory farmed, and how we can adjust our laws so that everybody is equally miserable.

Enjoy life with your son. Determine what you truly need and try not to take more. Teach your son through example. Not a one of us is guaranteed a life on this planet. We are owed nothing, start with nothing, and leave with nothing. By our simple existence in this lifeless solar system, we have already bucked the odds...we are in BONUS TIME.

Answer 9

There's a point in time known as the 'tipping point', once we cross this line the planet is stuffed; the damage caused becomes irreparable.

No-one knows where this line is, some people think we may have already crossed it, others beleive it to be as much as 50 years away, my own feeling is that we've got 20 to 30 years which is pretty much in line with the average of opinions (this was something I researched a couple of years ago).

Recycling and reducing won't stop global warming, that requires something far more dramatic. But it is slowing down the effects and buying us more time. It may be enough to buy us the extra time needed to pull the planet back from the brink.

We have left it very late in the day to act and you can thank the politicians for that one. The scientists spent decades warning of the dangers of global warming but it didn't suit the politicians to act. It still doesn't suit certain politicians, a certain George W Bush springs to mind, he now acknowledges the threat of global warming but has effectively deferred doing anything about it. Even China has now announced a climate strategy.

My desk, like yours, is littered with plastic devices but this needn't be so much of a problem. We all leave behind a carbon footprint but we can offset this through various offsetting schemes (some schemes cost so little that you can offset a years carbon emissions for about £1 / $2).

Answer 10

Yes probably too late for human life and maybe the life forms i.e animals we live along side - but no to life on Earth
The planet will go on as a container of life with or without humans

Answer 11

You're right, but not necessarily a result of man. Global warming has been around for millions of years. It was global warming that brought the earth out of the last ice age, for example. And, the earth has been on a warming trend since the last ice age. Man's actions can only speed it up or delay it, but not stop it.