Sod climate change, what is needed to keep it as it is?

[Username]

Like specifically what cars would we need to start driving, or stop driving? What fuels would we need to burn and in what quantities? I'd love to keep the weather as it is, but with or without fossil fuels, the climate will change all the time anyway. It will still rain, but I do wonder if cars and stuff make it rain more than it would otherwise. It does rain way too much.

[[XAP]Bob]

I think you are confusing climate and weather...

[mjr]

Climate change means more extreme weather, especially for small islands stuck between a continent, an ocean and a sea. So hot spells, but also sudden downpours flooding homes. Do you really want that?

[pwa]

The real danger of climate change is that it reduces our ability to grow the food we need to live. Much of the World's wheat comes from areas where the rainfall is currently just enough to allow the crop to grow. If the rain is not there at the right time we will lose a lot of our wheat. A large part of our agricultural production happens in places that would be threatened by any rise in sea level. And it cannot simply be moved uphill to places less at risk. Climate change is a concern because it threatens our ability to feed however many billions of us there are these days.

[squeaker]

Not to mention that it's already changing to something worse, but because of the inherent inertia it will take several/many decades to get there, even without increasing greenhouse gas concentrations from where they are today.

[JohnW]

Like specifically what cars would we need to ...........stop driving? ............

All of them.

[PDQ Mobile]

Electrify the whole railway network.

[reohn2]

It seems to me sooner or later were going to have to adopt a different way of producing power,that power has to be as green as possible for our own sakes and the generations coming after us.
It's no good keep complaining about cars,they're here to stay but what's needed is a better way of managing their use and their power source,electric is the obvious solution but even electric car use restriction will be needed to if only from a capacity POV ,which means a much better public transport system and discouraging private car use into town an city centres by simply stopping them because there are better ways of doing it.

[pwa]

Thinking of my nearest town, Bridgend, I cannot imagine public transport ever replacing most car use. It is actually quite quick to get about by car at most times, far quicker than the bus. The car goes directly from your home to your destination with no changes required. A journey that might take an hour and a half by bus can be done in half an hour by car, in more comfort. In small towns and rural areas people are not going to replace the car with public transport. In cities the story is different.

[meic]

Which illustrates how, as a species, we are too pre-occupied with our day-to-day minutiae to see the bigger picture and the cliff that we are heading towards at full speed.

[pwa]

Which illustrates how, as a species, we are too pre-occupied with our day-to-day minutiae to see the bigger picture and the cliff that we are heading towards at full speed.

I read it a bit differently. As I see it, apart from in the big cities cars are a much nicer way to get around than buses, so we need to make car use less damaging. Less polluting, less threatening to other road users. And of course we need to encourage people to walk or cycle where practical.

[mjr]

Alternatively, we need to manage public transport better so it actually serves the public good more generally. The biggest difference in the biggest cities is that they have Integrated Transport Authorities.

[pwa]

The last bus I used was uncomfortable (did it have any suspension?), very slow, and involved a ten minute walk to get to a bus station frequented by druggies. The journey, including waiting, took me about an hour longer than it would have taken with a car. I won't be doing that again. Last week i walked the four miles back from town rather than catching the bus. It took longer but was less depressing. So for me the normal options are car, walk, cycle. But not bus. Quite literally, I'd sooner walk.

[squeaker]

Which illustrates how, as a species, we are too pre-occupied with our day-to-day minutiae to see the bigger picture and the cliff that we are heading towards at full speed.

+1

[reohn2]

The last bus I used was uncomfortable (did it have any suspension?), very slow, and involved a ten minute walk to get to a bus station frequented by druggies. The journey, including waiting, took me about an hour longer than it would have taken with a car. I won't be doing that again. Last week i walked the four miles back from town rather than catching the bus. It took longer but was less depressing. So for me the normal options are car, walk, cycle. But not bus. Quite literally, I'd sooner walk.

You've hilighted a couple of things wrong with UK society,poor public transport and people who've lost hope and been left to their own devices.