There is no Planet B

But lemon where do we get the electricity from? How polluting is it to make and replace the batteries.
Maybe we would achieve the same reduction of pollution if people stopped replacing their cars so frequently?
I don’t know the answer BTW, only asking the question.

Maybe we would achieve the same reduction of pollution if people stopped replacing their cars so frequently?
modern cars cause less pollution than older ones
but how much pollution does car manufacturing in itself cause?

It seems to be a Catch 22 situation.

Telly, was about to say the same thing.
Instead of taking a day off from school and waving placards start walking to school, ditch the cheap disposable fashion, keep the old iPads, phones etc, give the burgers a miss, stop buying fizzy drinks in plastic etc, etc.
We all know what we should be doing.
On the subject of population maybe ditch the IVF programme, especially for older mothers, those with children already and gay couples.
I don't expect many to agree with that.

The UK government removed subsidies for renewable enrgy sources ,maybe we could start with that .Many countries are getting rid of nuclear power stations so why are the UK government still entrnched in the idea that its the way to go?

Pamela the only clean electricity ( and enough of it) would be nuclear.
paddyann wind turbines and solar power and other ideas will make up a proportion of the energy we need, but it could never be the whole answer.

Nuclear energy is just too expensive now. Renewable energy is the least expensive due to new technology, and can provide for most of our needs, as long as we accept wind turbines etc. even in the countryside. Some sort of back up will still be necessary, but not nuclear because of the cost.

lemongrove, I profoundly disagree that here in the UK we're doing all we can to mitigate pollution.

Please look online at the many reports last year about microplastics in our rivers. Here's one, from the Daily Telegraph in March 2018: "British river has worst recorded microplastic pollution in the world, study finds". So, as another poster has already said, let's not go criticising others until we've taken care of our own mess.

I applaud the children who are focusing attention on these global issues and I am so sorry that their youth is already blighted by awareness of the problems caused by previous generations. I just hope that they will be able to devise solutions.

Sorry Ilovecheese but it will be nuclear in the main, there would only be a smallish amount of electricity otherwise, there is simply no other answer for such a populated country as ours.
All options should be invested in as well though.

Happi you are entitled to disagree, profoundly or otherwise.
I said I think we are doing all we can for the moment, there is always more to do to get to 100% but as a country we aren’t doing too badly.Everything costs money to do, and I bet we are doing just as well as many other countries environmentally.
We don’t need children waving placards on an out of school
Jolly to show us the way ......we know the way.

gridwatch.co.uk
This website shows how much energy from the different sources we are using each day.

We are certainly NOT “doing all we can” for the environment. Anyone seeing all the rows of plastic packaging in supermarkets, the plastic debris , much of it from fishing boats on our beaches, the use of pesticides, factory farming, air pollution, clogged sewers , river pollution etc., the decline of wildlife, knows there’s a great deal more to do. Big businesses such as BP are more interested in profit. Just because there are other countries on the planet which are worse is not a reason to be complacent, surely more reason to be cooperative with others to insist on certain standards in industry , manufacture, construction, fishing and agriculture.

lemongrove, the UK having the "worst recorded microplastic in the world" cannot be construed as doing just as well as other countries environmentally. It is something to be deeply ashamed of, and yes we do need placards waved to highlight this.

reports last year about microplastics in our rivers.

"British river has worst recorded microplastic pollution in the world, study finds"
The report was about one river, wasn't it? The River Tame.

Unless we can find something which 'eats' plastic I cannot see a way back from this.

Are some age groups worse than others at polluting? Most older people I know seem to be very aware and are carefully recycling, doing their best, young people are becoming increasingly aware. Schools teach environmental studies, school children are careful to recycle.

Who are the people throwing out plastic bags, containers from fast food outlets all along roads in AONB as is increasingly happening on a road I frequently travel along?

Well, where I live it's the teens from the nearby school who throw plastic and everything else all over the place.
So much so that we watch out for them so we can tell them to pick up their sandwich boxes, polystyrene cups and so on.
Then we have the parents in their cars with the engines running, almost running people over to make sure they park the closest (and on the pavements) to pick up their darlings.

And when I see this happening I think to myself 'Well, it's your future'.

There are some who are trying their best though.

But the polystyrene boxes are made and sold by adults, and though it'd look nicer, neatly sending them to landfill does not save the planet. The damned things will still exist.

Greta Thunberg - quite a girl!
www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/the-beginning-of-great-change-greta-thunberg-hails-school-climate-strikes

Let's face it Happiyogi - it's not governments who run the world; they can fly to all their summits (polluting the world as they go) but it is big business which is in charge, coupled, of course, with demand from consumers.

India pioneered using plastic to make/mend roads:

www.thebetterindia.com/43685/plastic-waste-in-road-construction-plastic-man-india-prof-vasudevan/

"Planet Earth is massive and most of it unoccupied"

I remember our geography teacher saying this, but then going to great pains to show us that mountainous areas, lakelands, wetlands and oceans etc, cannot really support settlement or the infrastructure needed for communities to grow.

Look at Wales, Look at Scotland and the lakes and pennines in England. There will never be mass housing in such places.

What does disturb me is the loss of our greenbelts in the UK and the natural habitats for wildlife. Once it is concreted over, it's gone for ever. Our grandchildren and their children need to know more than suburbia exists.

Population control has to be on the cards if we want to retain our "green and pleasant lands" - especially in the UK, where population density could become a problem and the quality of life become poorer. It's a start, beginning at home on our relatively small island.

I agree that awareness and education is the key and issues have to be a global concern, right now, not decades down the line, as lemon pointed out.

I think the children are wonderful. If they hadn't gone on strike we would not have had a thread talking about climate change and what can be done. Of course some of them will be hypocrites, just as we are, but anything which makes us more conscious of the task ahead is welcome. I think governments have conned us into thinking individual action can be the solution. The only real progress that can be made has to come from national governments, large blocs, such as the EU, and then global organisations. Tough decisions have to be made and I think some of those brilliantly articulate children are showing the way.

We have had threads on climate change and pollution before but it’s good to keep revisiting the subject.
Will we still be talking about it next week?
Cynical? Moi?
Next week tornados from RAF Marham are off on a jaunt around the country to mark the fact that they are being decommissioned.
WHY?
Our government seems to think it’s a good idea to waste a lot of money (which they keep telling us they don’t have) and seem happy about the pollution this will cause. For, IMO, no good reason.
I know that in the grand scheme of things this is a very small percentage of pollution but if the powers that be aren’t getting the message then how will the general public get it?
Present company excepted!

lemongrove. You say: " the only clean electricity ( and enough of it) would be nuclear"

Fifty years of nuclear power in the UK has generated 750,000 cubic metres of waste but the nation has still not developed a permanent disposal solution.

Nuclear waste is currently stored at about 30 sites, but predominantly at ground level at Sellafield in Cumbria.

I quote Caroline Lucas:
“Radioactive byproducts are yet another reason the government must stop building dirty, dangerous and expensive nuclear power stations,” .... “The future is in clean, renewable energy like wind and solar.”

In Jan. 2018 a government plan was reintroduced to local communities around England, Wales and Northern Ireland which will be offered £1m a year to volunteer to host an underground nuclear waste disposal facility for thousands of years, as part of a rebooted government programme.

Highly radioactive nuclear waste could be permanently buried under national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, under government plans backed by a committee of MPs.
Environmental groups wrote in an open letter to the nuclear energy minister, Richard Harrington:
“We recognise that safe disposal of nuclear waste is one of the key challenges our society currently faces but this should not be used as an excuse to put at risk the huge range of benefits these areas deliver for society, the environment and the economy,” .

The Lake District national park is seen as a potential location for the underground facility, given Cumbria’s nuclear history and proximity to Sellafield, where most of the UK’s nuclear waste is currently stored.

We discussed our children and grandchildren's futures in a different discussion.

We have governments running around in desperation bribing councils to bury this dreadful stuff, knowing it will take thousands of years before it is safe!

And you call this clean energy!

Not to mention that the governments sanction building new nuclear energy plants the price of which goes up at a crazy rate and the time estimated to finish it gets longer and longer while the British electricity user will be paying this astronomical bill ad infinitum, mainly to France and the Chinese and their record for safety leaves a lot to be desired....

And you call this a clean energy?

It's a filthy, execrable, immoral, irresponsible, evil form of energy, whichever way you look at it.

"We discussed our children.... futures in a different discussion"! and here!!

janeainsworth. Thanks! That's great!