Climate Change Protests - will they make a difference?

Our house doesn't face the right way, gillybob, so we haven't got them either.

My front roof faces the right way, but I live in a conservation area so the local council do not allow solar panels on roofs. People that had them fitted had to remove them. They're not keen on people getting double glazing either, you'd hardly think we're in an energy crisis!! And this is a Labour council, of whom I'd have expected better.

my house has pv panels, solar thermal (hot water), massive insulation, solar gain and solar shading, water harvesting etc ie it is a purpose built eco house that I love. I am moving simply because there are no buses or local shops and I need to think forward in time. New houses are being built very well insulated, a big tick. If they had 2 solar thermal panels then they would get another tick. Anyone can organise some water harvesting, there are nice looking water butts and at least it would save water for the garden and car washing. Bring back good public transport and undo much of the beeching cuts, encourage insulation and water harvesting and we would be partly on our way

The public good will is there, at least for the basics

action.1010uk.org/co/ensure-your-MP-hears-Greta-speak

craftyone we invested in a 3,000 litre tank which we have had “sunken” under our lawn. After the initial outlay it has paid for itself, especially when it is used for flushing toilets.

Also when watering the garden any water not sucked up by plants and lawn goes straight back into the tank.

Poor Dr Beeching, his name will be for ever associated with the demise of the branch lines - but it was in fact Ernest Marples, wasn't it, the then Minister for Transport, who made the decision and subsequently made money from motorways?

We do save rainwater and use grey water for the garden in periods of dry weather - but it would be impossible to sink a water tank here, even digging a hole to put a plant in results in a heap of rocks!
Some plants, such as hydrangeas, azaleas, pieris etc, don't like tap water anyway.

I live in a Georgian building with original wood window frames and single glazed windows fastened with monkey-tail latches.
Wood floor with rugs in sitting room and deep skirting boards.
I wonder why people are so keen to insulate a house to death with triple or at least double glazed windows and lagging/foam in every nook and cranny.
I've never felt cold here and certainly never walk around with thick jumpers, scarves or triple layers on in winter.
Heating never gets put higher than 18 and that's only in really bad weather and for possibly an hour when I get in. After that I'm desperate to open a window for some cool air
We're so used to overheated houses and shops and cars that cooler rooms seem cold.
I wonder why the need to swaddle.

You are lucky, GG, but some of us do feel the cold more than others.

What is the point of demonstrating in the UK where the government is actually trying to do something about it? Why not demonstrate in China or US? Ah! Probably because they would not be allowed to!
I sympathise with their cause but, do not believe what they are doing will help.

It is ridiculous and totally simplistic to suggest that hundreds of British people en masse should to go and demonstrate somewhere half way round the world they couldn’t afford it for one. They would get roundly criticised for all the polluting travelling needed for two, they want their own government to do much, much more for three. Our government are doing bits but should really lead the world in doing something - not buying so much from those polluting countries for a start, deposit scheme on plastic bottles, cleaning up the farming and fishing industries use of plastic, banning certain high performance vehicles, scrappage scheme for diesels, priority for public transport over the whole country, these are just off the top of my head, we could and should do so much more, so just saying we are doing enough is NOT enough.

Gillybob I meant compulsory in new homes, not compulsory retrofit. We cannot have solar panels because we live in a listed building. However we have a thirty foot shed in the garden about 80ft from the house and we are investigating the feasibility of fitting them there with a cable connection to the house.

I am a chilly mortal but we keep the thermostat at 18.5 have thermostatic radiator valves on all the radiators, which we use to ensure we do not heat rooms we do not use. We have put in as much insulation as our listing permits: in the roof, secondary double glazing and some internal wall insulation. When it gets cold I put on an extra layer and some socks. I am not unduly bundled up and I prefer warm clothes to a higher temperature. We sometimes stay with a friend who has the heating on 24/7 and the moment we shut the bedroom door for the night we open all the windows, a waste of heat, but we otherwise couldn't sleep because we just do not like a warm bedroom

Earth Day: How to be more eco-friendly in everyday life www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-47990742

Some suggestions from young eco-bloggers about what we can do as individuals.
Interestingly several of them remark on how grandparents are less wasteful than their own generation.

Well I think I’m practically perfect???
Last year we were out with the children in a local nature reserve learning about butterflies and moths. A child fell over (not one of ours) and got very muddy. I whipped out my wet face cloths and cleaned her up. Never without them.

Daze Aghaji has given an interview on Sky News saying that XR want to “ruin the UK economy”!

How is that going to benefit the fight against climate change?

Gillybob and co - ok, grumble about the inconvenience ER is putting people to if you like. But you might not have a planet at all if no one listens and takes action. Where would the suffragettes be if they didn't take direct action? Nobody gives a stuff otherwise. ER are NOT violent; they have given up their time to make relevant and urgent points and you'd better sit up and listen. Sorry, but this is urgent.

Of course they don’t want to ruin the economy, as if they could. How ridiculous. They want action on climate change, yes businesses and governments will have to change some of their wasteful and damaging practices so will take a hit , we all will have to consume less.

Daze Aghaji is a member of XR and was speaking on behalf of them.

Capitalism and it’s need for us to chuck stuff away and buy new constantly and emphasis on constant growth is what is meant here - and I agree with that, our economy is based on people continuing to buy more and more stuff they don’t need - that has to change.

There surely must be huge opportunities for an economy involving less production of unecessary throw-away products and more production of "green technology" - renewable energy and energy saving products. In this country we could start by a real push to upgrading the existing housing stock. The Building Regulations have been continuously upgraded but apply only to new-build and extensions.

crystaltipps it is not the economy, it is the technology and the time span.

If they had just been demnstrating to get more being done more quickly, to rouse public debate to show that the country, as a whole is way in front of the politicians and considers Global warming even more important than Brexit(!) they could have many many more supporters including me. But when they start making impossible demands a lot of people I know, of all ages, just walked away, including those working to provide the technplogy needed and who could best inform such a movement of what can and cannot be done so that they would know what could be done immediately and wha would take longer.

Crystaltipps I do not disagree about the futility of sending hordes of people flying around the world to demonstrate elsewhere. I was really trying to point out that, much as our government could probably do more, it is at least trying. The aim is to save the world but, that will not happen while other countries are doing nothing to help. Effort should be directed towards the leaders of countries such as China and India to reduce their contribution to global warming. Even more effort should be directed towards a certain country whose president does not believe in global warming and has said he will do nothing to reduce his country’s pollution.
Incidentally, several people in the protest group admitted that they had flown across the Atlantic to jon in the protests.

You can't lecture other countries if you're not prepared to make some hard choices yourself. And if every country waits for other countries to behave responsibly then we are heading for ecological disaster.

In the Science Museum in London there is a model of the earth which shows, with the aid of areas lighting up, where most of the energy is being used in the world. From my recollection, Europe, North and South America, Australia and the UAE are examples of high users of resources whereas, for instance, Africa uses a much smaller amount of the world's resources. No doubt India and China are moving up the table but they are recent arrivals and it was the developed nations, and Britain in particular with the advent of industrialisation, that set the standard.

This won’t be popular but I find that sulky looking kid very annoying. I don’t particularly like teenagers who seem to think they are more informed and more important than they are.

She needs to go back to school.

I have yet to see her in action, on tv or reality, but I too am very uneasy the way an ignorant young woman (what does she really know about the complexities of the problem, exactly what each country is or is not doing or have any comprehension of the technology) to really drive an informed and more realistic campaign, on what is without a shred of doubt a potential catatstrophe situation that needs to be treated with much much more urgency.

Reading and hearing about how she is surrounded by adulating adults and treated like a little goddess, really worries me. These campaigns driven by emotion rather than rationality are often counter productive and hinder achieving the goals they wish to achieve.

MOnica, she actually is an important person who merits adult guardians. She has done more to sort the extinction crisis than most other people.

The respect she is given is more than a personality cult ;it's recognition of her truth and hard work,