COP26

[LittleMy]

As a fellow Glaswegian, I agree. This SHOULD have been a great opportunity to showcase the city, but it's practically being shut off to literally everyone, museums and tourist attractions will be closed and there's very little for residents to want to head into the city for, the messaging has basically been "don't come anywhere near the place". I thought the Commonwealth Games was great for the city, it really was an opportunity to open Glasgow to the world and involve everyone who lives and works there, there was such a positive atmosphere for the whole time the games were on - this is the complete opposite.

They’ve even cancelled our Christmas Market because of it. Very disappointing tbh.

 

[Merpedy]

Whole thing just feels like a massive performance by leaders and people on how much they care about the planet while doing nothing effective

I follow a lot of whale and dolphin conservation groups and one is at the summit to represent their views and highlight the importance of the oceans. It just feels… horrible… when you consider that the UK was perfectly okay releasing sewage into the ocean very recently

Australia is approving mines and mining extensions for coal regularly it seems. Apparently it’s a very similar story in Germany too

I understand why people may be hopeful but I really wish people were just angry that this is a massive performance and some agreements that are unlikely to have much effect

 

[laughing]

They have already had all the zoom call.

Why can't they all just pour themselves a drink and get snacks, and party via zoom.

 

[laughing]

Greta has arrived!

 

[Glaschelle]

As a fellow Glaswegian, I agree. This SHOULD have been a great opportunity to showcase the city, but it's practically being shut off to literally everyone, museums and tourist attractions will be closed and there's very little for residents to want to head into the city for, the messaging has basically been "don't come anywhere near the place". I thought the Commonwealth Games was great for the city, it really was an opportunity to open Glasgow to the world and involve everyone who lives and works there, there was such a positive atmosphere for the whole time the games were on - this is the complete opposite.

Totally agree!!! There was a real buzz about the city during the commonwealth games.

Jings there was a real buzz about the city when they were filming Indiana Jones and Batman in the summer.

Now all there is annoyance about the disruptions and closures and fear that something bad will happen.

 

[Ceecee3]

Isn't like the biggest thing for climate change the population? You can be the most wasteful person ever and still have a lower footprint than someone that walks everywhere and never buys plastic but has a child.

Maybe it's unpopular to actually say it? Of course a declining population has a whole heap of economic issues to accompany it.

View attachment 837793

Yeah this is not a popular thing to say but you're completely right.

 

[Ceecee3]

I know the environment is important, climate change bad etc etc. But honestly the constant media coverage is doing my head in - I'm turning off mentally. Everyone gets it, but its not us little people that can change things, its the govts, and the ones that are the worst (China, Russia) arent coming anyway. I dont think me recycling and avoiding food waste and turning the heating down a degree or two is going to make the slightest bit of difference.

Yeah I think there's a real apathy about climate change because as the little people, we can recycle etc but we're still told it's not enough. It's hard to be told the planet is going to shit and we have no influence on it. It just stresses people out and I don't blame them for looking away. I have a lot of admiration for people who actually are doing something e.g. extinction rebellion, despite the media's best efforts to demonise them. But personally, I'm a bit spent by it all.

 

[DaisyDeluxe]

Private jets to COP26 will blast more CO2 than 1600 Scots pump out in a year

The flights have been branded “rank climate hypocrisy” and the “nadir of carbon inequality”.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk

The hypocrisy is mad! Biden flies over on his private jet, takes 85 cars and a helicopter but I’m the one being made to worry about recycling my yoghurt pots

Also agree Nicky will definitely put more COVID restrictions in place after this.. I cba.

Anyone who complies with covid restrictions after this last few weeks needs their head examined. I'm baffled that people still wear a mask to go in the supermarket to get a pint of milk or outside while they collect their kids from school. People from over 200 countries are attending with zero restrictions or checks, tens of thousands go to football matches every weekend but ScotGov still think you need to wear a mask to walk into a restaurant to go and sit at a table. Covid is OVER people.

Yes exactly. We can't have plastic straws any more and people are going nuts over the odd crisp packet, while at the same time Fast Fashion from boohoo, shein, primark etc is trashing the planet unabated. Also have you seen how much sponge and plastic tat is involved in kids toys now, both big stuff from toy shops or the little plastic bits stuck on the front of comics or those "mini shop" toys given away by M&S and McDonalds etc.

We need a wholescale change in attitude, I mean "every little helps" so cutting back or improving supermarket packaging is a start but seriously there is so much more to do if we're serious. And I don't need Greta Doomgoblin to run around swearing at me to tell me, she and her pixies need to start attacking the fashion industry (oh yeah and go tell China and Russia too at some point would be nice).

McDonalds only do either recylable toys made from paper/card or books for kids now. We haven't once yet heard how disposable face masks have cluttered the planet, even Greta wears a disposable one. Utterly disgraceful and should never have been allowed to happen.

 

[kev1974]

All of us recycling stuff or eating less meat won't make any difference as long as people keep buying, and throwing away, 7 million Halloween costumes in the UK alone every year, god only knows how many Xmas jumpers from 2020 were in landfill by Easter, and look at all those Love Islanders selling polyester clothes as quick as China can make them. The general materialistic, need-more-stuff culture would need to disappear altogether, immediately, to make a big enough difference and I will never believe that any of those people really want that to happen because where will the money come from then.

Yes exactly. We can't have plastic straws any more and people are going nuts over the odd crisp packet, while at the same time Fast Fashion from boohoo, shein, primark etc is trashing the planet unabated. Also have you seen how much sponge and plastic tat is involved in kids toys now, both big stuff from toy shops or the little plastic bits stuck on the front of comics or those "mini shop" toys given away by M&S and McDonalds etc.

We need a wholescale change in attitude, I mean "every little helps" so cutting back or improving supermarket packaging is a start but seriously there is so much more to do if we're serious. And I don't need Greta Doomgoblin to run around swearing at me to tell me, she and her pixies need to start attacking the fashion industry (oh yeah and go tell China and Russia too at some point would be nice).

 

[Sea]

Frankly it's a load of bollocks, powerful people, people with money, guilting us plebs and breaking the rules themselves. Games..

 

[Warpaint]

Well annoying that it completely dominates the news as well. Even local news that isn't anywhere near it.

The whole thing is a complete sham

 

[hydeist]

Also agree Nicky will definitely put more COVID restrictions in place after this.. I cba.

I'm just pre-gutted because I'm due to go on the holiday I've rebooked 4 times since 2020 at the start of December and I really don't feel optimistic we won't get restrictions back after half the world have flown in and swanned around for three weeks.

And after last night's shenanigans there are now about 8 police officers guarding the road instead of two weedy security guards in high vis

 

[hydeist]

Makes me quite angry at the number of police patrolling the city when there is a big event with world leaders and Greta but they're not around when teenagers are getting stabbed on trains.

To be fair most of those extra police have been either pulled off working somewhere else stopping teenagers being stabbed on trains, or have been preventing from taking their annual leave and weekends to provide more police. They didn't just get magicked from nowhere

ETA: also a lot of them are from English forces sending more officers up

 

[blueblueindigo]

Conference about climate change...everyone flies in on multiple planes...biden staying in edinburgh apparently and helicoptoring in each day. Fleet of teslas to transport...no charging stations so using a diesel generator. Could they not just have done a big zoom meeting?

I wonder why wasn't this able to be done via zoom or other online platforms? Why even Glasgow and not say London? I don't know, it's incredibly easily to feel despondent and jaded in terms of these conventions actually triggering impactful change, when realistically for that to happen, everyone is going to have to modify their lifestyles and things they are accustomed to alongside governments and corporations. You want to drop methane gas by x percent, then yeah, no more breeding and consuming cows. You want greener energy, then yeah that's going to take a just transition and stop throwing money at fossil fuels, you want a circular economy, then that's going to need more money spent on recycling services and less consumption in the first place. No one appears to wants to be selfless, look at all the planes taken just for this one conference, look at the hypocrisy of BJ not being able to take a train. So people who have the choice to limit or reduce our harmful consumption don't, and in turn, those who create the least impact to this planet suffer the most. We will have more animal to human disease transmission, more climate change, more migration and inequality as a result of climate injustice and nothing changes, because it doesn't directly impact them personally.... it's someone else's problem, just like the UK had no issue shipping all our crap for other countries to deal with.

And honestly, any British Royal Family member preaching about climate change, when they continue to support blood sports (as if that doesn't have major ecological impact alongside the cruelty) needs to give their head a wobble.

 

[annanuttall]

Greta Thunberg is getting on my nerve saying Cop26 is a failure when I just listened to the cop26 president press conference and negotiation is making small progress and is still ongoing. I don't know, I just feel she often sprout out words without really noticing what is going on or what is being said and done.
I have been watching Cop26 all week and as my husband said last week which makes a good point, there are enough collective people in the world who want to help and for things to change. Instead of trying to make angry, maybe perhaps engage with people who are making the necessarily change.

 

[Saddlesoap]

Sadly a huge waste of time IMO. World leader blowing hot air up each other to make them all feel important and like they are doing something. Too much talking and not enough action. We're fucked.

 

[hydeist]

Is the whole of Glasgow locked down?

Not really, there's just a lot of roads closed which has just made getting around take a lot longer than normal. Where I live has pedestrian access straight to the COP site so it's all been walled off around here.

 

[dancingqueen5678]

Yeah I think there's a real apathy about climate change because as the little people, we can recycle etc but we're still told it's not enough. It's hard to be told the planet is going to shit and we have no influence on it. It just stresses people out and I don't blame them for looking away. I have a lot of admiration for people who actually are doing something e.g. extinction rebellion, despite the media's best efforts to demonise them. But personally, I'm a bit spent by it all.

yeah it's hard when it feels like the problem is so out of your reach. Climate change really scares me honestly and it's exhausting. I do everything that I can but it feels like very little in comparison and you can only do what is available to you. if you don't live in a place where you can use public transport efficiently so then you have to drive everywhere. If the only thing available is a supermarket then you can't buy locally. Some people don't have the finances to buy sustainable clothes.
I know people dislike XR and IB and I understand why but realistically, we all know a lot more about climate change now than we did as a result of them. Whilst I don't agree with their tactics at all, I knew sweet FA about insulation until IB. I've learned a lot about it since being in the news.

 

[Merpedy]

Well annoying that it completely dominates the news as well. Even local news that isn't anywhere near it.

The whole thing is a complete sham

Apparently all the leaders are going home tomorrow and leaving the actual experts to figure everything out which is fair enough, but it also probably means that the news will forget it’s happening

It’s all very ‘Marie Antoinette’. Some guy said they can’t do it on zoom because there’s too many people. If breakout rooms are good enough for us mate it’s good enough for those doom-mongering megalomaniacs.

I’ve seen some people say that there’s also a message that leaders are taking it seriously by attending in person but lol

anyway, I wish they at least did press conferences over zoom rather than having a portion of them travel to the UK just for this one thing. It’s not like the BBC + others can’t get the footage that is needed, and I’m sure there could be a deal to share the footage for free/lower fees given the whole point of these summits

 

[Merpedy]

Why has Leonardo DiCaprio now arrived!?

He’s the UN climate change representative apparently

He has apparently done some stuff for climate change and flew commercial to Scotland but the fact that we seem to need celebrities ‘promoting’ attention for this stuff is… slightly disappointing in a way

Comes back to it being a show for a bunch of rich people and for them to get some brownie points online - after all, no one is going to really care what a celebrity did over a world leader in this situation (rightfully so) but also doesn’t give me a lot of hope. Why aren’t we hearing from the actual scientists and innovative people looking for possible solutions instead?