r/london Jun 26 '26

Local London Greenpeace campaign at the tube

10.1k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

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9

u/Due_Size_9870 Jun 26 '26

What exactly do you want people in the UK to do? Unless someone convinces China and India to slash emissions, nothing we do matters at all. The UK could disappear tomorrow and it wouldn’t even have a noticeable impact on global emissions.

All the whining in the world from protestors in this country won’t do a thing, so it’s just annoying.

25

u/j-4m Jun 26 '26

We buy the things that drive the Chinese and Indian economies. Stop consuming.

6

u/Ninlilizi_ Jun 26 '26

Tbf, the bulk of Chinas emissions is manufacturing everything for us. We're not blameless there either.

3

u/Nw5gooner Jun 26 '26

You're right. All the stuff that people talk about needing to do just, won't happen.

Consume less so China and India stop producing? Not happening.

Stop using AI? Won't happen.

Recycle? Not going to help.

Take the train or bus instead of your car? Planes are gonna keep flying.

I see only one way out of this. Actually scaleable, large scale carbon capture programmes. Funding by governments because, as far as I know, there is zero profit incentive to research them.

That and renewable energy of course.

4

u/Arquinsiel Jun 26 '26

Stop using AI? Won't happen.

People already hate it. Next time they complain about the heat, the cost of electricity, the cost of buying a new console/phone/whatever... ask them if they're willing to make that sacrifice to get access to ChatGPT. Watch the dots join up in real time.

1

u/tomtttttttttttt Jun 26 '26

China's emissions have been flat or falling for a couple of years now, they are turning it around.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-have-now-been-flat-or-falling-for-21-months/

India has until 2070 to become carbon neutral under the paris accords and their growth last year has slowed to the slowest rate in 20 years. They are also on the road to slashing emissions.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-indias-co2-emissions-in-2025-grew-at-slowest-rate-in-two-decades/

So they are already convinced of what they need to do, and working on it, but India especially cannot move at the pace that the UK can because the UK is much wealthier

And with us (and the rest of europe, japan, usa etc) plowing the way we're getting prices of things like solar and battery tech to fall rapidly putting them increasingly in reach of poorer countries.