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r/ClimateOffensive

▲ 38 r/ClimateOffensive

An easy way to save the UK 2,912,000,000 litres of water each day!

This could apply to any country with modern sanitation:

Given the degree of drought in the UK, I think it's time we Brits ramped up our water-saving habits.

The average adult goes to the toilet (number 1) six to eight times each day.

The average toilet cistern in modern British homes holds six to nine litres of water per flush.

Britain has approximately 52 million adults.

If we assume that each adult is flushing the toilet (after each number 1) consistently, then an adult in Britain is flushing approximately 56 litres of clean water down the toilet each day (taking the number of number 1s each day to be seven, and the average cistern storage capacity as eight litres (many older household toilets can store upwards of ten litres, so I'm assuming slightly higher than average for modern toilets)).

This equates to 2,912,000,000 litres of fresh water down the drain each day in Britain (and this only assumes adults are flushing).

Instead, why not flush the toilet only after doing a number 2? We'd save a lot of water!

Obviously, this water comes from the water supply lines, so we would still need a way to get this excess water to areas affected by drought.

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u/WeirdOwl8782 — 3 days ago
▲ 124 r/ClimateOffensive+1 crossposts

Keep Artificial Turf out of Youth Soccer!

I’m editing my post because the comments suggest a prevailing sentiment: the singular focus on the need for increased play time; while the health and safety risks, environmental damage, contribution to climate change, pollution and harm to wildlife be damned.

See link below for a detailed analysis of the pro's and con's of natural grass and artificial turf from a sports field management perspective. Also do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

https://www.sportsfieldmanagement.org/natural-grass-athletic-fields/

Artificial turf poses serious risks to human health, local wildlife and the environment. It's taking over soccer and other sports fields in schools and public parks at an alarming rate. It's a billion dollar industry and turf companies put profit over consumer safety. Please take a moment to learn more about the issue and check out the petition. Sign if you agree and want fake turf out of youth soccer and other sports.

https://www.change.org/supportnaturalgrassforyouthsports

Why Is Synthetic Turf Hazardous?

  • High Heat Synthetic turf has been documented to reach temperatures over 200°F on a 98°F day. Synthetic turf fields are always significantly hotter than natural grass, concrete and asphalt. These higher temperatures put users of turf at risk for skin burns and heat-related illness.
  • Toxic Chemicals Synthetic turf fields have been shown to contain the following chemicals which pose a risk to human health and wildlife:
    • Benzene: known human carcinogen
    • Arsenic: known human carcinogen
    • Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): anticipated to be a human carcinogen
    • Cadmium: known human carcinogen
    • Chromium: known human carcinogen; respiratory irritant
    • VOCs and SVOCs (e.g. benzathiazole, hexane, toluene, formaldehyde): respiratory irritants or asthma triggers
    • Phthalates: reproductive toxicant
    • Crystalline Silica: known human carcinogen; respiratory irritant 
    • Particulate matter: respiratory irritant or asthma trigger

Additionally, due synthetic turf fields being made of petrochemical products, they are highly flammable. As a result, many fields toxic contain flame- retardants. Many also contain antimicrobials following the higher incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections from playing on synthetic turf fields.

Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals because of their rapidly developing organ systems and immature detoxification systems. They also breathe more air per unit of body weight than adults, and are likely to have greater hand-to-mouth exposure to environmental contaminants compared to adults.

  • Microplastics The infill for synthetic turf playing fields has historically consisted of primarily crumbed used tires. Due to friction during use, UV radiation from the sun, and general environmental exposure, the plastic blades in synthetic turf breakdown into tiny pieces of plastic called microplastic. Each synthetic turf field looses 0.5 to 8.0% of its blades annually, yielding 200 to 3200 pounds of plastic waste to our environment per year. These microplastics migrate off the field into air, soil, waterways and oceans.

https://www.beyondplastics.org/fact-sheets/synthetic-turf

Read the Santa Clara County Medical Association's 2024 report on artificial turf:

https://www.sccma.org/Portals/19/Artificial%20Turf%20Policy%20Recommendation%20SCCMA%20Final%20%206824%20.pdf

u/GoodCaterpillar257 — 5 days ago
▲ 35 r/ClimateOffensive

A Successful Climate Strategy

There is a workable strategy with a 66% chance of success. It consists, in a condensed description here, of using natural processes to sequester carbon while simultaneously moving to a cessation of CO2 emissions.

A slightly longer description is this: replant and nurture six ecosystems, three marine and three terrestrial. These are kelp beds, mangrove estuaries and sea grasses; and boreal forests with their fungal understories, tropical rain forests, and prairie grasses with their bovine inhabitants. Simultaneously we must reduce to zero the carbon emissions from fossil fuels for transport, energy, and heating, powering industrial manufacturing, deforestation, and making materials like cement. These two things--carbon sequestration and elimination of CO2 emissions must both happen at once all over the planet or we are screwn. However, if we do them, there's a 66% chance of success.

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u/Easy_Interest_6832 — 6 days ago
▲ 98 r/ClimateOffensive

Feeling bleak- what are some practical steps I can take right now? (UK)

I woke up to the scent of fire this morning.

Thankfully, nothing immediately around me, but the smoke from fires miles away was strong enough to cover the town where I live.

Everywhere I see evidence of imminent crisis and yet, I look on Instagram or LinkedIn and everything’s AI, the latest “haul” from Temu. The news is all data centres and climate-change-denying Farage.

I feel like I’m watching a house fire and people are throwing petrol on it, not water.

I want to do something, but I’m stuck. Advice welcome.

Things I already do/ steps I’ve taken:
- vegan (for 10+ years)
- Childfree
- boycott Amazon, McDonalds, CocaCola etc
- donate to ecologi to plant trees and friends of the earth
- (tiny) investments in green funds
- use ecomobile and Octopus Energy
- no fast fashion or fast furniture (everything’s secondhand or British bought)
- recycle/ compost
- rare air travel (one overseas holiday per 2 years, absolute max, even then, last holiday was by train)

What am I missing/ what else can I do?

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u/edith_white — 6 days ago
▲ 169 r/ClimateOffensive+1 crossposts

One of the most important things you can do to promote climate policy is to talk about it | Citizens' Climate Lobby offers free communication skills training to help make these conversations more constructive | They are brief, powerful, and easily digestible

community.citizensclimate.org
u/ILikeNeurons — 6 days ago
▲ 219 r/ClimateOffensive

Why aren’t there more aggressive climate groups?

I’m not talking violence of any means but i want to join a group that has a bit more gusto! I remember I used to always see those vegan groups that would show graphic footage of animal slaughter in public settings and it frustrated a lot of people but I think it got the message across really well. I live in Australia and I see nothing like that? If we all agree this is an emergency than we need to treat it like one! I feel like politics is moving away from climate concerns and we need to push this movement back to the forefront of the public psyche!

Anyways my question is, anyone know of a group like this? I live in Sydney so local would be preferred but can’t find anything online

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u/high_tier_stacy — 8 days ago
▲ 183 r/ClimateOffensive+2 crossposts

American Environmentalists are less likely to vote than the average American, and our policies reflect that reality | Change the course of history, and turn the American electorate into a climate electorate!

environmentalvoter.org
u/ILikeNeurons — 8 days ago
▲ 8 r/ClimateOffensive

Every country should have a constitution based only on ecologism

I think this is a far more fundamental problem, as a romanian green I would love that the whole EU, US and the West in general to move away from toxic liberal productivism and embrace a total vision based in ecologism, and as democratic as it can get, but with green constraints. Our constitutions are outdated, a total view in harmony with nature is the only way to save ourselves from cancerous self destruction.

What's your thoughts on this?

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u/ProgressiveEcologist — 6 days ago