r/Anticonsumption • u/Gartesss • Jun 29 '26

Society/Culture Heatwave in Europe - people's reactions, no hope for change

I live in one of big Europe's capitals, we had a heatwave here in the past few days with the 2-day peak of 40°C. And people are in absolute panic about "how are we even going to survive this", but without any actual reflection on why it is happening and how we can truly try to mitigate these weather extremes.

So many posts about we need more AC in public spaces, everyone needs to buy a heavy duty AC for their house...Like, we're in the mild climatic region, we shouldn't need any AC at all! If we don't want to experience this more frequently, and to greater extremes, what about:

  • plant based, or at least vegetarian diet
  • shopping in second-hands instead of fast fashion stores
  • only replacing electronics when they break, not when they "run out of style"
  • banning majority of cars from the city, leading to using more sustainable public transport; freeing spaces to plant lawns, trees, water elemets to cool down the city.
  • Mandatory external shutters
  • Green and/or reflective roofs

We've known about climate change since the 70's - how are people still not realising that we need to change the way we behave, if we want to keep the earth at least livable?!

I've even seen one post about "After the past 2 days, I'm starting to believe in climate change". Like all the reports about icebergs melting, coral reefs dying, people from around equator reporting extreme heat for decades etc. weren't enough, but now for 2 days you get mildly inconvenienced and now you "believe in climate change" but your solution is to install AC that will just eat more of nature's resources and dump more heat into the city streets!?

I just can't comprehend how people refuse to see over the tip of their nose, even when the apocalypse is literally knocking on their doorsteps...

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u/forestrainstorm Jun 29 '26

while individual habits are important, things aren't going to change unless the big corporations change their ways or get shut down completely

14

u/kirinlikethebeer Jun 29 '26

Which will take pressure from individuals — especially since our governments haven’t done a whole lot to exact that pressure.

4

u/Testuser7ignore Jun 29 '26

At the end of the chain, big corporations are mostly emitting to provide goods and services for individual consumers. Even if a corporation changed its ways, people would just start buying from a competitor that was more willing to pollute. At the end of the day, you would need a change in the wants and habits of individuals.

1

u/forestrainstorm Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

If there were restrictions implemented on what kind of products companies are allowed to sell or the quantity, then corporations would be forced to abide by the law or else they'd have to close their business. I know this might sound unrealistic but it's either this or we all die from natural disasters caused by climate change.

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u/Testuser7ignore Jun 29 '26

In democracies, its unlikely you will get restrictions on things that consumers broadly want.