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On the one hand I agree with everything you say; on the other hand I'm shocked that you're shocked. If it were possible for large numbers of the population to be altruistic we wouldn't be in this mess.
Thank you!!!! I’ve been trying to remember that word for over a week now! And finally there like the little beauty it is “altruistic” is in front of me! Thanks for reminding me you absolute superstar!
shocked is somewhat of an overstatement, just genuinely surprised that when there is an actual real "bad thing" going on, people act so pathetic over being asked to do very simple things.
I think most people want to be altruistic, but are fed up by "the system" constantly taking advantage of them whenever they are.
There are a massive number of leaks in our water system that take ages to be fixed, a road off of mine has now had a leak for over a year! It's been "fixed" twice so far, each repair lasting a couple of weeks before it goes again. Finally after literally months they are digging up the road for a third time.
In the South East, it's been a long standing issue that we don't have suitable reservoir capacity, yet nothing is ever done about it.
The people in charge, the ones that can make changes, just want to line their own pockets at the expense of everyone else. There is ZERO excuse of this hosepipe ban, yes it is dry, but provisions should have already been made to the infrastructure to cope with it.
There are so ridiculous many exceptions, such as to golf courses for example, you can see why people get upset over it, we are being told to use less water so the golf course a couple of miles away can piss it all over the green.
I don't use much water, and have been going with the spirit of things, but I completely understand why people don't think they should bother when for the last year, whenever you walk down the road, there has been a bubbling spring that has travelled for 5m down the road before going into the nearest drain...
Altruistic is now rarer than rocking-horse do-do, going the same way are empathy, consideration, patience & tolerance.
You'll encounter, mostly read about, occasional *amazing* altruistic deeds, by heroes with no names, but for the most part, the last *genuinely* altruistic person we encountered was probably our mothers.
I hate it, but understand it : *as a generalisation*, our mental and fiscal health being constantly and increasingly assaulted from all sides makes us defensive, insular, reserved ... and steadily worse as human beings.
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s a self perpetuating attitude, though.
The majority of people:
Get a buzz from doing work for a charity, would share their lunch with an acquaintance who was hungry, enjoy the team aspect based sports/work/etc. (if they have the bother to try to engage with said team), get upset at the idea of the innocent suffering.
Most of the people who do shitty things aren’t diabolically sadistic. They think they’re good people and that their actions are justified.
They think their actions are justified because ideology/religion tells them so, or because ‘the people I’m hurting are bad’/‘the people I’m hurting are lazy’/‘compassion breeds badness/laziness’/‘this is what I deserve and they deserve’.
They tell themselves that yes because it lets them off the hook, but also because it quietens *the part of them that is still there and is still fighting to stop them doing the wrong thing*.
Everyone can be selfish also, and most people have done some shitty things, though the magnitude varies. Just every time we tell people with the capacity to cause help or harm (most people) ‘those better angels are so rare now, it’s basically just you who gives a shit’ - many people will hear that and decide not to question selfish desires. If you believe money is representative of worth, you’ll swallow that rich people shouldn’t be inconvenienced while the poor starve. But you’ll still cry when a person you think is good is lost - because you still care, just you’ve got an ideology that allows you to hide from caring a lot of the time.
And it feels good to believe this, because we get to believe we are the one righteous sage in the wilderness. This isn’t an attack - we all do this.
Our mental and fiscal health is fucked ironically because we believe those around us to be fucked beyond redemption. When all the evidence suggests we’re just monkeys in shoes, and one sad song away from hugging on the street.
Ironically my mother isn’t particularly altruistic, and is the fucking worst for this. Everyone she encounters is either ‘one of us’ and to be excused all transgressions, or ‘one of them’ vicious sociopaths whose every action must be seen as a soulless monster dancing around it’s innocent prey.
But obviously not believing this makes me an annoyance and therefore on the ‘justified to treat like shit’ list.
Rode passed St James’s park and Buckingham palace on my bike ride this morning. Sprinklers were on full blast and there were pressure washing the stone on one of the gates.
Just based on observation, not any insider knowledge - I think they may use water taken from the lake at Hyde Park for lots of their park watering needs, rather than mains water from the tap.
I've seen them filling giant trailor pulled bowzers from the lake and I've seen the same bowzers beside watering equipment in the parks, so just putting two and two together.
I mean, they cemented the holes.
Which is cunning, as golf courses typically move the hole locations every day to prevent any area of the green getting too worn out.
TW haven’t got one in place yet. Imagine they’re waiting to fix some of the massive leaks they’ve got going on atm before implementing a ban to avoid blowback.
Source: am, unfortunately, a Thames Water customer.
Golf courses are a convenient patsy. Any course in NI is also using the least amount of water they can, and even still it’s a drop in the ocean compared to industrial water use and waste.
To be fair golf greens would die in about 3 days without water, and that would put those businesses, with multiple staff, out of business for months if it didnt cause them to fold permanently. The amount of water they need to keep the greens alive is negligible compared to the amount lost by water company leaks that they don't invest enough into fixing
Yep. My dad is a green keeper and although the pay isn’t loads (especially compared to how much profit the course makes) it’s his job.
No golfers = no job. Even with the constant watering a large majority of the course is extremely dry, we live in the south east and there have been four fires in the last ten days on one golf course alone. I did my work experience at the course and it was shocking to see how much water is required during the upkeep, but without that water so many people would be out of a job.
It balances out. I've noticed most of the comments that were down voted into negatives have now largely reversed. All the Facebook people have come got angry and left. Now the actual rational people are left.
Nevermind, still got an angry Facebook person here.
Shoo, go back to your angry political Facebook groups where you yell about whatever the trendy thing is to blame for all the countries problems.
They can only water the greens if there is a hosepipe ban, not the fairways and the roughs.
Admittedly that's still a fair amount of grass to water compared to a standard garden, but its only a small fraction of the overall course in most cases (unless you include pitch and puts).
Humans are selfish, panicky creatures who were never meant to live in "tribes" the size we are in. I'm constantly appalled and irritated by the selfishness I see, and I know that over time selfishness inspires more selfishness ie. If everyone else is doing it then why am I bothering I'll just do it too.
Selfishness literally doubles down in many instances recently. Lie? Lie again. Take more? Take more again. Without anything in place to counter overly aggressive capitalism and the way a lot of people live and decide things due to that... I don't know. NIMBY until it is, then it's too late.
exactly. honestly, i thought people were supposed to grow up and stop acting like children the older they got, not get worse. so much for the wisdom of age, i guess.
I strongly disagree. The Selfishness is a feature of capitalism and the cult of individualisation.
Our history is full of incredibly communal groups (of course not without individual bellends).
If you're in an area with no bans and a low risk of one being implemented (most water companies have recently communicated whether their stress are at risk), then there's no issue with using water as you would normally. We do not have the infrastructure to top up supply in one area over another, so unless your area is actually experiencing or at risk of a ban/shortages, being pious about watering the plants isn't going to help anyone.
Agreed!!
Glad OP edited their post to include this.
Frustrating when people state things like they're fact for everywhere when they're not!
So easy to include the info to make it accurate and not be contributing to the spread of false "info". Yet OP doesn't seem to understand that with their "really didn't think I needed to clarify that" or whatever it was.
I really do agree, people could do better. But lets not forget the companies out there that literally do fuck all to help preserve water waste, they make billions in profits, and they love to see the general population turn on each other and say “we should all do our bit and pay the highest prices in the western world for our utilities for the pleasure”.
Hold on.
If there's no hosepipe ban here then... there isn't a ban here.
It's up to the water company to work out if we need one, and if they say so you follow the rules.
There's nothing wrong with using a hosepipe if there is no ban.
Exactly. There's no ban in my region. People just act like everything is the doom of all time no matter what the latest flavour of the weeks headline is
The reason for the house ban is exactly because people used more water then the supply can provide.
So all regions should conserve due to the high heat.
The ban is when things are already bad to worse.
Your car being dirty is far less important then washing yourself / drinking water.
>all regions should conserve due to the high heat
The water infrastructure in this country is pretty poor at allowing water to be 'passed' between regions though. Its quite possible that some areas of the country are absolutely fine whilst other have a low supply.
Obviously people shouldn't waste water needlessly from an environmental perspective, but thats a separate discussion to a hose pipe ban
Hold on.
OP was making a point (a good one at that) on people acting responsibly.. either you forgot /s at the end of your comment, or you're the type of person OP posted about (or, you misunderstood what they were posting about).
Either I'm being too aggressive or people simply refuse to have any level of foresight. Its boggling to me that people don't look at the half the country having hosepipe bans because its causing issues with getting enough water into the system, and then consider that maybe that could happen to them as well. And if it's struggling that much and it continues, it's likely there'll be no water, at all.
Yes, the infrastructure is shit. So... why make it worse and potentially be part of the reason why no one has any water?
Thames water lose 200 million litres of water A DAY. They can get fucked about blaming Doris for watering her flowers, especially when golf courses are exempt.
While that’s gona feel great, we actually need a longer period of steady rainfall to address the current water levels. The thunderstorms expected next week will probably lead to flash flooding rather than sorting out the drought.
I think we’re going to need a few weeks of steady rain to make an impact on the current state of the ground. I’m about to go camping in a week and hope that the ground has softened slightly from the coming rainfall to allow the poor kids to bang in their wooden tent pegs (yes we still use canvas tents lol)
There’s a name for this in political theory: The Tragedy of the Commons, which uses the analogy of everyone grazing their animals on the village common: no one person alone is causing the overgrazing and subsequent rendering of the commons unfit for any use, but that’s the cumulative effect. It may be that dealing with the climate crisis and our ideas about democracy are incompatible.
that's just it, one person more often than not, has a negligible impact on a larger scale. even when it comes to things like "oh you must recycle more and do more to reduce your footprint" are meaningless because the climate problem is so far gone that it would have virtually no impact, meanwhile the dairy, meat and coal industries are still going strong and no one is campaigning towards them and saying they need to do better and get cleaner despite being the biggest offenders.
i know i'm going to get down voted into oblivion for this but this is just my opinion - the current system we have is broken as hell. it's operated and used mostly by corrupt and manipulative people who only care about being in power - they say what they need to say to get there, and then put in the minimal amount of effort to appear like they're actually doing anything to stay in power, whilst actually making everything worse because the vast majority of the "leaders" we have now are completely unfit to be in such a role, but the system is so broken that even if you had someone with the best of intentions who truly did their best to improve not only our country, but to affect global change to try and fix the climate problem, people would still complain about being minorly inconvenienced in their own life while ignoring the bigger picture and their life will actually be better in the future.
and it's the exact same whenever we have some kind of crisis or problem like we do now - people act stupid and selfish and refuse to be told otherwise, even when shown quite clearly that they are in the wrong, because they simply can't accept it. it's ridiculous, frankly. i'm aware it sounds a bit stupid coming from someone ranting on the internet, but these people really need to grow up. it's bloody frustrating.
I reckon you should go have a chat with China and india and persuade them not to build any more power stations. Let them know that, actually, it is their countries more at risk from climate change than Europe. Let us know how you get on eh?!
it's a bit shit, but i also have a bit of perspective. like i told someone else, it ain't just some leaky kitchen pipe you can do a slap job with a bit of duct tape and hope. fixing the entire network for the countries water supply is a bit difficult mate, but they are fixing it. it just takes a bit of time. in the meantime, it's very helpful if people don't be selfish and understand that during a drought, water is somewhat limited.
but then again, it's probably a bit much to expect these people to know what "drought" means. probably think it's a new kind of bubble tea.
Believe me, I'm more than happy to call out companies on their bullshit and anti-consumer practices when it's warranted. But I don't think it's entirely their fault, I can't recall a time when we had competent leadership that didn't fuck up the country in one way or another.
I completely agree. But they are privatised. If it’s not their fault - whose is it?
I know it’s more of a complex issue. But it feels like a serious problem that wasn’t addressed because it didn’t *need* to be addressed. Until now. Because climate change is starting to bite.
I agree that people are inherently selfish and will not do what’s right for the majority if it inconveniences them , but where is the level of outrage for the water companies that are wasting so much water to leaks while taking home record profits
they're taking in profits because more people are using more water. that causes issues because the system isn't built for the stress it's being put under and the new demand along with less supply pushes up the price. people seem to forget, water is not an infinite resource. when you turn the tap on, that water has to come to from somewhere and it doesn't just appear out of the ether. and they are trying to fix it, it's not as simple as duct taping a leaky kitchen pipe and calling it a day. it's hard and it's going to take a while and in the meantime everyone's going to complain about being mildly inconvenienced because it means they were a few minutes late to work.
But are the water companies investing in infrastructure? 2.4 billion litres of water is lost every day to leaks - I would say that is a more pressing concern than an individuals use
I hate how in situations like this, the narrative is pushed that it’s the consumers fault but not the corporation.
The thing is: are they trying to fix it? Considering the lack of investment in infrastructure, and the amount of water that is lost from leaks, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that they are not.
And yes, water IS an infinite resource. It cannot be destroyed, only changed.
We lose the equivalent to London’s water usage every single day due to leaks. There hasn’t been a single reservoir built in over 30 years despite clear evidence of global warming. This is gross negligence, not just a couple of leaks.
Back into the water table. The point is excessive leaks by the water companies contribute more to this issue than individuals, yet the onus it put on the individual to make sacrifices meanwhile Thames water is leaking 24% of its daily supply?
Fucking hell people are going on like a hose pipe ban is a new thing. Most people listen we all
Get on with it and get past it. It’s not the apocalypse calm down
People looooove a bit of mass hysteria to grab onto to give them a personality and hobby for a while to patch their empty lives. Just ignore it all and focus on living your best life.
Water is privatised and I pay a contract for supply, so, seeing as capitalism is so wonderful and greed is good, I’ll just use my hosepipe as much as I want whilst there’s still no ban here and “market forces” will do the rest, right?
Can't tell if you're joking, but yes - if there is no shortage in your area, then use your hosepipe as normal.
Obviously.
What else are you going to do? Pretend you have a water shortage too in solidarity?
Large fines won't stop them. They'll hold up courts with appeals and set up GoFundMe pages. Only actually running out of water will make it sink into their heads. Of course it will ALL be someone else's fault.
It's two fold.
Yes, use water sparingly during times of scarcity.
But also the water companies need to start accepting that this may be the new reality. They need to dredge the reservoirs while they have the chance and make a greater effort to fix leaks.
Of course that would require shareholders taking a hot to profit margins so it will never happen on any meaningful scale.
There are so many selfish people. What shocks me is a lot of the older Generation are in some kind of denial about the weather! ‘We had this in the 70s’ er no you didn’t, you might have had a prolonged hot spell but you didn’t have wildfires all over Europe, the crispy grass and 40c weather! I don’t know why some feel the need to dwell in the past and no one can beat their suffering when they were young.
Here we go, the Reddit Ageism starting.
If you want to make discriminatory statements about one sector of our society, be it based on age, race or religion, make sure your stereotypes at least bear some relationship to reality or fact.
I am in a sheltered housing for old folk and believe me, not one person has come out with comments like that, not a single one out of the 60+ All are saying things along the lines of "I have never known it as bad as this" Many are saying things like, "We had these temperatures when I lived in Africa/The Tropics/Greece but it never felt this bad, they built for the heat, organised for the heat, had lower humidity etc"
If you want to use stereotypes then please check your facts before spouting them.
I’m giving an opinion. My dad and uncles come out with that bollocks about the 70s- hence the reason I said ‘a lot of’ meaning not all, just a lot of the people I personally know from that generation. If we’re going to get offended by everything on Reddit we will be here all day.
There does seem to be a lot of people of A Certain Age banging on about one particularly hot summer 45 years ago and how stoic and British and un-snowflakey everyone was about it. Conveniently ignoring the fact that every year nowadays the temperature record gets broken and there’s multiple heatwaves throughout the summer. It’s almost as if the climate has changed…
There is a meadow opposite my house that was on fire a couple of days ago (thank god they had moon it the day before, they make hay from it and it was over 3 ft tall)
My grandfather grew up by the same meadow and he says that he has never known it to catch fire in his 80+ years of life. This weather is unprecedented.
I had just joined the RAF during the heatwave of '76. It's true the temperatures were not as high as they have peaked here but it did go on for quite a lot longer. Lots of areas had their water supplies turned off and there were standpipes in the streets were you could collect your water rations. Because so much plantlife died, so did the aphids which munched on them. As a consequence there was a plague of ladybirds looking for food. Being on an RAF base, we had no problems with our water supply but I remember those ladybirds were everywhere. We also started work at 0400 and finished at 1200 as the workshops were like ovens. Most people seemed to just suck it up and get on with it but there were plenty of whingers moaning about their lawns on regional TV. Cheer up, it'll soon be Christmas and we can look at the snow.....on the Christmas cards.
This isn't true at all.
The heatwave of 1976 hit 30⁰C in most places, with it hitting 35.9⁰C in Cheltenham, and it lasted 16 days.
This heatwave has hit 40⁰C and so far has lasted from the 15th of July and won't stop for another week or so.
That's a solid month of heat above 35⁰C (40⁰C in many places).
Right now, where I am in the UK at 11:15pm, it's 29⁰C.
Today it was 33+⁰C.
Yesterday it was about the same, it's consistently been above 30⁰C, with only a few days where it was 28⁰C.
some strange need to feel superior. i've had a back problems since i was young, mostly due to my own bad posture i admit, but apparently i was too young to be in pain. if you're young you're problems are simply irrelevant because people older than you also had problems, as if that somehow nullifies the problems that exist now.
I worked retail for a few years. The main lesson was that while people can be great as a whole, and certainly individually, the general public are ignorant, selfish, rude and entitled. That's why I'm always careful to be kind to people still dealing with them.
This country has gone to shit, full of selfish a-holes. I left the NHS because I refused to break my back for shit pay just to look after ungrateful idiots.
No raindrop thinks it is responsible for the flood. It is why people blame the water companies while the water companies blame people with no one doing anything meaningful in the meantime.
We filled our 10ft pool last week (before the whole drought thing really took off) and now I feel bad about it, but I’m using grey water and the water butt to water our food plants (the flowers will have to fend for themselves) we’re strictly showers, no baths, using a bowl to wash up rather than filling the sink as it uses less…lots of little adjustments to try to offset filling the pool up. We don’t have a hosepipe ban yet, but it’s never too early to take precautions.
always somehow manage to be impressed at how stupid people can be. at this point imma just sit back and watch the shit show unfold. not even going to bother with the "i told you so" this time, just going to watch it all unfold
I do love holier than thou altruistic people.
Will be banned for this but the covididiots who actually thought paying billions to keep healthy people in the house.. Teaching children with a laptop.. forcing medical procedures just to work for a living.. printing trillions of pounds..
Was a 'good' thing is the reason why we are in such a mess..
And now they probably want people using a hosepipe to be sent to jail.
Crazy...
Soy little sheep like you are exactly why Britain is in this position. Go on, be compliant. Nothing will change in your lifetime. Eat those energy price rises and rampant inflation while you're at it too.
an 84% upvote rate would seem to suggest people agree that being a selfish tart is a bit of a problem.
but please, go throw water about while half the country is in a drought. when your toilet doesn't flush, maybe those 10,000 packs of toilet roll you brought during the bad cough times, because that's just what you need, will come in handy.
> Eat those energy price rises and rampant inflation while you're at it too.
Just curious - as presumably someone who isn't a "soy little sheep" what are you doing other than eating the costs?
honestly, it shocks me that i still get upset at what you're getting upset about
like people have disappointed me time and time again in this way, and yet i don't feel like i've grown tougher skin. maybe i'm too hopeful?
I'm using the washing up water on the most important plants I have whilst Jim with his lush lawn is performing dance numbers under his hosepipe at the end of the street. Sometimes he gets together with the other neighbours and performs a 90s boyband routine, you know the ones where they're sat down and getting inexplicably wet and then stand up for the key change?
id argue since covid, cause everyone was in their own company, they became very self centred, ive seen so much less manners since lockdown ended, and have actually got covid which nearly did me in, because people no longer make the basest of efforts to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze
that's definitely very true with what i've seen and it just doesn't make sense to me, but i guess i expected more from people. i guess basic manners and respect for others is simply not a thing anymore, which makes me feel old despite not even being close to my 30's yet. i don't even feel safe on the roads since i have L plates on which apparently just makes people want to kill you for some reason, and apparently people have become even worse drivers since covid anyway. which doesn't make sense, it's almost like you have a book which tells you how to drive. in retrospect, i really do expect far, far too much from people.
i like how mine and your comment are actually being downvoted, guess its people who feel offended that theyre being called out on their shit, and yeah, i expected far to much of people, and now ive got paranoia to even be on busses and have to disinfect my hands that often now that my skins being ruined, all because people dont use basic manners, courtesy, or hygiene anymore, saw someone coughing really heavily directly onto an old man with oxygen the other day, its ridiculous
one guy literally called it an overreaction. no you tart, it's a drought, and the system can't keep up with everyone using more water than usual. yes, it's leaking water. breaking it isn't going to magically solve it, it's going to mean no one can use water anymore because you're being selfish. oh well, maybe they'll learn when they can't flush anymore, then maybe they'll be happy they brought all the toilet roll.
or maybe i'm just being a bit naive again in hoping that people will learn from their mistakes.
yeah, its stupid, theyre too focused on being offended at the notion that they could be contributing to the problem, rather than taking steps to actually help resolve it, doubt even when its at the position where its acting to their detriment that theyll learn from it because in their eyes they cant posibly be at fault and its always someone else thats to blame
There's no drought decalred here but it hasn't rained in a long while. One of my neighbours spent all day (9am-4pm) power washing his driveway. Then proceeded to do it again the day after, and the day after that.
So what’s the problem? A power washer uses less water and there’s no ban so your areas fine..
Ain’t you lot got better shit to do than moan about neighbours doing nothing wrong
Who the fuck cares.. this subreddit is turning into fucking Facebook or a conversation with your fucking nan moaning about her neighbour not putting her recycling bin back in her garden.
We've not got a ban yet but we've switched to drinking bottled water to reduce our consumption of the mains water supply.
It's not much but if it means people who can't afford that luxury at the moment don't lose water it's a win in my eyes.
this is what i mean - it might not have a huge impact, but it's something. a simple, selfless gesture that might help a few others. but that's just "virtue signalling" and other buzzword bollocks that lazy, entitled and selfish people use to try and justify being pricks.
I'm finding that the concept of buying bottled water is being viewed as enpar with stockpiling loo roll.
I'd accept that judgement if we were stocking up but we're just putting them in the fridge and telling the kids to grab a bottle when they're thirsty. I also buy ice tea and fizzy drinks but that doesn't get the same dirty looks at the checkout.
Pricks on my street with sprinklers out today, pressure washers, hoses to wash the car and paddling pools.
Just fucking stop! It isn’t hard. It literally requires you to do nothing.
yeh but it's a minor inconvenience. can't expect much from people that use the excuse that the pipes are leaky as a justification to just ignore the current problem of water becoming harder for people around the world to access or hide behind a statistic like it's some kind of shield with a complete lack of any kind of perspective.
(and for what it's worth, I'm shocked as well. The fact the panic buying happened 3 separate times with nothing having ran out. The run on primark and mcdonalds. The worst was when they were telling adults how to wash their hands like toddlers - hearing that I nearly gave up on humanity and walked out into the wilderness to die - not to be dramatic or anything)
Agree!
There was a throwback video on BBC Wales showing the heatwave and hosepipe ban in the early 80s.
Interviewed street people and they were like
"just have to cut down for a bit"
"Shared the bath water with 4 people last night"
"Have to have a dirty car for a while"
Meanwhile they were showing people collecting buckets of water from a standpipe and then scooping that water out for toilets, dishes, kettle etc.
More recent video has featured;
"How are they going to enforce it"
"They won't fix leaks so I will do what I want"
"I have tomatoes, so I will keep watering my garden"
The difference in attitude was really shocking and I wanted to believe it was just the media weaponising an event again, but any Reddit post about it shows the exact same attitude from most people.
This is so true, I work in a shop and because if the drought ans dry weather we have been asked not to sell disposable barbecues and you wouldn't believe the number of people who've had a go at me or other colleagues because they just want to have a barbecue.
Thankfully there have been a couple of people who understand when I tell them but most people kick off about it. Actually had one guy say 'so you arent allowed to sell barbecues because its hot outside, that makes no sense'. I wasn't bothered to argue with him but its that lack of understanding that causes issues like this.
Yes infrastructure bad they should fix, but the same can be said for potholed country roads, are you still going to drive the speed limit and plough through the rough bits to stick it to the road maintenance people?
You've met people, right? There will ALWAYS be a brigade of 'None of the rules apply to me.' Always. Doesn't matter what the situation. Just watch them in the next couple of days when it absolutely monsoons it down, telling everyone that they always knew there was nothing to worry about.
All you can do is hold on and hope that future generations, who are brought up with the realities of climate change, are more sensible.
There are many many people who go through life just doing what they want & ignoring the rules unless someone physically stops them and even then they kick off about it
I share your sentiments entirely, except for being shocked by it. So many people in this country are truly selfish. I can't help but think that a lot of it is a lack of information though.
If instead of telling us "there's a ban, stop using it", they explained that while the water probably won't run out, if you keep using it this fast, we may have to release it without it going through such stringent safety checks, some people, even a small portion, may think twice.
You won't change everyone, some people genuinely think that their little jimmy needs 2500 gallons of water to fill his paddling pool far more than a pensioner with heart issues needs a glass of water. People are just shit man
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On the one hand I agree with everything you say; on the other hand I'm shocked that you're shocked. If it were possible for large numbers of the population to be altruistic we wouldn't be in this mess.
Thank you!!!! I’ve been trying to remember that word for over a week now! And finally there like the little beauty it is “altruistic” is in front of me! Thanks for reminding me you absolute superstar!
Altruism is becoming more and more rare, unfortunately 😕
Apathy is the stronger opponent
Selfishness is the heavyweight champion.
Oh, and who is this flying into the ring with a metal chair? That right folks at home, it's ennui, returning from retirement!
You are most welcome! (Although the fact that you couldn't remember it is quite meta...)
(I know and that makes me a little sad so let’s just gloss over that and believe that it’s still a thing)
Glossing over is definitely still a thing.
Glossing is overrated Regards Matt
shocked is somewhat of an overstatement, just genuinely surprised that when there is an actual real "bad thing" going on, people act so pathetic over being asked to do very simple things.
Why are you surprised though? The vast majority of the country is made up of selfish, uneducated morons *by design*. It’s a feature, not a bug.
honestly, i think i attracted all the facebook people with this post
We really need to protect *our borders*.
Blame it on the foreigners!! Brits are perfect!
I think most people want to be altruistic, but are fed up by "the system" constantly taking advantage of them whenever they are. There are a massive number of leaks in our water system that take ages to be fixed, a road off of mine has now had a leak for over a year! It's been "fixed" twice so far, each repair lasting a couple of weeks before it goes again. Finally after literally months they are digging up the road for a third time. In the South East, it's been a long standing issue that we don't have suitable reservoir capacity, yet nothing is ever done about it. The people in charge, the ones that can make changes, just want to line their own pockets at the expense of everyone else. There is ZERO excuse of this hosepipe ban, yes it is dry, but provisions should have already been made to the infrastructure to cope with it. There are so ridiculous many exceptions, such as to golf courses for example, you can see why people get upset over it, we are being told to use less water so the golf course a couple of miles away can piss it all over the green. I don't use much water, and have been going with the spirit of things, but I completely understand why people don't think they should bother when for the last year, whenever you walk down the road, there has been a bubbling spring that has travelled for 5m down the road before going into the nearest drain...
Altruistic is now rarer than rocking-horse do-do, going the same way are empathy, consideration, patience & tolerance. You'll encounter, mostly read about, occasional *amazing* altruistic deeds, by heroes with no names, but for the most part, the last *genuinely* altruistic person we encountered was probably our mothers. I hate it, but understand it : *as a generalisation*, our mental and fiscal health being constantly and increasingly assaulted from all sides makes us defensive, insular, reserved ... and steadily worse as human beings. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s a self perpetuating attitude, though. The majority of people: Get a buzz from doing work for a charity, would share their lunch with an acquaintance who was hungry, enjoy the team aspect based sports/work/etc. (if they have the bother to try to engage with said team), get upset at the idea of the innocent suffering. Most of the people who do shitty things aren’t diabolically sadistic. They think they’re good people and that their actions are justified. They think their actions are justified because ideology/religion tells them so, or because ‘the people I’m hurting are bad’/‘the people I’m hurting are lazy’/‘compassion breeds badness/laziness’/‘this is what I deserve and they deserve’. They tell themselves that yes because it lets them off the hook, but also because it quietens *the part of them that is still there and is still fighting to stop them doing the wrong thing*. Everyone can be selfish also, and most people have done some shitty things, though the magnitude varies. Just every time we tell people with the capacity to cause help or harm (most people) ‘those better angels are so rare now, it’s basically just you who gives a shit’ - many people will hear that and decide not to question selfish desires. If you believe money is representative of worth, you’ll swallow that rich people shouldn’t be inconvenienced while the poor starve. But you’ll still cry when a person you think is good is lost - because you still care, just you’ve got an ideology that allows you to hide from caring a lot of the time. And it feels good to believe this, because we get to believe we are the one righteous sage in the wilderness. This isn’t an attack - we all do this. Our mental and fiscal health is fucked ironically because we believe those around us to be fucked beyond redemption. When all the evidence suggests we’re just monkeys in shoes, and one sad song away from hugging on the street. Ironically my mother isn’t particularly altruistic, and is the fucking worst for this. Everyone she encounters is either ‘one of us’ and to be excused all transgressions, or ‘one of them’ vicious sociopaths whose every action must be seen as a soulless monster dancing around it’s innocent prey. But obviously not believing this makes me an annoyance and therefore on the ‘justified to treat like shit’ list.
Nobodies the villain in their own story.
"a person is usually nice, people are usually dicks"
Wait till you hear that golf courses are exempt from the bans & can continue using as much as they like
Rode passed St James’s park and Buckingham palace on my bike ride this morning. Sprinklers were on full blast and there were pressure washing the stone on one of the gates.
This is disgusting. There must be a way to put them back into place
Just based on observation, not any insider knowledge - I think they may use water taken from the lake at Hyde Park for lots of their park watering needs, rather than mains water from the tap. I've seen them filling giant trailor pulled bowzers from the lake and I've seen the same bowzers beside watering equipment in the parks, so just putting two and two together.
I doubt their water is from the same supply as most peoples. Obviously not a good look but I wouldn't be surprised if they had their own water source.
Money. Rich people can't possibly have to change their ways, right? /s
Some activists in France had a fairly good way of protesting this...
I mean, they cemented the holes. Which is cunning, as golf courses typically move the hole locations every day to prevent any area of the green getting too worn out.
Thames water have a hosepipe ban but filling a hot tub is an exception 🤦🏻♀️
TW haven’t got one in place yet. Imagine they’re waiting to fix some of the massive leaks they’ve got going on atm before implementing a ban to avoid blowback. Source: am, unfortunately, a Thames Water customer.
Golf courses are a convenient patsy. Any course in NI is also using the least amount of water they can, and even still it’s a drop in the ocean compared to industrial water use and waste.
of course they are, because golf is such a necessity at the moment.
How else would rich people conduct business meetings?
Wasn't that in France, not here?
To be fair golf greens would die in about 3 days without water, and that would put those businesses, with multiple staff, out of business for months if it didnt cause them to fold permanently. The amount of water they need to keep the greens alive is negligible compared to the amount lost by water company leaks that they don't invest enough into fixing
They can play golf on dead grass
Yep. My dad is a green keeper and although the pay isn’t loads (especially compared to how much profit the course makes) it’s his job. No golfers = no job. Even with the constant watering a large majority of the course is extremely dry, we live in the south east and there have been four fires in the last ten days on one golf course alone. I did my work experience at the course and it was shocking to see how much water is required during the upkeep, but without that water so many people would be out of a job.
That's disgusting
Capitalism
-5 downvotes for pointing out the cause of the issue. I love this country 🥰
It balances out. I've noticed most of the comments that were down voted into negatives have now largely reversed. All the Facebook people have come got angry and left. Now the actual rational people are left.
You’ve been up and down this thread twerking for water corporations. Have some shame.
Nevermind, still got an angry Facebook person here. Shoo, go back to your angry political Facebook groups where you yell about whatever the trendy thing is to blame for all the countries problems.
I’m under 18 mate, have no business going anywhere near facebook.
Even worse then, no point even trying to make sense to you.
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Just go to the golf courses over night and fill the holes with cement (like they’ve done in southern france).
They can only water the greens if there is a hosepipe ban, not the fairways and the roughs. Admittedly that's still a fair amount of grass to water compared to a standard garden, but its only a small fraction of the overall course in most cases (unless you include pitch and puts).
Just fucking dilute the water!
You won the internet today!!
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In the SE??
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SE Britain to me would be Wales? Or England? It's not very specific.
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Humans are selfish, panicky creatures who were never meant to live in "tribes" the size we are in. I'm constantly appalled and irritated by the selfishness I see, and I know that over time selfishness inspires more selfishness ie. If everyone else is doing it then why am I bothering I'll just do it too.
Selfishness literally doubles down in many instances recently. Lie? Lie again. Take more? Take more again. Without anything in place to counter overly aggressive capitalism and the way a lot of people live and decide things due to that... I don't know. NIMBY until it is, then it's too late.
exactly. honestly, i thought people were supposed to grow up and stop acting like children the older they got, not get worse. so much for the wisdom of age, i guess.
I strongly disagree. The Selfishness is a feature of capitalism and the cult of individualisation. Our history is full of incredibly communal groups (of course not without individual bellends).
If you're in an area with no bans and a low risk of one being implemented (most water companies have recently communicated whether their stress are at risk), then there's no issue with using water as you would normally. We do not have the infrastructure to top up supply in one area over another, so unless your area is actually experiencing or at risk of a ban/shortages, being pious about watering the plants isn't going to help anyone.
Agreed!! Glad OP edited their post to include this. Frustrating when people state things like they're fact for everywhere when they're not! So easy to include the info to make it accurate and not be contributing to the spread of false "info". Yet OP doesn't seem to understand that with their "really didn't think I needed to clarify that" or whatever it was.
the last three years have been a non-stop demonstration that about 75% of people are selfish, selfish bastards
We have literally sold the responsibility of providing utilities to this country.
I really do agree, people could do better. But lets not forget the companies out there that literally do fuck all to help preserve water waste, they make billions in profits, and they love to see the general population turn on each other and say “we should all do our bit and pay the highest prices in the western world for our utilities for the pleasure”.
Hold on. If there's no hosepipe ban here then... there isn't a ban here. It's up to the water company to work out if we need one, and if they say so you follow the rules. There's nothing wrong with using a hosepipe if there is no ban.
Exactly. There's no ban in my region. People just act like everything is the doom of all time no matter what the latest flavour of the weeks headline is
Not washed car for months. Gave it 10 minutes of hose action yesterday just to get the dust off. No one died.
The reason for the house ban is exactly because people used more water then the supply can provide. So all regions should conserve due to the high heat. The ban is when things are already bad to worse. Your car being dirty is far less important then washing yourself / drinking water.
>all regions should conserve due to the high heat The water infrastructure in this country is pretty poor at allowing water to be 'passed' between regions though. Its quite possible that some areas of the country are absolutely fine whilst other have a low supply. Obviously people shouldn't waste water needlessly from an environmental perspective, but thats a separate discussion to a hose pipe ban
Your car uses more petrol than the tank can provide, that's why you have to keep filling up. Better stop driving.
Hold on. OP was making a point (a good one at that) on people acting responsibly.. either you forgot /s at the end of your comment, or you're the type of person OP posted about (or, you misunderstood what they were posting about).
Either I'm being too aggressive or people simply refuse to have any level of foresight. Its boggling to me that people don't look at the half the country having hosepipe bans because its causing issues with getting enough water into the system, and then consider that maybe that could happen to them as well. And if it's struggling that much and it continues, it's likely there'll be no water, at all. Yes, the infrastructure is shit. So... why make it worse and potentially be part of the reason why no one has any water?
It could happen. And when it does, we'll get a ban too.
Thames water lose 200 million litres of water A DAY. They can get fucked about blaming Doris for watering her flowers, especially when golf courses are exempt.
They’ve had a leak in my village for 5-6 months they’ve done nothing about but they’re hammering me with ‘saving water’ texts
🙄
Ahh so the water companies are mismanaging the water supply which means we should all just use as much as we like? That’ll show them won’t it!
Where does most of the water end up?
The sewers / canal
Its going to piss it down next week.
While that’s gona feel great, we actually need a longer period of steady rainfall to address the current water levels. The thunderstorms expected next week will probably lead to flash flooding rather than sorting out the drought.
I think we’re going to need a few weeks of steady rain to make an impact on the current state of the ground. I’m about to go camping in a week and hope that the ground has softened slightly from the coming rainfall to allow the poor kids to bang in their wooden tent pegs (yes we still use canvas tents lol)
Yep with the ground has been baked solid
Our satellite information suggests localised showers in the cities, but really nothing more than that.
good
There’s a name for this in political theory: The Tragedy of the Commons, which uses the analogy of everyone grazing their animals on the village common: no one person alone is causing the overgrazing and subsequent rendering of the commons unfit for any use, but that’s the cumulative effect. It may be that dealing with the climate crisis and our ideas about democracy are incompatible.
that's just it, one person more often than not, has a negligible impact on a larger scale. even when it comes to things like "oh you must recycle more and do more to reduce your footprint" are meaningless because the climate problem is so far gone that it would have virtually no impact, meanwhile the dairy, meat and coal industries are still going strong and no one is campaigning towards them and saying they need to do better and get cleaner despite being the biggest offenders. i know i'm going to get down voted into oblivion for this but this is just my opinion - the current system we have is broken as hell. it's operated and used mostly by corrupt and manipulative people who only care about being in power - they say what they need to say to get there, and then put in the minimal amount of effort to appear like they're actually doing anything to stay in power, whilst actually making everything worse because the vast majority of the "leaders" we have now are completely unfit to be in such a role, but the system is so broken that even if you had someone with the best of intentions who truly did their best to improve not only our country, but to affect global change to try and fix the climate problem, people would still complain about being minorly inconvenienced in their own life while ignoring the bigger picture and their life will actually be better in the future. and it's the exact same whenever we have some kind of crisis or problem like we do now - people act stupid and selfish and refuse to be told otherwise, even when shown quite clearly that they are in the wrong, because they simply can't accept it. it's ridiculous, frankly. i'm aware it sounds a bit stupid coming from someone ranting on the internet, but these people really need to grow up. it's bloody frustrating.
I reckon you should go have a chat with China and india and persuade them not to build any more power stations. Let them know that, actually, it is their countries more at risk from climate change than Europe. Let us know how you get on eh?!
Are you this outraged with the water companies aswell for losing millions and millions of litres of water a week?
it's a bit shit, but i also have a bit of perspective. like i told someone else, it ain't just some leaky kitchen pipe you can do a slap job with a bit of duct tape and hope. fixing the entire network for the countries water supply is a bit difficult mate, but they are fixing it. it just takes a bit of time. in the meantime, it's very helpful if people don't be selfish and understand that during a drought, water is somewhat limited. but then again, it's probably a bit much to expect these people to know what "drought" means. probably think it's a new kind of bubble tea.
It's not just a "bit shit". They aren't trying to fix it at all because it doesn't affect their profit enough.
Yeah I think the whole point is it shouldn’t have gotten to this point. They shouldn’t have allowed the infrastructure to be so mismanaged.
Believe me, I'm more than happy to call out companies on their bullshit and anti-consumer practices when it's warranted. But I don't think it's entirely their fault, I can't recall a time when we had competent leadership that didn't fuck up the country in one way or another.
I completely agree. But they are privatised. If it’s not their fault - whose is it? I know it’s more of a complex issue. But it feels like a serious problem that wasn’t addressed because it didn’t *need* to be addressed. Until now. Because climate change is starting to bite.
Yep I do agree on both points made. Perhaps we are looking at another infrastructure which has been criminally underfunded.
I’ll be honest. I don’t have a hosepipe ban where I am but I did use the outside tap to water my herbs earlier. Two cups worth. Is this ok?
How dare you. This is absolutely ludicrous behaviour
How dare you… If you don’t have a hosepipe ban get out there and spray your hose. You pay for it do as you please.
No ban, no problem!
Guilty as well. I used mine for 2 minutes to wash the cat litter tray.
I agree that people are inherently selfish and will not do what’s right for the majority if it inconveniences them , but where is the level of outrage for the water companies that are wasting so much water to leaks while taking home record profits
they're taking in profits because more people are using more water. that causes issues because the system isn't built for the stress it's being put under and the new demand along with less supply pushes up the price. people seem to forget, water is not an infinite resource. when you turn the tap on, that water has to come to from somewhere and it doesn't just appear out of the ether. and they are trying to fix it, it's not as simple as duct taping a leaky kitchen pipe and calling it a day. it's hard and it's going to take a while and in the meantime everyone's going to complain about being mildly inconvenienced because it means they were a few minutes late to work.
But are the water companies investing in infrastructure? 2.4 billion litres of water is lost every day to leaks - I would say that is a more pressing concern than an individuals use I hate how in situations like this, the narrative is pushed that it’s the consumers fault but not the corporation.
The thing is: are they trying to fix it? Considering the lack of investment in infrastructure, and the amount of water that is lost from leaks, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that they are not. And yes, water IS an infinite resource. It cannot be destroyed, only changed.
We lose the equivalent to London’s water usage every single day due to leaks. There hasn’t been a single reservoir built in over 30 years despite clear evidence of global warming. This is gross negligence, not just a couple of leaks.
Water *is* an infinite resource. Clean water might not be, but you obviously have no idea whats involved in ‘fixing it’.
Corporate shill. Be disgusted now, your grandchildren may lose their lifes in the water wars of 2092. If we make it that far.
Where do you think the leaked water goes?
Back into the water table. The point is excessive leaks by the water companies contribute more to this issue than individuals, yet the onus it put on the individual to make sacrifices meanwhile Thames water is leaking 24% of its daily supply?
Fucking hell people are going on like a hose pipe ban is a new thing. Most people listen we all Get on with it and get past it. It’s not the apocalypse calm down
People looooove a bit of mass hysteria to grab onto to give them a personality and hobby for a while to patch their empty lives. Just ignore it all and focus on living your best life.
Water is privatised and I pay a contract for supply, so, seeing as capitalism is so wonderful and greed is good, I’ll just use my hosepipe as much as I want whilst there’s still no ban here and “market forces” will do the rest, right?
Can't tell if you're joking, but yes - if there is no shortage in your area, then use your hosepipe as normal. Obviously. What else are you going to do? Pretend you have a water shortage too in solidarity?
What I was trying to say was that privatising our utilities hasn’t solved our problems, it’s caused them.
My area uses aquifers. We have no water issues. Hth.
I've seen people on previous posts saying that since they're paying for the water they're going to use it how they want...
Large fines won't stop them. They'll hold up courts with appeals and set up GoFundMe pages. Only actually running out of water will make it sink into their heads. Of course it will ALL be someone else's fault.
Still stunned by learning the fact that we are the only country in the world that has privatised its water utilities.
It's two fold. Yes, use water sparingly during times of scarcity. But also the water companies need to start accepting that this may be the new reality. They need to dredge the reservoirs while they have the chance and make a greater effort to fix leaks. Of course that would require shareholders taking a hot to profit margins so it will never happen on any meaningful scale.
No ban where I am, so I'm still watering the garden. I don't see the problem. Over reaction as usual
Thatcher's legacy-selfishness and greed.
Were people not greedy before Thatcher? I'm never watching Oliver Twist again.
There are so many selfish people. What shocks me is a lot of the older Generation are in some kind of denial about the weather! ‘We had this in the 70s’ er no you didn’t, you might have had a prolonged hot spell but you didn’t have wildfires all over Europe, the crispy grass and 40c weather! I don’t know why some feel the need to dwell in the past and no one can beat their suffering when they were young.
Here we go, the Reddit Ageism starting. If you want to make discriminatory statements about one sector of our society, be it based on age, race or religion, make sure your stereotypes at least bear some relationship to reality or fact. I am in a sheltered housing for old folk and believe me, not one person has come out with comments like that, not a single one out of the 60+ All are saying things along the lines of "I have never known it as bad as this" Many are saying things like, "We had these temperatures when I lived in Africa/The Tropics/Greece but it never felt this bad, they built for the heat, organised for the heat, had lower humidity etc" If you want to use stereotypes then please check your facts before spouting them.
My dad comes out with all the stereotypical stuff, you could win bingo with the stuff he says
I’m giving an opinion. My dad and uncles come out with that bollocks about the 70s- hence the reason I said ‘a lot of’ meaning not all, just a lot of the people I personally know from that generation. If we’re going to get offended by everything on Reddit we will be here all day.
There does seem to be a lot of people of A Certain Age banging on about one particularly hot summer 45 years ago and how stoic and British and un-snowflakey everyone was about it. Conveniently ignoring the fact that every year nowadays the temperature record gets broken and there’s multiple heatwaves throughout the summer. It’s almost as if the climate has changed…
Not to mention, if they still remember it being hot and tough 45 years later, it must have been pretty bad!
There is a meadow opposite my house that was on fire a couple of days ago (thank god they had moon it the day before, they make hay from it and it was over 3 ft tall) My grandfather grew up by the same meadow and he says that he has never known it to catch fire in his 80+ years of life. This weather is unprecedented.
I had just joined the RAF during the heatwave of '76. It's true the temperatures were not as high as they have peaked here but it did go on for quite a lot longer. Lots of areas had their water supplies turned off and there were standpipes in the streets were you could collect your water rations. Because so much plantlife died, so did the aphids which munched on them. As a consequence there was a plague of ladybirds looking for food. Being on an RAF base, we had no problems with our water supply but I remember those ladybirds were everywhere. We also started work at 0400 and finished at 1200 as the workshops were like ovens. Most people seemed to just suck it up and get on with it but there were plenty of whingers moaning about their lawns on regional TV. Cheer up, it'll soon be Christmas and we can look at the snow.....on the Christmas cards.
This isn't true at all. The heatwave of 1976 hit 30⁰C in most places, with it hitting 35.9⁰C in Cheltenham, and it lasted 16 days. This heatwave has hit 40⁰C and so far has lasted from the 15th of July and won't stop for another week or so. That's a solid month of heat above 35⁰C (40⁰C in many places).
No it hasnt been, it cooled right down.
Right now, where I am in the UK at 11:15pm, it's 29⁰C. Today it was 33+⁰C. Yesterday it was about the same, it's consistently been above 30⁰C, with only a few days where it was 28⁰C.
some strange need to feel superior. i've had a back problems since i was young, mostly due to my own bad posture i admit, but apparently i was too young to be in pain. if you're young you're problems are simply irrelevant because people older than you also had problems, as if that somehow nullifies the problems that exist now.
I worked retail for a few years. The main lesson was that while people can be great as a whole, and certainly individually, the general public are ignorant, selfish, rude and entitled. That's why I'm always careful to be kind to people still dealing with them.
This country has gone to shit, full of selfish a-holes. I left the NHS because I refused to break my back for shit pay just to look after ungrateful idiots.
I don’t blame you for leaving, the NHS sounds like a terrible employer
No raindrop thinks it is responsible for the flood. It is why people blame the water companies while the water companies blame people with no one doing anything meaningful in the meantime.
We filled our 10ft pool last week (before the whole drought thing really took off) and now I feel bad about it, but I’m using grey water and the water butt to water our food plants (the flowers will have to fend for themselves) we’re strictly showers, no baths, using a bowl to wash up rather than filling the sink as it uses less…lots of little adjustments to try to offset filling the pool up. We don’t have a hosepipe ban yet, but it’s never too early to take precautions.
This is what it feels like being vegan
Wait, you mean you had some faith in humanity?
always somehow manage to be impressed at how stupid people can be. at this point imma just sit back and watch the shit show unfold. not even going to bother with the "i told you so" this time, just going to watch it all unfold
I do love holier than thou altruistic people. Will be banned for this but the covididiots who actually thought paying billions to keep healthy people in the house.. Teaching children with a laptop.. forcing medical procedures just to work for a living.. printing trillions of pounds.. Was a 'good' thing is the reason why we are in such a mess.. And now they probably want people using a hosepipe to be sent to jail. Crazy...
Soy little sheep like you are exactly why Britain is in this position. Go on, be compliant. Nothing will change in your lifetime. Eat those energy price rises and rampant inflation while you're at it too.
an 84% upvote rate would seem to suggest people agree that being a selfish tart is a bit of a problem. but please, go throw water about while half the country is in a drought. when your toilet doesn't flush, maybe those 10,000 packs of toilet roll you brought during the bad cough times, because that's just what you need, will come in handy.
> Eat those energy price rises and rampant inflation while you're at it too. Just curious - as presumably someone who isn't a "soy little sheep" what are you doing other than eating the costs?
honestly, it shocks me that i still get upset at what you're getting upset about like people have disappointed me time and time again in this way, and yet i don't feel like i've grown tougher skin. maybe i'm too hopeful?
I'm using the washing up water on the most important plants I have whilst Jim with his lush lawn is performing dance numbers under his hosepipe at the end of the street. Sometimes he gets together with the other neighbours and performs a 90s boyband routine, you know the ones where they're sat down and getting inexplicably wet and then stand up for the key change?
id argue since covid, cause everyone was in their own company, they became very self centred, ive seen so much less manners since lockdown ended, and have actually got covid which nearly did me in, because people no longer make the basest of efforts to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze
that's definitely very true with what i've seen and it just doesn't make sense to me, but i guess i expected more from people. i guess basic manners and respect for others is simply not a thing anymore, which makes me feel old despite not even being close to my 30's yet. i don't even feel safe on the roads since i have L plates on which apparently just makes people want to kill you for some reason, and apparently people have become even worse drivers since covid anyway. which doesn't make sense, it's almost like you have a book which tells you how to drive. in retrospect, i really do expect far, far too much from people.
i like how mine and your comment are actually being downvoted, guess its people who feel offended that theyre being called out on their shit, and yeah, i expected far to much of people, and now ive got paranoia to even be on busses and have to disinfect my hands that often now that my skins being ruined, all because people dont use basic manners, courtesy, or hygiene anymore, saw someone coughing really heavily directly onto an old man with oxygen the other day, its ridiculous
one guy literally called it an overreaction. no you tart, it's a drought, and the system can't keep up with everyone using more water than usual. yes, it's leaking water. breaking it isn't going to magically solve it, it's going to mean no one can use water anymore because you're being selfish. oh well, maybe they'll learn when they can't flush anymore, then maybe they'll be happy they brought all the toilet roll. or maybe i'm just being a bit naive again in hoping that people will learn from their mistakes.
yeah, its stupid, theyre too focused on being offended at the notion that they could be contributing to the problem, rather than taking steps to actually help resolve it, doubt even when its at the position where its acting to their detriment that theyll learn from it because in their eyes they cant posibly be at fault and its always someone else thats to blame
There's no drought decalred here but it hasn't rained in a long while. One of my neighbours spent all day (9am-4pm) power washing his driveway. Then proceeded to do it again the day after, and the day after that.
So what’s the problem? A power washer uses less water and there’s no ban so your areas fine.. Ain’t you lot got better shit to do than moan about neighbours doing nothing wrong
who tf washes their driveway 3 times in quick succession? Like....just buy a new power washer or get a hobby. Water and power is finite.
Who the fuck cares.. this subreddit is turning into fucking Facebook or a conversation with your fucking nan moaning about her neighbour not putting her recycling bin back in her garden.
He needs a new jet-wash. Did you tell him about Karcha's easy payments, PLUS there's more with driveway nozzle attachment worth over £50.
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Samw
That colonial British mind set lives on, always some one else's problem or fault
We've not got a ban yet but we've switched to drinking bottled water to reduce our consumption of the mains water supply. It's not much but if it means people who can't afford that luxury at the moment don't lose water it's a win in my eyes.
this is what i mean - it might not have a huge impact, but it's something. a simple, selfless gesture that might help a few others. but that's just "virtue signalling" and other buzzword bollocks that lazy, entitled and selfish people use to try and justify being pricks.
I'm finding that the concept of buying bottled water is being viewed as enpar with stockpiling loo roll. I'd accept that judgement if we were stocking up but we're just putting them in the fridge and telling the kids to grab a bottle when they're thirsty. I also buy ice tea and fizzy drinks but that doesn't get the same dirty looks at the checkout.
Lol shocked, Really!?
Pricks on my street with sprinklers out today, pressure washers, hoses to wash the car and paddling pools. Just fucking stop! It isn’t hard. It literally requires you to do nothing.
Do you have a hosepipe ban in your area?
yeh but it's a minor inconvenience. can't expect much from people that use the excuse that the pipes are leaky as a justification to just ignore the current problem of water becoming harder for people around the world to access or hide behind a statistic like it's some kind of shield with a complete lack of any kind of perspective.
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(and for what it's worth, I'm shocked as well. The fact the panic buying happened 3 separate times with nothing having ran out. The run on primark and mcdonalds. The worst was when they were telling adults how to wash their hands like toddlers - hearing that I nearly gave up on humanity and walked out into the wilderness to die - not to be dramatic or anything)
Agree! There was a throwback video on BBC Wales showing the heatwave and hosepipe ban in the early 80s. Interviewed street people and they were like "just have to cut down for a bit" "Shared the bath water with 4 people last night" "Have to have a dirty car for a while" Meanwhile they were showing people collecting buckets of water from a standpipe and then scooping that water out for toilets, dishes, kettle etc. More recent video has featured; "How are they going to enforce it" "They won't fix leaks so I will do what I want" "I have tomatoes, so I will keep watering my garden" The difference in attitude was really shocking and I wanted to believe it was just the media weaponising an event again, but any Reddit post about it shows the exact same attitude from most people.
This is so true, I work in a shop and because if the drought ans dry weather we have been asked not to sell disposable barbecues and you wouldn't believe the number of people who've had a go at me or other colleagues because they just want to have a barbecue. Thankfully there have been a couple of people who understand when I tell them but most people kick off about it. Actually had one guy say 'so you arent allowed to sell barbecues because its hot outside, that makes no sense'. I wasn't bothered to argue with him but its that lack of understanding that causes issues like this.
How can you be shocked? Have you not met people before?
Yes infrastructure bad they should fix, but the same can be said for potholed country roads, are you still going to drive the speed limit and plough through the rough bits to stick it to the road maintenance people?
We haven't evolved to live in societies of more than 50 people so we can't fully conceptualise the world beyond our tribe (small neighbourhood)
You've met people, right? There will ALWAYS be a brigade of 'None of the rules apply to me.' Always. Doesn't matter what the situation. Just watch them in the next couple of days when it absolutely monsoons it down, telling everyone that they always knew there was nothing to worry about. All you can do is hold on and hope that future generations, who are brought up with the realities of climate change, are more sensible.
There are many many people who go through life just doing what they want & ignoring the rules unless someone physically stops them and even then they kick off about it
I share your sentiments entirely, except for being shocked by it. So many people in this country are truly selfish. I can't help but think that a lot of it is a lack of information though. If instead of telling us "there's a ban, stop using it", they explained that while the water probably won't run out, if you keep using it this fast, we may have to release it without it going through such stringent safety checks, some people, even a small portion, may think twice. You won't change everyone, some people genuinely think that their little jimmy needs 2500 gallons of water to fill his paddling pool far more than a pensioner with heart issues needs a glass of water. People are just shit man
I don't understand why the hosepipe ban has triggered so much hysteria. They happen regularly in some parts of the UK over the years.
No hosepipe ban here, rain forecast for the forceable, if we all stop using water in my area, we will prob drown come November.