Count Your Blessings

[Ivor Hawkins]

I think people will find it very difficult to give up personal transport and unless there’s a huge advance in technology I can’t see electric vehicles having much of a future.

In addition, the internet together with the coronavirus have proved that commuting and daily long distance travel for face to face meetings really aren’t that necessary.

I’ll continue to use the old seven until I croak even if I end up having to brew my own fuel, because I can go anywhere and as Bob said in the original post, I can fix it...something I couldn’t do with a mode4n banger, particularly an electric one.

[jansens]

Bob, that story was amusing. Right down to the classic 'arms folded, slapped across the face with a wet fish look' as I have seen it described. Most comments were along the lines of who in their right mind buys an expensive car without first looking at the servicing requirements. Teslas are well knows for shoddy build quality which is amusing given how EVs are often advertised as having far fewer moving parts.

Unfortunately getting real numbers around EVs is always difficult. You often see incorrect or misleading statements such as "There are only around 20 moving parts in an electric engine, compared with nearly 2,000 in an ICE (internal combustion engine), so your EV will need a lot less maintenance." from https://driveelectric.org.nz/.

Simon

[Tony Griffiths]

Let’s look at the bigger picture. In the West, some people are preoccupied with the so-called man-made global warming, but in India and China, and other developing countries, this is seen as the West’s way of denying them the advantages that made us rich, comfortable, and able to enjoy high-class medical and educational services.  India is the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, but also the second-largest in population. Its emissions per head rank only 134th in the world; the Chinese issue per head is only slightly more but in most other developing countries a tiny fraction of this. These countries are not going to give up developing their economies - all of which rely on coal to provide cheap power - for some unproven fear in the West. Whatever we in the UK do - we are just 0.86% of the world's population - will make not a scrap of difference - and any UK government that attempts to take away the freedom to travel as one wishes, or impose other expensive and unnecessary "green" measures, will find themselves unelectable. The combined population of India, China and Africa is nearly 4 billion and, in time, they are all going to have motorcycles, cars, washing machines central heating, air conditioning, etc, etc . - and their leaders, to stay in power, will ensure that they do.

[Duncan Grimmond]

The use of the expression "so-called man-made global warming " tells its own story. (cf. D Trump, N.Lawson et al)
Do you have grandchildren? If you do they and their contemporaries will curse our generation for our apathy and indolence.

[Dave Mann]

When televisions were installed in cars they had to be installed in a position that the driver couldn't see it, so how have manufacturers managed to install touch screens on the dash?

[Nick Salmon]

An interesting read in the Guardian today - about the evolution of the car and especially about how transport may evolve in years to come.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2...-transport

[Tony Griffiths]

Hi Duncan. I used the expression deliberately -because there is no solid proof that this is the case; the science is not settled and many experts disagree. It's not necessary to bring political bogeymen into the equation. I'd like someone to point me to the open-air experiment (not a computer model) that shows the effect of a gas on temperature - 0.04% of the atmosphere of which the annual contribution of humans is thought to be 4.5%. We had "man-made global warming", "Climate change" and now a "climate emergency". This racket is all down to the left and their new religion. All ice-core core data clearly shown that CO2 levels follow an increase in temperature, not the other way round. Our grandchildren will curse in the West if we bankrupt ourselves and the communist dictatorship that is China rules the world. When that happens Wokeism will no longer.

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When televisions were installed in cars they had to be installed in a position that the driver couldn't see it, so how have manufacturers managed to install touch screens on the dash?

...and guess what, I bet they'' be a "fix" that allows one to watch live TV on the move.

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An interesting read in the Guardian today - about the evolution of the car and especially about how transport may evolve in years to come.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2...-transport

I love the paragraph about Uber being able to track the number of "one-night" stands in a city. Highly amusing!

[Terry McGrath]

Three short words will do most to slow the climate-change crisis; Have Less Kids. All other measures merely scratch the surface.

[Mick Hobday]

Three more short words:
Buy less stuff.

[Ray White]

Climate change has always happened in the past and it will continue in the future... with or without humans.

Nothing we can do about it except adapt to change.

That's how I see it, anyway.