Observer II Posted February 4, 2020 Report Share Posted February 4, 2020 Not that most of us on here will need to worry about this, I have to feel sorry for the younger generations who frankly imo, face a future of dire economic austerity. And it will be the poorest that suffer most, as usual. The rich are still dumping tons of carbon as they fly around the globe, and the idea that carbon off-setting is compensation is nonsense as the carbon remains in the atmosphere. Prince Charles recently spent £12,000 getting a helicopter to a climate conference, leaving 2.4 tons of behind him - joke. Seems the boomers have had the best of it, it's downhill from now on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 4, 2020 Report Share Posted February 4, 2020 I wouldn’t feel sorry for the younger generation Obs, we’re just leaving them with a bit of a challenge in their lives that I’m sure they’ll solve in time. I don’t blame my parents or grandparents for the pollution they passed onto me, it’s all just part of evolution. The amount of dirty coal they must have burnt over a couple of lifetimes would have been tremendous and all done without ever hearing about carbon offsetting. So where has all that carbon gone? I got a bit rattled last week when a report on www made Warrington out to be one of the worst places to live with talk about deadly toxins and abnormal death rates. The reality is I believe that our air is cleaner now than its ever been, certainly in the last hundred years. The smoke and smog’s that our predecessors generated are all gone but it still shows in the health statistics for those who lived through those times. In short, we’re leaving the next generation with a much cleaner environment that we came into and that has to be a good thing. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 4, 2020 Report Share Posted February 4, 2020 Bill is right about air cleanliness. Can I point out that burning fossil fuel doesn't produce carbon, but it does produce carbon compounds (CO, CO2). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted February 4, 2020 Report Share Posted February 4, 2020 I can't help thinking that hydrogen is the way to go. Wouldn't that produce a by product off just oxygen that the world is apparently crying out for & we have an abundance of the raw material of H2O too which would help to reduce the rising sea levels. Win,win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 4, 2020 Report Share Posted February 4, 2020 Dangerous stuff that hydrogen Davy. Also there isn't a world shortage of oxygen, while there is actually a shortage of CO2 which is at a historically low level. Not that the climate disaster freaks would agree with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 4, 2020 Report Share Posted February 4, 2020 I think you're right Davy, at least about there being a future for Hydrogen fuel cell in cars but it won't be a Betamax/VHS situation because both can work equally well. I suspect car owners will end up having a choice between a chemical battery or fuel cell but as Asp says, the gas is dangerous and I wouldn't feel safe knowing I'm effectively sitting on a bomb. As for the Oxygen, I don't think there's a shortage as such but ocean waters are tending to be short of it in certain areas due to warming and other factors. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer II Posted February 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2020 If this "ban" only applies to "new" cars, won't this give rise to a boom in the vintage car market, well into the next Century, eagerly supported by the Oil Companies ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 5, 2020 Report Share Posted February 5, 2020 Nah!! Vintage and classic car enthusiasts aren’t going to keep a muti-billion-pound oil industry in business, there’s just not enough about. Most cars do last longer these days but very few will ever qualify as classic, so while the old Nisan Micra is still a daily runner, it’ll get increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. I reckon that petrol prices will rise and garages will become scarce and while that’s not a problem for me and my Mazza, it’s never going to work out for the Micra owner. The oil companies must know the cards are on the table and will be planning to diversify to include greener solutions. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stallard12 Posted February 5, 2020 Report Share Posted February 5, 2020 Don't know about that Bill. We have probably the greatest concentration of refining facilities in the world and most of them have plans in place to double the number of barrels per facility in the near future. Talking to management, they say that they do not foresee a drop in production in the next hundred years. Good news to the thousands of employees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted February 5, 2020 Report Share Posted February 5, 2020 46 minutes ago, Stallard12 said: Don't know about that Bill. We have probably the greatest concentration of refining facilities in the world and most of them have plans in place to double the number of barrels per facility in the near future. Talking to management, they say that they do not foresee a drop in production in the next hundred years. Good news to the thousands of employees. Therein is the rub ,how many by products are there of the petro chemical industry apart from petrol,diesel & lube oil ? Hell of a lot of profits & jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 5, 2020 Report Share Posted February 5, 2020 Refineries don't make much profit on motor spirit and diesel, there's more made on the petro/chemical and gas production side. This is why so many refineries in the UK have shut down over recent years. There are only 6 major refineries in the UK, down from 23 in 1973. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milky Posted February 6, 2020 Report Share Posted February 6, 2020 Even if the ban comes in there will still be oil refined for other countries and it be a long time before there will be battery HGV and long distance coaches. There is still the problem of producing green electricity for these electric cars as previously discussed in various threads. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Observer II Posted February 6, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2020 Don't the Cubans drive round in 1960's models ? Guess that's what will happen here, only it'll be 2030 models ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 6, 2020 Report Share Posted February 6, 2020 Pretty much all the major car companies have already committed themselves to electrification, so much so that I believe that the law won’t be needed by that time. As for keeping old cars running forever, well it does happen in some hotter drier countries but here in the UK any car that’s used on a daily basis will end up just rotting away due to our lousy climate. Take my old Alfa for example, it’s 14 years old now 150,000 miles on the clock and starting to show its age. I keep it running but it’s getting more and more expensive to repair and parts are getting almost impossible to find. If I get another couple of years out of it, I’ll be lucky. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 6, 2020 Report Share Posted February 6, 2020 Apparently for the UK to have enough charging points for all electric cars in 15 years they would have to be installed at a rate of 4000 a day - starting yesterday!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 Living in a house in a terrace where parking outside my own home is not possible (due to people carriers taking up a lot more room than the front of a terraced house). How do i manage to charge my electric car? Be dangerous to run a cable across the foot-way to my car as it would cause a trip hazard. If i had to park on the opposite side of the road then it would have to be laid across the roadway as well. Being out on a public street it would also be subject to some (insert description here) unplugging it and so not having enough charge to even get to the end of the street. Wireless charging points would be one solution providing that you could get near one but who then pays for the cost of charging and how? However i am sure some government "expert" has already sorted such problems concerns out.🤔 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 The government is probably working on the assumption that 15 years is long enough for a miracle to happen but, failing that, it will be some other poor sap's problem 😂. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 Will electricity for cars still attract the the same tax that petrol & diesel does which is one of the main government income sources ? As you say Sid, terraced house living could be a problem. Some in our street have 2 or 3 cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 I think someones going to have come up a cleaver solution for the terraced house but come on, if we can send a man to the moon then surely we can dream something up. But before we start panicking about charging points, we need to take out of the equation, all the homes that have a garage or drive, where cars can be easily be charged and that'll reduce the numbers significantly. Then allow for the fact that the national average daily car use is only about ten miles, meaning that most cars may only need topping up once a week and if taken to a pukka charging point, it can be done in less that 30 minutes. We've got 15 years before we cant buy a conventional car and I think that's ample time to solve this little problem. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 Wish I had your faith in government Bill. As well as all the extra electricity generation that will be required for all these vehicles, we also have the brilliant policy of ripping out everyone'd gas boilers and cookers and replacing them with electric ones. All at a time when we're gaily shutting down our base load generators, and banning fracking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 We will end up in Flinstone cars or pedal cars as the ultimate green solution. By the way Asp, remember my moan about the buses last week ? I decided to use the bus for the match last night . The WBC bus was scheduled at 18 32 to Warrington ,i was there at 18 20 & the bus sailed past "out of service " at 18 49. Because there was another due at 19 07 i decided to wait & after waiting till 19 25 i gave up & went home. Very poor show from WBC last night in my neck of the woods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 Sounds like you have grounds for a complaint there Davy. For one bus to go missing on a route is disappointing, for two to do so is down to poor management, there must be a system for monitoring whether buses are running to schedule and if any have broken down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy51 Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 I 've filled one in today. It would be all the same if an elderly or vulnerable person was left stranded , not good at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 Didn’t they install a system a few years back to track and display the busses so people knew how long then next one might be? Maybe they didn’t do it as far as Newton Le Willows. (Edit) Don’t bother answering that I’ve just checked, and it’s been replaced with an App that’s about as useful as the old printed timetable we had in the first place. No live data and no idea if the bus is on time or late but you probably knew that already. BTW my business provides real time tracking via custom apps for some of the taxi companies across the UK including Warrington. They pay next to nothing for the service, in fact, I don't think they even pay that much, so I can’t understand why WBC can’t do something like this rather than spending a fortune on stuff that doesn't work. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted February 7, 2020 Report Share Posted February 7, 2020 I've got an app on my phone called UK Bus Checker which gives times of buses due, but it doesn't do real time tracking so if the bus doesn't turn up on time you're non the wiser. As for the screens at the bus terminal, if the timetable for a route changes it can take 2 weeks for them to update the computer (unlike Wigan where it was done on the day). The Warrington bus station is owned and run by WBC so who knows who would be responsible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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