General Chat

it's slow on here nowadays:)

So here we go. Climate change is a fact. The causes are still being debated but the scientific consensus is that it is being hastened by carbon emissions. There could be a runaway greenhouse effect in the not too distant future, although it's more likely to be a more gradual process. In only a few generations time there will be lots more flooding, extreme weather events and equatorial drought unless we do something about it. This will mean a shift in population densities towards temperate zones like Europe, with consequent political strife. I'm pleased I wont be here to see the mess.

So who is doing their bit to cut down on carbon emissions?

Amazingly most of all the USA!

Seems I,m not :-(

We bought a diesel car in 2009 for all the right reasons then and I still drive it.

It still only has 20000 miles on the clock so I,m not changing it

Even I part exchanged it someone would buy it secondhand so it would still be on the road

Its slow on here most days Eldrick..........very different from when you and I had our little 'discussions' :-D Those were the days :-D

Sadly, some of the regulars have died and others have gone elsewhere. Quite a few now communicate via FB, myself included.

As for global warming - a concerning future for our grandchildren I fear. Carbon emissions? I live on a main and very busy road. This probably accounts for my addled and fogged up brain :-D


Hope you are well. Cx

Maybe not there is likely to be a scrappage scheme. In any case diesel is OK for c02 which is why it was promoted. The problem lies with particulate emissions.

Got to disagree about it being OK. No Hydrocarbon combustion is OK for CO2 - the carbon has to go somewhere. And that's into the atmosphere, whether it be diesel, petrol, coal, gas or whatever. Particulate emission is a problem, but not for climate change.

For hundreds of millions of years the main source of co2 has been animals breathing out. Maybe you have some answers to that as homo stupidus is the leading actor.

Another interesting problem is frozen methane hydrate in deep waters. With the current irreversible ( in our lifetimes) global warming sudden release of this methane would be bad news. The oil companies see Arctic hydrates as an opportunity. Frozen ice volcanos ( pingos) are already releasing methane. However cows are a sig methane source which India is unlikely to resolve.

Tuf times.

Disused landfill sites are, in some instances, being tapped for the methane they produce. It's a pity we can't harness the same from mammals.

Nice to see you posting again Eldrick might make looking in worth while.

As for global warming all I can say is it´s been a long, cold, wet winter here. and they call it warming ?

Granny´s saying "you reap what you sow" comes to mind :-D

I wonder how long traffic (motorised) can go on increasing? As we live longer and therefore drive for longer and the young seem to be able to afford cars at an early age surely we have to reach a point when something has to be done about the number of vehicles on the road.

Solutions anyone?
Increase rail use? electric cars made more popular somehow? Limit the days 'your' car can be driven a month?

It has already been reported how motorists are taking in pollution when stuck in traffic jams (well we knew that didn't we?) We travel up the M6 and there are very very few parts of it where we are not practically nose to tail. Likewise the M5 and I suspect all other motorways.

Bring back the horse & cart for short journeys ...she says tongue in cheek :-)

The proportion of the under 25s with cars has dropped as the insurance companies tighten up and landlords take half their income. The ensuing misery can be seen at railway stations on Sunday evemings.

The auto industry is totally committed to going electric. The interesting matter will we go with car owership as now or a biggish chunk going with robot taxis a la Uber?

By far the worst current polluter is fuel oil for shipping. Norway is converting short sea ferries to electric power. Most are facing a hobsons choice between fittin v expensive scrubbers or much more expensive cleaner refined product. Marine freight rated will soar making a nonsense of Bojo's global Britain strategy.

The Tories are going with gas/nuclear blocking renewables which dont fit in with their platform.

But why not more horse drawn transport?

Horses need to do more than graze all day, which is what many do for five days a week and horses and oxen did a pretty good job of it for many centuries.

Did you see recently the farmer who has never used conventional modern farm transport (tractors etc) but has always used shire horses for everything around the farm? Such beautiful animals.

I remember the programme about Geoffrey Morton many moons ago.

That bloke off the tele who is married to Libby Purvis farms with Suffolk punches doesn't he?

The obvious problem being levels of productivity would drop...though a team of horses are much nicer to watch than a tractor.

As for cars most will not give up their own cars unless they really have to, public transit being so awful. If that gets sorted and cars become "cleaner" then there would be some improvements.

The main problems with global warming have to be countries that don't give a damn with pollution their factories throwing out goodness knows what every day.

We have a young lady in a nearby village who uses a pony and trap on a daily basis. :-D

It may not be so obvious that productivity would drop.

I am not saying that horses should be used exclusively but there are a lot of local services that could be delivered by other means than motorized transport. There are other ways to organize distribution e.g artic to depot pony cart to customer.

There is a reason why the guys n gals in street photos around 1900 all wore boots. Any large scale return to horses is not on.

There are four large countries responsible for pollution + the EU. The USA, The EU and China are Greening at quite a rate having seen Marley's ghost of things to come
California for instance is also finding it good business. As Caroline says Russia and India dont give a damn. yet.

CA is building a high speed electric train San Francisco / Sunnyvale to L.A. & San Diego rather than yet more motorways.

My guess is that global warming will stabilise before 2200 but a a higher av temp than today. Oil / gas as an energy feed will be largely redundant which will make the future for some states v murky. The income from exporting solar power for others will change a lot too. There will be new sea routes but the polar bears will adapt. The biggest challenges world wide for wild life are pollution and humans destroying the food chain by taking all the fish.

If the Gulf Stream continues to weaken and the peturbations in the N Atlantic jet stream remain large then ironically NW Europe will be wet, cold and windy.

The problem with using horses is that compared with tractors they are not very productive and also they require a lot of manpower.

There are conflicting calculations about CO2 and methane production by horses, this article gives a green view.

https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/ask-pablo-should-we-go-back-to-using-horses-instead-of-tractors.html