Climate Change Demonstrations

That is what has made me sound such a grumpy old miseryguts on this subject.

ER and GT's vision goes no further than the slogans they shout. A few days ago I heard a clip of a speech she gave in New York (not yesterday's speech to the UN) in which she spoke of the threat of global warming and then said, I cannot remember her exact words, No-one has done anything to deal with it. Now that is just ridiculous and wrong.

I think it's very sad that people seem to think she looks young for her age. Are we sure that it's not that many sixteen year olds in this country look far too old for their age? I think in some other countries girls do not follow celebrities quite so enthusiastically as ours do.

Monica you can tear the science to pieces all you want with your obvious extreme knowledge, but the fact remains that electric vehicles must come, and they will make a big difference to climate change.

But perhaps you think the idea should be abandoned completely, and we should just plod on while the ice melts and the forests burn.

The US have done nothing to deal with it.

Joan of Arc!!!!

Do you all enjoy breathing in spent diesel and petrol fumes?

Don't forget the aviation fuel and oils etc from cruise ships ruining the habitats and coral reefs, Gonegirl.

Gonegirl I am not opposed to electric cars, I think they are going to be essential part of our future transport strategy, but they have limitations, as do most things and to ignore those is a recipe for disaster.

I have always been very clear about my support for measures to reduce global warming and the necessity to do it asap. But that is no reason for throwing common sense to the winds and espousing technologies that are ultimately damaging to the environement.

I might add that I am an advocate of using electric cars in areas which suffer from high levels of air pollution, regardless of global warming, they are a sensible answer to a specificproblem.

My son is an environmental scientist.

He is also a Extinction Rebellion supporter.

He would take issue with a lot of what you are saying monica

I just don’t see how everybody having an electric car will work in practical terms.

I don’t see where all the extra electricity is going to come from.

An on an everyday level, I can see how it works if you have your own driveway but how will you recharge if you live in a street of little terraced houses and park on the road? Or in a flat with a parking courtyard. There would have to be a recharge point for every car space.

Or if you’re doing a long journey and the service station recharge points are taken. Will we have to queue until our turn? Maybe a couple of hours or more?

Not long ago I had to go and pick a friend up from shopping because people had parked their cars at the recharge points and gone off to do their shopping (understandably) but it meant she couldn’t recharge hers unless she sat and waited in line for them to come back.

How will it work?

My sons car plugs in.

It doesn’t take masses of electricity? in fact it seems incredibly cheap to run.

Yes but where? Does it sit on his driveway?

Yes and also plugs in at work.

We of course have the ability to provide this throughout the country.

(Remember how virgin cabled everywhere)

We simply need the will.

Whitewavemark2 your son is very privileged to be able to afford an electric car and then to have the means to plug it in and charge it. It won't be a problem for me, I can't possibly afford a new or even second-hand electric car. If I could, do you really think people are going to wear me trailing a charging cable across the pavement, assuming I can actually park within 20 yards of my house?

Whitwavemark2 yes there could be charging points every 2 yards on every road, but with the best will in the world, it can't happen overnight can it? I'm assuming we don't have warehouses full of these charging points just waiting to be installed.

janipat???

That wont be how it works!!

Think of lampposts and parking meters. They would sit on the side of the road.

Or if you have a drive. The plug is against your property in the wall.

Electric cars will come rapidly down in price.

It will happen. Absolutely no question.

I don't, in common with many ordinary people, have a drive. If there isn't a charging point outside every house how can it possibly work? That was why I mentioned cable across the pavement! So they will have to install the chargers, hundreds of thousands of them. Will this be finished before we're all expected to switch to electric vehicles? I try to use public transport, never ever drove to work before I retired, but they've never put in place the amount of public transport needed to accommodate the aim of getting people out of cars. Somehow I think the same inefficiency will plague the electric charging points.

I take your point about Virgin and cable but loads and loads of us don’t have cable 30 years after it was first brought out. It’s not financially viable in some areas so it hasn’t happened.

Will it be a government roll out or will roads get franchised to private companies do you think?

Who will they buy their electric from? What will be the cost of recouping the initial layout? Will every parking space at work have to have a recharge point?

The practicalities seem insurmountable to me but does someone have a master plan. Or will it be like the parking on the estate where I used to live where they built and said “Oh well we’ll sort out the problems as they arise”

Where I live a huge number of houses have no driveway. Lots of poorer people have no driveway and have to park on the roads, so if they can't afford the electric car, and have no-where to charge it what will we/they do? Public transport is rubbish and people need cars to get to work on time , so it's not looking good is it?

Whitewave, perhaps he could let us know what ER's carfully thought out plans are for implementing the demands they make. If they have environmental scientists among their supporters I am sure they did not sign up to a movement without a carefully thought out and tested implementation policy. Perhaps he could also tell us why it has not been published.

My main complaint about ER is their lack of any proper tested policy. Produce it and if it has been properly tested and priced, then I may join them.

How does Greta get back to Sweden ?

Some think she’ll sail, some think she’ll fly and some even think she’ll walk on water!

I don't think electric cars are the answer either.

There must a brainy bod somewhere with another solution.

I wouldn't using horses.

I don't want electric cable everywhere and it's not really doable in rural places.

I want to point out that we threaten our own existence in more ways than just cars.

There are chemical poisons and plastics everywhere.
What do we do about those?

The soil in which we grow our food has been robbed of nutrients by over farming (especially arable farming)
We need to consume less of everything.

Do we have a chance? I think the young have to take some responsibility as well as us older ones.
I have lead a very low impact life......I am not much of a consumer, I have always cared about the state of the planet and have been ridiculed for caring about organic farming many times. But all these different issues matter.