It's now or never for the planet

Very depressing indeed.

One minute we are all holding our breath as the Russians are in Chernobyl and the next we are planning new nuclear targets/plants conveniently placed all around our country.

I see that clown Johnson has been uglying up Hinckley C Power Station today telling everyone how the UK is going to be world leading on energy.

Hinckley C is being one third funded by China's state-owned power company and two thirds by France's EDF.

Hinckley C construction has meant tens of thousands of lorries driving through Somerset for the past 3 years delivering millions of tons of concrete to the project. Concrete is the second biggest producer of greenhouse gas in the world after coal.

What are we doing?

Good.

I just turned on the news; the Government's new energy strategy is very depressing.

www.orkney.com/news/orbital-grid#:~:text=The%20world's%20most%20powerful%20tidal

Tidal power in Orkney.

DutchDoll

I'm really surprised that tidal power isn't being invested in. Tides always work whereas wind power can be too windy or not windy enough. We're an island for heaven's sake so it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man (or woman) to implement this!

DH always asks why not - other schemes cost a colossal amount too.

Millions were spent on a feasibility study for the Severn Barrage but the scheme was abandoned in 2010.

The high hopes for the colossal project were crushed on 18 October, when the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that the plug was being pulled in favour of pursuing other renewable options, as well as plans for new nuclear power generation. The announcement came after the Severn Tidal Power feasibility study reported that the project was comparatively high cost and high risk.

Chris Huhne, the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, framed the cancellation as primarily a measure to safeguard taxpayers’ money. “The study clearly shows that there is no strategic case at this time for public funding of a scheme to generate energy in the Severn estuary. Other low carbon options represent a better deal for taxpayers and consumers,” he said in a statement.

DutchDoll

I'm really surprised that tidal power isn't being invested in. Tides always work whereas wind power can be too windy or not windy enough. We're an island for heaven's sake so it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man (or woman) to implement this!

The environmental damage and damage to fish is considered more important at present. The same applies to Fracking for natural gas, environmental damage deemed too great.

All those politicians holding forth on climate change only add to the hole in the ozone layer with all the hot air they produce.

Well it seems we have an energy "strategy" this morning.

What a waste of time.

There have been researchers working on tidal power for more than fifty years . Why has their work been ignored?

I'm really surprised that tidal power isn't being invested in. Tides always work whereas wind power can be too windy or not windy enough. We're an island for heaven's sake so it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man (or woman) to implement this!

How, though, can we get governments, particularly in the biggest polluting countries, to play their part?

To be honest Musicgirl, I don't think its a valid question. As long as we keep asking that, certain groups have an excuse for saying that its not worth us doing anything, because "China". Also, people don't seem to want to hear that China are the world's leader in renewable technologies, but that that is the case. China have realised that the future is renewables, and they are doing something about it.

So while we faff around and open new oilfields, China (and the others) are investing in the Green future.

We all feel in this country that we individually have to do something, and most of us do. But we have to put pressure on our own government to do more. Which means not making fun of the Green Lobby and the people who glue themselves to roads, extreme though they are. (I know you don't do that!). Votes count.

Also, I know there is far, far more l could do to reduce my carbon footprint.

Volver, I think there are very few of us here who deny climate change and all of us are concerned about the world our children and grandchildren are inheriting. Even if our small ways of reusing and recycling are a drop in the ocean compared with the rest of the world, at least we are doing something positive. I took my own bags to supermarkets long before it became the third to do. In fact, I remember supermarkets charging for plastic bags as recently as the seventies. It was only in the eighties and beyond that we had free bags and many of us reused them for other purposes. I have always bought and donated to charity shops and, for several years, most of my clothes have come from eBay. I realise I am one person but if we all at least try it helps. You mentioned glass recycling. Near me there is a business that has the money from its glass recycling (and open to the public) going to a local cancer charity. Surely this can only be a good thing - a double win.
You make a lot of good points in your last post. How, though, can we get governments, particularly in the biggest polluting countries, to play their part?

Saw a thing recently about roads in India. They've been making road surfaces with ground down plastic waste for some years. The roads have not worn down or developed potholes and they are cheaper to make than standard tarmac ones. Sounds like a good thing.

Fruit and veg in plastic bags? Let's stop this single-use

Buy Them Loose

The plastic thrown away each year could circle the earth FOUR times. Almost half the rubbish in the oceans is left behind by fisherman. Fishermen should pick up everything they drop.

Use paper straws

And William Cooper was a crank who thought extra-terrestrials were involved in global conspiracies and that Kennedy was killed because he was going to expose it.

Volver, you have been arguing with all of us who have been saying this throughout the thread without giving any solutions.

Well, I wasn't aware that countering the global conspiracy to deny man-made climate change came with an obligation to say how to fix it, but seeing as you ask...

Stop worrying about saving your glass bottles and recycling the cooking fat. That’s table stakes and is about as effective as taking everyone’s railings was during the war. What the world needs is large scale, macro solutions to the major issues such as power generation and carbon capture.

The UK governments (plural) are paying lip service to Green-ness but are not practicing what they preach. We are still having debates about opening new sources of fossil fuels, such as the Cambo field, when these sorts of things should be entirely off the table. We need a proper energy strategy that focuses on alternative sources of energy that do not generate any long term emissions.

It's not beyond the wit of man to do a cost benefit analysis of how much atmospheric carbon is currently created by the manufacture of wind turbines, batteries and the like. Then work out how they have to be created and maintained to make their manufacture sustainable. Then make them. Then get everybody using them.

In the meantime, we stop investing in and subsidising damaging technologies such as oil and gas. And don’t get me started on nuclear. We need to have a plan, stop taking kickbacks from vested interests and focus our investment where it matters. Stop complaining about China and the US and get on with doing something that will place us ahead of the pack when the oil runs out.

Do any of you honestly think Govts. around the world give a fig about any of us? The World Economic Forum is trying to kill most of the world population. Did you know that everyone over the age of 50 (or even 40) is called a "Useless Eater" by Klaus Schwab? If you have an e-reader download "Behold the Pale Horse" by William Cooper. Scroll past his life in Government and see what is happening to the planet. He wrote this book about thirty years ago and you would think he wrote it in the last 5 years.

Katy1950, you are right and, apparently Australia is heavily involved with coal mining. Volver, you have been arguing with all of us who have been saying this throughout the thread without giving any solutions. I think most of us try our very best to be as green as possible. Most of our generations have had it instilled in us to frown upon waste, for example. I do think various European governments, including our own, are at least attempting to change but they cannot do it on their own. These very large countries need to be on board with us. Just because we are saying this does not mean that we take away our responsibility.

Unless countries like Russia,China,India,Pakistan and USA start getting on board with climate change our tiny nation doesn't stand a chance

This is the big scary question of our times. Seems to be beyond us to really think about it in a productive way. I don't think this government has the real will to tackle it as it will require enormous political and behavioural change and they don't want to be voted out by asking the country to do what's needed. Heading into disaster by inaction I fear.

Well they are telling them.

Jeezy peeps...

Pepper59

Well, they really need to tell China, India and Russia. I think our various governments are trying, but I really am sick of getting preached to while all these other countries do exactly as they please. Remember CopOut26? What a waste of time and money that was, and to my knowledge countries gave it "all that", but so easy to talk the talk and not walk the walk. The UK is trying to do it's best, time for other countries to step up to the plate. This is only my personal opinion.

And the USA and Australia.

I was told (by a university science professor, decades ago) that we 'passed the point of no return' back in the 1970s. Anything we do now will slow down, but not stop, the destruction.

So - here we are, on a dying planet, with our heads in the sand - or blaming somebody else, as per usual. Our poor, dear grandchildren. Will they forgive us?

I’m sure I read somewhere that the billions of people on earth has tripled in a (relatively) short period of time. There’s too many of us, basically. We all need feeding, use plastics, agricultural chemicals etc. I suppose as a species we consume too much and are probably not sustainable.

One thing we can do is to stop paving over our gardens and let the grass grow, (no plastic grass either) plant bee friendly flowers and not buy the annual flowers sold all over the place that have no pollen or nectar. Every small change does help and can influence other parts of the world.