Discontent that will end the Tory Govt is coming

[hammocity]

hey hey here hang on- we did get £0.05 off the fuel

That was a right load of old fanny by the petrol/diesel retailers. Hike the price from around 1.35 per litre this time last year right up to 1.99 per litre when they didn’t need to. Then drop it back to the the current mark of 1.75 where we now perceive this as a bargain. 40p a litre increase in 12 months, 30% on top and most don’t bat an eyelid.

 

[johnnytapia]

It's a bit unfair to take that part of my comment in isolation, I actually said: "Get fracking all the gas we can, get out all the gas under the North sea that we can - open coal mines too. Put green issues on hold until the whole world accepts it needs to act together."

On Newsnight, a few weeks back, they were covering energy prices. At one point they showed numerous power stations (coal/gas/oil) being demolished in the UK in the nineties and noughties as part of the green agenda. But then they went on to explain that this winter we will import much of our electricity from Belgium/France/Norway... at a much higher cost of course and the French and Belgians and Norwegians are still polluting the planet to make this power, so although we might think we 'look good' because we are edging towards net zero, in effect we have just out-sourced the problem to our near neighbours!

Exactly the same has happened with manufacturing by-the-way. People say we are doing well on carbon emissions compared with say India or China, but the fact is for the last 40-50 years we have moved to a service based economy whilst contracting out the production of things to other countries. It is fake progress because these other countries are still polluting the planet to make the gadgets and gizmos we buy, with the money made here in banking/insurance, shops and hotels!

When I was a kid in the 1970s we had one landline, one colour TV a couple of radios and some gadgets in the kitchen - when I look around my flat now and see multiple devices either plugged in on standby or charging up (laptop/phone) its crazy and that is replicated across the whole country and the population is 20 million bigger too!

I read a book recently: 'Hothouse Earth' by Bill Maguire that makes a convincing argument that we have already gone past the point of no return and there is nothing that we can do about the damage humans have done to the planet, since the industrial revolution.

There might be a slim possibility of reversing it if all but the most essential air travel ended tomorrow, almost all cars were banned, eating meat was illegal and countries went to aggressive 1 child per family rules to reduce the global population, that sort of thing.... but what are the chances of that?

All good points and yes, in retrospect, mine was out of context. We can always colonise Mars.

 

[bluethrunthru]

disgraceful - frightening - revealing

 

[bluethrunthru]

today is the day it starts - the rising energy cap is the starting gun that has been fired - the government is in name only and the country gets angrier by the day...............

 

[El_george]

All good points and yes, in retrospect, mine was out of context. We can always colonise Mars.

It is such a difficult topic, it really is and thank you for the compliment, but do I sense a teeny tiny bit of sarcasm!?

I get quite depressed about the whole thing because I'm in my fifties now, so climate change itself wont really effect me all that much. Yet the drive by this country to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change, very well could. As I wrote previously: its crazy to have reduced mining of our own fossil fuels, but then import energy - generated in exactly that way - from abroad, at greater cost.

Why does this country feel it has to be at the front of the pack on this one, whilst other countries are hardly doing anything? Is it guilt because the Industrial Revolution began here leading to GBs power, wealth and prosperity in the 1800s?

I watched a sci-fi TV show on Britbox in one of the lockdowns from the 1970s called Survivors (to cheer myself up!!!) in it a pandemic ravages the globe, but not like covid, only like 0.1% of the population are immune & everyone else succumbs to it. Not a pleasant idea, but in later episodes, as the people left try to rebuild humanity using horses for transport, growing their own food etc. etc. it occurred to me that it would solve the global warming issue! But I suppose so would Nuclear War too and that isn't a nice thought either.

Perhaps some clever scientist can invent some chemical method of de-polluting the planet.

A global effort into building spaceships that can transport some humans and animals to another planet - a sort of Noahs Ark type of thing could be an option. If America could put a man on the moon within ten years 50 years ago, that should be possible in say 100 years into the future, if planning for it started now.

I don't know what else to suggest. As I said earlier, there are scientists who believe the planet is already in terminal decline and whilst I feel bad that my descendants not even born yet are going to suffer because of that, I don't think its right that myself and other people alive now are facing destitution in our later years because this country has unilaterally driven itself into a short-term pickle, due to climate change activism.

 

[mancityvstoke]

Fucking disgraceful ...we are all being shafted

 

[johnnytapia]

It is such a difficult topic, it really is and thank you for the compliment, but do I sense a teeny tiny bit of sarcasm!?

I get quite depressed about the whole thing because I'm in my fifties now, so climate change itself wont really effect me all that much. Yet the drive by this country to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change, very well could. As I wrote previously: its crazy to have reduced mining of our own fossil fuels, but then import energy - generated in exactly that way - from abroad, at greater cost.

Why does this country feel it has to be at the front of the pack on this one, whilst other countries are hardly doing anything? Is it guilt because the Industrial Revolution began here leading to GBs power, wealth and prosperity in the 1800s?

I watched a sci-fi TV show on Britbox in one of the lockdowns from the 1970s called Survivors (to cheer myself up!!!) in it a pandemic ravages the globe, but not like covid, only like 0.1% of the population are immune & everyone else succumbs to it. Not a pleasant idea, but in later episodes, as the people left try to rebuild humanity using horses for transport, growing their own food etc. etc. it occurred to me that it would solve the global warming issue! But I suppose so would Nuclear War too and that isn't a nice thought either.

Perhaps some clever scientist can invent some chemical method of de-polluting the planet.

A global effort into building spaceships that can transport some humans and animals to another planet - a sort of Noahs Ark type of thing could be an option. If America could put a man on the moon within ten years 50 years ago, that should be possible in say 100 years into the future, if planning for it started now.

I don't know what else to suggest. As I said earlier, there are scientists who believe the planet is already in terminal decline and whilst I feel bad that my descendants not even born yet are going to suffer because of that, I don't think its right that myself and other people alive now are facing destitution in our later years because this country has unilaterally driven itself into a short-term pickle, due to climate change activism.

Definitely not any sarcasm. I’m similar age to you and fear we’ve gone past the tipping point but who knows? I was listening to Brian Cox theother week and how lunar exploration was / is relatively simple due to the proximity of the moon and how, conversely, any Martian expeditions would be (2 years to get there) extremely difficult.
I was talking to a friend yesterday who had been to the Eiger but was told nobody can now climb it in the summer as it had no ice to help secure equipment. We can see the impact of our way of living but it just doesn’t seem to have any “immediacy”.
Your points about our economy are very cogent- we can be very “green” but if we’re still importing huge swathes of goods from known polluters , it’s all for naught.
Nature normally finds a way. Your apocalyptic outline may be her answer.

 

[Kevinblue10]

Think the standard of living of most people in this country is going to drop dramatically the next few years

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Think the standard of living of most people in this country is going to drop dramatically the next few years

It's been getting chipped away for a while and masked by easy credit. This fuel thing will be the first tangible thing that will squeeze everyone and quite suddenly. Of course the poorest will be hit hardest as always, but the difference here is the four bed detached, 2 new cars, and relatively well off crowd are going to feel real pain too this time .

 

[Kevinblue10]

It's been getting chipped away for a while and masked by easy credit. This fuel thing will be the first tangible thing that will squeeze everyone and quite suddenly. Of course the poorest will be hit hardest as always, but the difference here is the four bed detached, 2 new cars, and relatively well off crowd are going to feel real pain too this time .

To be fair mate the "I'm all right " Jack crowd need to be hurt if we are going to have any hope of a better society