Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Electric Cars

I'd guess the clue is in the name Dave .... though I have had some beef sausages than can only have struck a cow a glancing blow sometime during their manufacture 🙂

It strikes me there's plenty of low hanging fruit to reduce our impact short term .... waste reduction ....stopping buying utter crap no-one actually needs (how many plastic Hulk masks and fake pumpkins are in bins going to landfill as I type on account of a commercially manufactured 'Halloween Holidays' .... and not even started on Xmas yet)

We're being guided to massively disruptive 'systemic' changes that will actually have little more impact than just going back to how we lived when I was a kid .... and life was pretty good then ....just not rampantly throwaway

K

Not intended as a 'joy-killer' ..... but how much real joy is there in zombie-like compulsive comfort-consumption??

The ruddy TV ads are already driving me up the wall... Bah Humbug!

You've only to look at Images of cities at night to see the obscene consumption of electricity.

And I don't think any blame can be apportioned to the industrial revolution in the UK, because that would have happened somewhere eventually. Apparently it was kicked off by the needs of the Royal Navy, so if we need to apportion blame, then blame the French and Spanish for the UK having to build a navy in the first place. Or the Barbary pirates.

Looking back never solves the future. We are all residents on this planet and it's time to shift away from tribal rivalries and work together, instead of spending obscene amounts of money on weapons.

It doesn't matter who wins the next war because extreme weather will face everybody. Growing migration and using energy as a weapon will eventually fracture the current status quo.

It would be good if we did export the "we botched this and we recommend this as a better way to do it". Then again many of them have not changed to our footprint so have less to rewind.

I am surprised we do see some of the countries take benefit from the solar energy and export it. When the Arabs run out of oil the deployment of the solar panel field from allah could be just as viable. It's gonna be a think cable mind you.

A slightly older study as far as current rankings are concerned but supports my point:-

UK has made largest contribution to global warming says study
Published on 17/01/2014, 4:03pm
Based on size of population, Britain is a world leader in greenhouse gas emissions, due to its historic use of coal


By Ed King

The UK is more responsible for global warming than any other country – if global carbon dioxide emissions are allocated using per capita calculations.

Based on this formula, the UK is rated the world’s top carbon polluter, followed closely by the USA, Canada, Russia and Germany. China, currently the world’s leading emitter, lies in 19th position.

The results are published in the Environmental Research Letters journal, and shed a revealing light on which countries are most responsible for causing the world’s temperatures to rise.

Carbon emissions and the resulting ‘historical responsibility’ of causing climate change are traditionally measured on a country rather than population basis, a calculation that places the USA top, China second, and the UK in seventh.

This way of working out cumulative emissions pushes the emerging economies of Brazil, Indonesia and India into the top 10 of countries who have sent the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere spiralling towards 400 parts per million.

The research is intriguing for five reasons.

For one, the theme of ‘historical responsibility’ during UN climate talks is frequently mentioned, and this data will pose some awkward questions to some developing nations high up the list.

“It is these very questions of equity and responsibility that currently represent major barriers to progress in international negotiations attempting to set national emissions targets, and yet are critical to resolve as we move forward with climate mitigation efforts,” the authors say.

Secondly, the research underscores the potency of coal as a climate warming fossil fuel, and its ability to smash hopes of capping global temperatures in the future.

“The UK’s position in the top seven emitters is strongly tied to historic use of coal, which constitutes a large fraction of their cumulative fossil fuel CO2 emissions.

“By contrast, much more recent coal use in China has led to a much faster current growth rate of cumulative CO2 emissions, and hence a contribution to climate warming that will continue to increase rapidly in the coming years.”

Since the 1980s the UK’s use of coal has fallen dramatically, a factor explaining its decline in emissions since then.


Thirdly, it illustrates that while the use of fossil fuels has contributed to 0.5C of warming, the release of methane, land use change and nitrous oxide from agriculture together are responsible for 0.59C of temperature rises.

A fourth point is that it shines a light back on countries like the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, who frequently claim they are helpless in the face of rising emissions levels.

“How we choose to allocate the remaining emissions budget is a critical political challenge which can easily become mired in non-trivial arguments surrounding questions of blame and historical responsibility for global warming.

“A clear understanding of national contributions to climate warming provides important information with which to determine national responsibility for global warming, and can therefore be used as a framework to allocate future emissions allowances amongst countries.”

And finally it proclaims what we all knew. China’s emissions are increasing at a staggering rate. See this recent article on how the country is aiming to curb its carbon pollution.

Will it change much at the UN climate negotiations? That’s unlikely.

A recent Brazil-led initiative to explore what level of ‘historic’ responsibility countries should accept was rejected by the UK, USA and EU.

When asked about the level of commitments the UK should adopt in 2012, UK climate and energy minister Greg Barker said it would not be based on calculations dating back to the 19th Century.

“I think it’s one thing to emit unknowingly, it’s quite another to emit when you know the damage is being done by the actions you are undertaking,” Barker said.

I predict that tomorrow will be Thursday Sunday.

This might be of interest to some :- How to Build British: Mini An access-all-areas visit to the Mini factory in Oxford, revealing the step-by-step process that goes into creating a Mini Electric, from the pressing of individual metal panels and the construction of its electric powertrain to the painting of the contrast roof..

More 4 Tuesday 2100 - 2200 Freeview 18.

Yes I do realise it should be MINI and German just to save the moaners the effort of complaining it's C&P verbatim from the guide..

Thanks Richard, I'll set the recorder. There are quite a few Cowley videos on YouTube, I'm struck by how calm, quiet, and unhurried it all seems and yet they are knocking them out one every 70 seconds or something.

Tim, I'll certainly record it too it'll be a good insight, that is some rate of production.
Out of interest is the industry still hampered by chip shortages as it seems to have vanished media wise.

John, agreed.
I'm slightly saddened by the realisation that I, and most of us, will not be here to see how this plays out.