Todays daily debate. The environment.

[Deleted]

Saw on the news today that the new Starbucks CEO is going to be using the company jet to commute 1,000 from southern California to Seattle for 3 days a week. The BBC report also states that the top 1% put out more global emissions than the bottom 50% got me wondering why I even bother to recycle.

Thoughts.

[Pilch]

Aug 22, 2024 7:52:50 GMT 1 @neilsalop said:

Saw on the news today that the new Starbucks CEO is going to be using the company jet to commute 1,000 from southern California to Seattle for 3 days a week. The BBC report also states that the top 1% put out more global emissions than the bottom 50% got me wondering why I even bother to recycle.

Thoughts.

I've never really worried about the environment until recently,   I think my biggest issue is the state of the rivers and what we put in them,   its amazing when you see old photos of how pleasant a river looked at one point

as for the likes of Starbucks,  it would be nice if each store or at least town employed someone to go round picking up litter,   they could afford too

[Valerioch]

Climate change is obviously happening, the science and data shows that, as it has over thousands+ years on planet Earth

So no doubting climate change and the impact of man made emissions.

I also think net zero and the current targets is an absolute load of nonsense, all the UK is doing is exporting emissions abroad, and making absolutely zero difference to global temperatures. I'd support any government scrapping net zero targets tomorrow

[Deleted]

My main issues with the environment debate/agenda:

1) What is the point of us recycling and cutting emissions when the likes of China are going in the opposite direction with building more coal power stations? Yes we may be 'doing our bit' but it's really having little impact, there needs to be a united front across the globe and that's never going to happen unfortunately
2) The cynical part of me sees the gov't pushing some aspects because they see it as a money raising exercise, rather than any genuine attempt to make a difference
3 Similar to the opening post, the sight of the 'elite' lecturing people on the need to go green, whilst they travel the world on jets and create a huge carbon footprint is almost hilarious. The recent Man Utd v Real Betis pre season friendly was dubbed the 'greenest game ever' because of a few things that were being done, the obvious elephant in the room was it was being played in San Francisco and they would both have to flown over there

[Deleted]

Rarely comment on non STFC things, but I agree with the 3 responses so far, all very well said.

May add some more later.

[hectord0g137]

I was a member of the Keep Britain Tidy club in the 60's. I've been concerned about global warming and environmental issues ever since. Until everybody and I mean everybody toes the line we cannot move forward effectively.

We had protesters outside the site where one of the world's greenest incinerators was being built because it was next to their village. You couldn't move because of their Chelsea tractors blocking the road.

It's been in operation for a number of years now and all is quiet.

[rickyspanish]

Aug 22, 2024 8:44:23 GMT 1 @salopiam said:

My main issues with the environment debate/agenda:

1) What is the point of us recycling and cutting emissions when the likes of China are going in the opposite direction with building more coal power stations? Yes we may be 'doing our bit' but it's really having little impact, there needs to be a united front across the globe and that's never going to happen unfortunately
2) The cynical part of me sees the gov't pushing some aspects because they see it as a money raising exercise, rather than any genuine attempt to make a difference
3 Similar to the opening post, the sight of the 'elite' lecturing people on the need to go green, whilst they travel the world on jets and create a huge carbon footprint is almost hilarious. The recent Man Utd v Real Betis pre season friendly was dubbed the 'greenest game ever' because of a few things that were being done, the obvious elephant in the room was it was being played in San Francisco and they would both have to flown over there

When it comes to emissions and China I guess it depends how you measure it.

They don't make the top 25 countries when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions per person. They are beaten by the likes of Australia, Canada and USA.

I'm sure that's how the Chinese look at it anyway. I certainly would if I was in their position. 

[Deleted]

Starbucks is a Virtuous Company that wants to make themselves look great and You, I, The Individual the problem. The Private Jet is perhaps the problem with the article but in some respect I commend someone for 'commuting' that distance for a Job, Working from home all the time is not the answer to everything.

Onto the main topic and perhaps a different angle, but is CO2 actually the problem in all this? will trying to reduce it do anything beneficial, Don't plants and trees live off CO2?

[zenfootball2]

Aug 22, 2024 10:22:43 GMT 1 rickyspanish said:

Aug 22, 2024 8:44:23 GMT 1 @salopiam said:

My main issues with the environment debate/agenda:

1) What is the point of us recycling and cutting emissions when the likes of China are going in the opposite direction with building more coal power stations? Yes we may be 'doing our bit' but it's really having little impact, there needs to be a united front across the globe and that's never going to happen unfortunately
2) The cynical part of me sees the gov't pushing some aspects because they see it as a money raising exercise, rather than any genuine attempt to make a difference
3 Similar to the opening post, the sight of the 'elite' lecturing people on the need to go green, whilst they travel the world on jets and create a huge carbon footprint is almost hilarious. The recent Man Utd v Real Betis pre season friendly was dubbed the 'greenest game ever' because of a few things that were being done, the obvious elephant in the room was it was being played in San Francisco and they would both have to flown over there

When it comes to emissions and China I guess it depends how you measure it.

They don't make the top 25 countries when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions per person. They are beaten by the likes of Australia, Canada and USA.

I'm sure that's how the Chinese look at it anyway. I certainly would if I was in their position. 

I think how you measured it is key, in article it said significant numbers if deaths linked to poor air quality. Another said China air quality has improved, whilst anothe said 64% of chinas poluttion was linked to is coal powered station, they have over a 1,000 and continue to build large numbers. At the same time china has more large scale solar farms than any other country and have planted millions of trees

[Deleted]

There's a lot of talk by Elites about Climate Change, there is also a lot of Guilt and then comes the Taxes.

China will start worrying about Climate Change when it starts to hurt them, same too about India.

[staffordshrew]

Generate power with wind and sun, not sure about the efficiency of storage batteries? Would it be more efficient to release Hydrogen from water off peak at high energy usage factories, then use the stored Hydrogen to power the factory, eg a steel works? 

Spend the money while the opportunity arises to bury the cables to the offshore wind farms, etc. rather than blighting the countryside with more pylons. On the lifetime cost, buried or laid on the seabed cables surely works out cheaper on maintenance.

Don't stop oil exploration until we know we can manage without the extra oil. The last thing we want to be doing is importing oil if we don't have to. Be careful with windfall taxes, there's an awful lot of people still employed in the sector and all the companies involved need money to roll out green energy solutions.

EV cars are not the answer. Just how much of a contribution to pollution to modern cars make when pootling about the country. It's motorway and town congestion that needs to be sorted.  Combustion engine manufacturers are working on cleaner engines, let them get on with it. Any idea how much environmental damage an EV vehicle does over it's lifetime! Ford have just decided not to make their proposed EV SUV and take the hit on fines for not producing them. Only time EV makes any sense is in town delivery vehicles - that's why the milk floats were electric

[ssshrew]

I try and do my bit when I can. However, I will not be dictated to by such hypocrites as that Greta who must fly every where to protest!