Quote Originally Posted by Pretty Boy View Post
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We looked into a Nissan Leaf when we last changed our car. We were quite stunned by how enviromentally unfriendly it was. A bit of online investigation saw us discover it takes about 70% more carbon to build an electric vehicle than a standard combustion engine and you would have to drive in the region of 140 000 kilometres before it became 'greener' than a petrol car. I'm sure there are variants for different manufacturers but it's going to be in broadly the same ballpark.

I always come back to the same two points when discussing climate change. The first is that there still seems a belief that 'technology' will get us out of this mess but I'm not convinced. Since the early to mid 19th century the industries of the developed world has advanced at a frightening rate, that arguably escalated again in the late mid part of the 20th century. We reached a point where we could exploit the worlds resources at will and it's a Pandora's Box that the lid can't be put back on. Those developed countries don't want to give up their share of the spoils, they don't want to pay to protect the devloping world nor to help them fund green alternatives and countries that missed out 1st time round (think China and India) now want their turn and aren't willing to be painted as pariahs. Technology advanced too quickly when it came to exploitation and the developments needed to slow, stop and then reverse the effects haven't kept pace and aren't going to catch up anytime soon. The second issue is we as consumers have been led to believe a few small changes in our habits will help solve the problem. On a minuscule level they might but ultimately using a reusable cup for your morning coffee will make no discernible difference. That's not to say we shouldn't strive to be less wasteful and more resourceful but given the industry I work in I see so much misinformation and box ticking when it comes to things like 'compostable' packaging and the like.

None of the above means I am trying to shed any personal responsibility. I walk to work, I recycle, I rarely fly, I use public transport a lot etc etc but until there is genuine efforts from the biggest climate offenders to move permanently away from fossil fuels, to protect forestry and peatlands, to rewild and the like then it's pissing in the wind.

In saying all that I was quite intrigued by the story below which I read a couple of weeks ago. Something a bit left field like that might just be the breakthrough we have been waiting for:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63200589
The technology thing is just capitalists trying to retain the status quo and push ahead with things as way they are, as if everything is normal and a CO2 extraction machine that doesn't exist yet will fix everything.

You can't technology yourself out of an economic system that requires infinite growth on a planet than has finite resources.


The fact there is probably half a dozen climate threads on a fitba forum in the last 6-12 months gives me a small glimmer of hope change is coming.