Extinction Rebellion Ireland

rockmongrel wrote:

Just makes me feel depressed and sorry for us as a society and species.

I just ignore these opinions, you ll never convince deniers, thankfully there's enough momentum now for action

Matt Barrett wrote:

An example of academic twaddle if there ever was one. Worse case scenario we create a better environment not dependent on fossil fuels. We must stop the madness! Did he take into account people, who aren't scientists, trusting the scientific community? I mean if you want financial advice you go to a financial expert not study finance yourself. I can safely say I've never been to space but i I do go I'l be sure to pack a helmet.

The same financial experts that said house prices never fall!

Effects wrote: »

Ah yeah, the completely unbiased and not right wing newspaper, the Sun.

As stated - where you deliberatly missed the bit that the same video was on YouTube before it appeared in de Sun.

Here it is again as you missed that the first time

Very interesting video. I think you may be correct btw. Lovely types calling the police 'facist pigs". :rolleyes: Can't find the original which I was viewing earlier ...so my apologies in advance - it appears to now be available on the sun website :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3IPGQ0akQI

If things like cultural and political values really do tend to influence how people interpret the facts about climate change then many of this lot are definitely swimming towards the extreme end of the spectrum tbh

RHJ wrote: »

I just read today that Germany aims to ban the sale of all internal combustion powered vehicles by the year 2030 we should follow suit.

Great idea if you hate poor people. Only the wealthy and upper-middle classes can afford electric cars.

Such nonsense would drive (pun semi-intended) the poor and working classes off the road.

Do you hate poor people?

The Oort Cloud wrote: »

You are mixing up weather with climate. Weather is only in the short term, as climate is analysed from 30 years out and further. Your thinking that 5 years shows that climate is changing is false. This is just natural weather changes in the short term and obviously the weather will change from year to year.

Climate has changed very markedly over the 30 year time frame you referred to.

Global average temperatures are about a half a degree C warmer this year compared to 1989, and about 1 degree celsius warmer compared with the pre-industrial period. this shows that global warming is a long term trend, not simply weather, and it's accelerating with the most warming happening in recent decades with the last 10 years showing a very worrying spike in global average temperatures.

Matt Barrett wrote: »

Carbon/environmental taxes are a complete con unless every cent goes towards green energy.

Not necessarily.

Ideally, all that money should be ring-fenced for green initiatives, but fundamentally, the point of carbon taxes is to use market forces to change people's behaviour. You make polluting more expensive to make environmentally friendly investments financially worthwhile. When people are thinking about buying a new house, they need to know that spending an extra 10 grand on a house that costs a thousand euros less a year in energy costs makes financial sense. People need to know that when their boiler breaks down and they can either buy a replacement oil burner, or change to some thing less polluting, that the sums add up and they choose the greener option because it makes financial sense for them as well as being better for the environment.

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Fossil fuels will be with us for a good while yet. Can you imagine the charger chaos if artics went electronic? A fair whack of their payload would be batteries and it wouldn't really be practical to pop into the local car park for a quick recharge, if any were available, unless it fitted into their tachograph rulings.

Imagine cargo ships and planes in batteries, maybe we could go back to sailing ships and horses.

RHJ wrote: »

I most certainly do not hate poor people I am one myself, after all, anyway I'm sure you'll be happy to know that battery costs are decreasing and by next year or the year after they should reach $100 per kilowatt hour which many experts believe is the tipping point for mass adoption as they will be the same cost and maybe slightly cheaper than an ICE car.

Not so fast - the ICE was a major factor in the democratisation of car travel. In particular, cars of the 20th century, especially the 1990s, were basically big lumps of worthless steel, plastic and fabric. Very simple engineering. As a consequence, some cars depreciated to basically nothing while still being nearly as good as new. Especially those old Toyotas, they'd cost €1000-€2000 to buy, their paintwork might have seen better days, their plastic fittings might look a bit shabby, and so on. But they'd get you where you wanted to go, no problem and didn't cost a lot to maintain. I know this from first hand experience.

But even with todays regulations on ICEs that's a lot more difficult. The engineering is much more hifalutin, there's much more than go wrong and is more expensive to fix, and certain parts often require precious metals, more so than in the past, which keeps costs high. As a consequence, if you're a working class person looking for an average 10 year old car, you're going to have to pay a lot more and deal with a lot problems than you might have had to attempting to do the same thing in the last decade.

I view electric cars as a natural extension of this. While the car platforms themselves may be cost effective and may even depreciate beyond their effective usefulness the way 20th century ICE cars did, there is one MASSIVE achilles heel - the battery. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than a fuel tank and it always will be. Batteries may have room for improvement, but I suspect that there is a limit to this room, and that it will be found sooner rather than later.

Akrasia wrote: »

Just did a very quick check

2011 nissan leaf on sale on donedeal today for €6500
Not many wealthy and upper middle class people buying cars for €6500

Not many people have €6500 lying around the back of their couch. At any rate, for that money I suspect its batteries are in ****e. So, expensive and probably useless.

By 2030 there will be a thriving 2nd hand market for EVs and the batteries will be fully recyclable so buying reconditioned batteries will be much cheaper than todays prices.

The costs of running an EV are way lower than an ICE car, and they can be made in a wide variety of shapes and sizes due to the fewer limitations due to where the engine and drivetrain have to go.

Great. When you can guarantee a working class person an EV that's nearly as good as new despite being 10 years old for almost nothing - the way you could with 1990s ICE cars in the noughties - then - and only then - it's time to talk about banning ICEs.