New Reg New Yer. Our friend in Laois

Is there some rule on this forum about ignoring what is happening in the world? A 'don't look up' rule?

It's strange that you mention 'no other options' when he has many, many other options - like not buying a new car every year, or every three years.

We don't need more cars on the road. He's not doing society a favour by buying a new car every year. The environmental cost of this action is largely hidden. He's not paying it, but we're all going to be paying.

What is the environmental cost anyway? Can we quantify it vs other things to help people understand how negligible it is?

Where is it at vs things like a sun holiday or running a 15 year old oil boiler or buying all your clothes in Penneys?

When I said no other option, I was referring to taxing ordinary everyday people via carbon tax and every other tax on fuel that is needed to travel to work or heat their home.

You will say there are other options like Ev and heat pump but for someone who needs to travel long distance daily and can only afford a 1500 car, there is no ev option. Similarly, someone like myself that doesn't live in a new house, there is no other option bar gas or oil to heat the house unless I spend 200k on upgrades.

Personally I don't agree with being heavily penalized via taxation for this green agenda unless for example the government bring in real retrofit schemes for home heating as the current ones really are not the answer.

Everyone is different. I have not been on an airplane for a few years, work from home since 2005 so that's good but I like to piss away petrol by needlessly driving a car around a race track a couple of times a year so lock me up now.

Can we learn something of your life, how you live and what we should aspire to then?

We had an end to the ice age, a massive change for the planet and much as you believe our friend who buys the new car every year is the devil, you cannot blame the ice age ending on him or anyone like him. Surely instead a natural cycle of the planet. By all accounts, we are now entering a period of many years where a sun spot is going to result in some cooling of our planet and this will have more effect that all any action man could take. Again a natural cycle.

How do we know that there hasn't been multiple traw freeze periods in the past.

I've seen data referred to where cores are taken deep into ice and CO2 levels read and results produced showing that our current CO2 levels have never been seen before.

That method in my opinion has one serious flaw that may well be producing bullshit results yet results that very much suit the global.warming agenda.

He has a point though and i wouldn't agree with Mick very often.

If you are a middle income earner, live in a house built in the 90's with an oil boiler and drive a 10 year old petrol car, what can you do to help the UN Secretary General in his plight?

- spend €250,000 doing a deep energy retrofit on your house and buying an EV.

- cease your existence

- continue as normal

Are the only options i can see and really only one of the 3 is viable.

Nothing wrong with running a 15 year old boiler as long as it is well serviced.

My boiler is 12 years old and would be 15 years old except for the first one blew up like a lot of boilers in my estate did. They were plumbed wrong.

Or you could not buy a new car every year?

All out of ideas I see.

You don't want to disclose your own lifestyle either I take it so stop spouting crap about others.

Why are you changing the subject to focus on some mythical middle income earner? If you want to have a general discussion about carbon taxes and the environment, there are lots of better threads for that. This is about one guy, who is imposing a carbon footprint of three people years on the planet with his vanity purchase each January.

Many cars are built to order now, which is why you have 3-6 months waiting time. If we stop buying them, they’ll stop making them.

He bought the car, someone else bought his old car.

If he didn't buy the new car, someone else would have. Demand is far outstripping supply.

And as an elderly man, I can guarantee he's not the cause of the world ending having lived a frugal life through necessity until rampant commercialism took over where we buy tat for peanuts, and dump it sharpish (food, clothes, coffee cups!)

This man is not the problem. May he enjoy his new car every year and may the owners of his old car enjoy that.

I get the irony of ranting here on a message board, supported by a data centre on the backend, probably using a device where rare earth minerals had to be mined, processed and shipped around the world before then powered by predominately gas to produce electricity.

I wonder does this gentleman know that people on the Internet are so interested and invested in his life and car buying habits. The same thread every year is bordering on stalking IMHO.

At the end of the day, even though this is a curiosity, does it matter? Let the guy have his new car every year. If he wants to buy a new car every month then so be it, surely that is his own business! He is not an environmental terrorist for buying new cars every year and his car goes on to a second life with someone else so it does not go to waste. Until such time as the act of buying a new car is banned, let him at it!

Thought I was in the wrong thread there...

Maybe he now prefers a higher driving position as went with the EcoSport when he could have had the Puma.

And his trade in is stopping people having to buy new cars and getting older cars off the road. Win win. Government don’t want old cars on the road anyway.