The history of the Earth since its beginnings is one of periods of climate change occurring naturally due to the long slow changes to the orbit and tilt along with asteroid impacts. Volcanic eruptions and colliding tectonic plates all play their part. The Sun is using up its Hydrogen fuel at a rapid rate so predictions can be made about the end of the Sun and the Earth. We won't experience that. Climates around the Earth are influenced by movements of the thin air skin, Earth spin, sea temperature, Moon effects, so its a complicated picture, and for certain the picture is constantly changing. Carbon Dioxide and Methane levels in the air affect the amount of heat retained and for a very long period of time, the levels of these gases was fairly constant and nature maintained a balance. What has happened in the last 150 years or so is man producing higher than natural levels of CO2 and Methane, directly causing the greenhouse heating effect. The warming effect seems to have a drag effect and when CO2 levels get to a critical level, the warming effect becomes noticeable. There is massive scale destruction of forests which is making things worse. Plants and trees use the Sunlight, CO2 and Water in the miracle of Photosynthesis to convert CO2 and Water to synthesise carbohydrates to grow and trees lockup the CO2. At night plants and trees emit Oxygen which we must have of course, so there is a balance of nature. The Earth has heated up and cooled down during its lifespan, but the concern now is the increasing levels of CO2 and Methane are bringing about a man made Global Warming which we are not controlling and if it keeps going the Earth may never recover and life on Earth for man could become unsustainable. So as I see it, Global Warming is a complicated issue where so many actions and changes would be needed to slow it down or stop it, but with mass logging and countries ignoring their own emissions, I don't see what we do will make much difference, and certainly a few old polluting classic vehicles like ours are less than a drop in the ocean. So lets enjoy our tax free vans and plant some trees.
I sat in my back garden before tea having a nice peppermint tea and surrounded by flowers, veg and trees and loving the butterflies on the Buddleas, there were Peacock, Red Admiral, Tortoise Shell, Brimstone , Comma and a Painted Lady and lots of Bumble and Hive Bees. Meanwhile planes flying into Gatwick every few minutes chucking out tons of CO2.
Read somewhere that a new electric car needed to travel 423,000 miles before it became ‘greener’ (whatever that meant) than a new ICE car... something about the difference between primary and secondary energy. So if you keep an electric bay for say, 80 years or so it might be greener than an internal combustion one, each doing about 6k a year. . Obviously gets greener if you use horses to pull it, which is possible in a few years due to depletion of all mega giant fields and no new discoveries worth a rats sniff since North Sea.
Species come and go but if the human race dies out, there will be no one left to shed a tear! In othee words, who cares?
That wouldn't even get me into town from the farm, they'll really have to improve a hell of lot before they're of any use out here in the Australian bush.
and now we are getting reports of large scale Arctic wild fires, due to climate change and those fires of course are burning trees and vegetation releasing vast amounts of CO2 back into the air causing further greenhouse effect.
And in some parts of Australia, thanks to Big Coal, and its political influence, your electric car powered by coal fired power stations produces more emissions than petrol.
Nice comment about Australia coal fired power stations. Its a fine country, I have lived there, but they have a lot of cheap coal so burn it and I don't think they will change that, so Australia is a major CO2 producer. For a country with low population, they are a major polluter.
@Pickles @pyroking @Fruitcake @Purple @Moons @Iain McAvoy @mgbman @JamesLey @Jack Tatty @matty @mikedjames @stewart kombi @nobayinhell @monkeyvanwestybike @Pudelwagen @Terrordales ........ Found it: http://www.adlittle.com/BEV_ICEV Edit: just noticed a repeated paragraph near the beginning, and some odd typos ... Otherwise though, the downloadable document that this refers to is worth a read!
Interesting article, but weighted in favour of icev by including a weighting for R&D and replacement batteries for electric vehicles. Icev vehicles had far more r&D over the years and do have a percentage of engine replacements, and have their 12v starter batteries replaced probably every five years as well ?! And what's that weighting for alternative transport for?
Sorry, bit rushed ... First off, I put this up for looking at keep the classic versus converting it, so the icev R&D is not a factor, but I'll read through the PDF again some time as I think that point is covered. The 12v batteries are not Lithium Ion, obviously, so their recyclability is much greater/better managed than the huge EV packs. As for alternative transport, again I'll have to read through, but I think it's to do with the knock on effect of range and infrastructure limitations? Truth is, once I got the picture on toxicity, (as ever affecting other communities) I didn't need to hear any more, so wasn't "forensic" about the rest of it.
I really wish the EV story was better. But more and more I see the cynicism. Govt legislates for EVs. Car makers sell lots of new EVs. Keeps jobs making cars. Car makers pay politicians consultancy fees/bribes to promote EVs. We end up paying more for worse products. Maybe Volkswagens goal of the 100mpg diesel is actually more feasible than the 400 mile range EV... Put the electric motors in mass transit where you dont need batteries..
I want to know where you plug your car in when you come home and the only vacant parking space near your house is Two streets away, There will have to be pay charging points everywhere, And you will have to take out an public liability insurance in case anyone trips over your charger cable Never mind ppi It’ll be have you tripped over someone’s wire today. Com
