EU 'should ban inefficient cars'

[recycled]

No...We need much higher taxes to sort that out......

perfect i agree. As cars are now worse than hepatitis C and HIV i suggest road tax flat rate £100,000.
That should get those polluters off the streets overnight

 

[glojo]

I value the input of the scientists amongst us and I would love to hear wht there opinion is regarding the thinning of the ozone layer. What woould their suggestion be to improve this situation and get it back to how it was in the 1960's? No pansy half answers about reducing our carbon footprints or only buying a 1600cc modern petrol powered vehicle because none of this will improve the situation.

What needs to be done to improve the ozone layer to how it was in the 1960's

As an aside I am rivetted to my computer watching the preparations for the latest shuttle launch. When the blue touch paper is lit I would guess that this one launch will contribute several lifetimes of pollution to our atmosphere, but to me this is sciernce and we are taking huge strides into developing our way of life.


What is the recommendation to improve the thickness of the ozone layer?


Regards
John

 

[recycled]

What is the recommendation to improve the thickness of the ozone layer?


Regards
John

I believe a white paper is out on that soon.
More taxes should sort out the ozone layer.

 

[Alfie]

Toyota don't make hybrids to combat our congestion charge, if they did they would cost about £1M each. They are made for the USA market and outsell ours by about 1000 to 1.

I dont think thats strictly true. 1000 - 1 very unlikely. I doubt its even 3 to 1.

Because my mother suffered a momentary lapse of reason (Pink Floyd moment ) and purchased one of those Prickus things I make a mental note of how often and where I see them so as it can be a discussion point when I see her! Whilst in the USA for ten days recently, I saw three of them. Yes just three. I saw far more new big engined cars than ever. Compared to here where I see more than three of those things every ten days.

Given the ugliness of them and the flawed logic in purchasing them (Many diesels outperform them in economy terms), I dont think they will sell at all well in the states compared to conventional vehicles.

 

[Birdman]

Hi Birdman,

I think you are being a tad disparaging of scientists.
....

Cheers,

Well, you're probably right in this sense: I disparage the New Climate Orthodoxy, rather than individual scientists. I have a real concern that the climate change movement is now a gravy train that is turning into a giant band-waggon based upon flimsy and untested hypotheses. If the whole scientific and engineering community got the Year 2000 bug so wrong when extrapolating within a closed system that they designed, manufactured, engineered, programmed and operated - a computer - why should we believe these same people (they are all drawn from the same universities and think tanks btw) when they tell us they understand the interactions of the biggest open system of the lot - the earth's climate and resources, it's bio-system, the natural environment, the solar system, everything - and what is more, they can design suitable global policies to deal with their global models' predictions! It's not just nonsense, it's nonsense on stilts (to borrow from the good Dr Johnson).

Climate change scientists can't lose financially, career-wise or status-wise provided they follow the new consensus. But to resist the present momentum, especially on scientific grounds, is to see their own careers go up in smoke. Few people have any idea how vicious and unforgiving the scientific community is when its conventional wisdoms are challenged by insiders.

It follows that when scientists are all agreed about something new which they do not properly understand, then their principle belief systems are dictated by politics, not science. Without a healthy debate within the scientific community we end up with Lysenkoism. So far as I'm concerned the debate ain't over....

There are plenty of examples of real science being suppressed in favour of unscientific belief systems held within the scientific community. Read 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' by Thomas S. Kuhn and be amazed!

 

[Alfie]

As an aside I am rivetted to my computer watching the preparations for the latest shuttle launch. When the blue touch paper is lit I would guess that this one launch will contribute several lifetimes of pollution to our atmosphere, but to me this is sciernce and we are taking huge strides into developing our way of life.


What is the recommendation to improve the thickness of the ozone layer?


Regards
John

Me too.

I guess if they stopped firing rockets through it it would help

 

[Dieselman]

What is the recommendation to improve the thickness of the ozone layer?

I'm not sure why you make the connection between the ozone layer and Global warming, they are not connected.

The ozone layer is recovering already due to banning the use of harmful CFC gasses.

http://www.theozonehole.com/

 

[whitenemesis]

As Dieselman says, the ozone layer is recovering well, the hole over the Antartic is shrinking quite quickly. Give it another 20yrs

glojo, I don't think the shuttle rockets burn fuel that would cause pollution. Isn't it oxygen and hydrogen for the main thruster and hyrazine / oxygen for the manouvering thrusters. Not sure of the solid thrusters, I think it is some form of perchlorate?

 

[Dieselman]

I dont think thats strictly true. 1000 - 1 very unlikely. I doubt its even 3 to 1.

.

I doubt that given these figures. 18,161 sold in Feb '07 alone in USA.

I bet there's not that many sold to date in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gcc_hybrid_sales_feb07.png

 

[stevesey]

I doubt that given these figures. 18,161 sold in Feb '07 alone in USA.

I bet there's not that many sold to date in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gcc_hybrid_sales_feb07.png

13,826 in the UK until June 07 (click)

 

[Birdman]

Does anyone know where we can find a model-by-model breakdown of MB sales in the UK for 2007? And previous years?

Do they let on?

 

[recycled]

i do not care if the prius sells 10 billion in a week. It is a rubbish looking car and i will rather walk or better still stay at home than drive one.
The blue motion pollutes less anyway.
just to see how stupid the so called eco warriors are.

 

[glojo]

Thank goodness an air of sensibility has finally been highlighted by that great ambassador of conservation;

Prince Charles

In order to protect the enviroment he and his wife have kindly sacrificied the comforts of air travel and decided to travel by sea. What an example to the rest of us and are we to admire him for this huge sacrifice?

Another Leander that His Majesty once took a holiday aboard!

 

[Alfie]

I doubt that given these figures. 18,161 sold in Feb '07 alone in USA.

I bet there's not that many sold to date in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gcc_hybrid_sales_feb07.png

13,826 in the UK until June 07 (click)

They are made for the USA market and outsell ours by about 1000 to 1

So are you saying then that just 1.81 Prius' were sold in the Uk in February 07 or are you saying that 13,826,000 of them were sold in the USA up to June 2007?

 

[djlew]

Tax and Tax

3 basic rules that have been practiced by Governements worldwide for decades

1. Don't tax the ultra wealthy they'll just up sticks and leave the country (also there tax lawyers are better than the governments).
2. Don't bother taxing the skivers, criminals or those who just wave two fingers, it's expensive, you can't find them anyway and even if you do some smart lawyer will get them off.
3. Tax the good honest taxpayer, who pays his taxes, insures his car, pays his road tax and just wants a quiet life. Why - well you know were he is, when you catch him he'll probably pay up and anyway he's too worried about get run into by those in Para 2. (come the revolution!!!)

 

[djlew]

CO2 and The Human Link

Some months ago I read an article about the funding of climatic research by scientists in the UK. Whilst tens of millions of pounds has be given to anyone prepared to blaim climate change on human activity a group of scientists (apparently well respected) werre refused funding which wasn't quite in line with current Government mantra. Namely there is apparently a body of opinion that believes that global warming causes CO2 increase in the atmospere and not the other way round. Not a theory many governements would wish to gain any credibility. Not surprisingly they didn't get a penny. The reason apparently given being that the opposite was now so widely accepted it would be a waste of public money to look into other causes!!