Hybrids? waste of space.

[recycled]

i have a kid anyway and i do care.
That is why i have decided to do my bit my buying a flat six instead of a 7.0 V8 and changing all my bulbs to energy savers.
Honestly i see your point and i agree with you but i think the extremists right now are getting into peoples way of moving forward positively.
It is a bit like the animal liberation front and the drug research companies.

Collectively i think we an all do our bit but a little less scare mongering from the powers that be.
Anyway have a good evening. i am done with his topic.

 

[Dieselman]

Recycled

Will that flat six run on Bio fuel..??

I knew you were being a bit tongue in cheek anyway..

Cheers.

 

[hawk20]

Nothing Britain does will make a blind bit of difference to the life of the world. We are 60 million people out of 6 billion on earth. A mere 1% of the long-term problem. Go through misery and cut our emissions by 20% and then you have cut the world's problem to 99.8% of its size. Oh good! Even if long-term you think we will use twice our share of energy, then we are 2% of the problem and 20% off what we consume will cut the problem to 99.6% of its size. Useless tokenism.

The real problem is that the world's population was 1 billion when Mrs Thatcher was born and is now 6 billion as we near the end of her one long lifetime. SIXFOLD in one lifetime. Roll forward another long lifetime. Could there be 36 billion people. Our present population will be only one sixth of one per cent of the total and even if we cut our consumption to zero it will not make a blind bit of difference. Not one fig, one jot, not one iota of difference.

On emissions, we need to persuade the US, India and China or nothing else matters. Only CND types think unilateral disarmament works. The only argument that seems to work is 'I will, if you will, so will I.' Do it when they do it. Then you have some bargaining chips, then you get invited to the talks.

But even with them on board, unless we all address the galloping population problem, it will not be possible to even stop emissions growing -let alone cut them. If population doubles every 30-40 years, are we going to HALVE our emissions per head in the same period???????

EVEN if we do, that will leave emissions just as high as they are now.

Really want to do something. Tell the Catholic church to shut up about birth control (nothing in the Bible supports their position anyway) and to stop leaning on US presidents to take the population problem off every world conference on the environment. Then dish out the Pill 'free' to all you can get to take it.

If not; say goodnight ****.

 

[Dieselman]

If not; say goodnight ****.

Ooo..Is that aimed at me.?

Well thank you, I didn't know you knew me that well.

You are forgetting that the Uk is actually 6% of the problem and USA is 25%.

The developing world including India and China make up a small percentage due to lack of usage.

I shall refrain from calling you names.

 

[hawk20]

NO, Dieselman. of course it is not aimed at you or at anyone. Just my take on the problem. Read carefully I said 1% of the population. And long term as we produce less and less manufactured goods we will be a small aprt of the total problem too.

 

[Dieselman]

Nothing Britain does will make a blind bit of difference to the life of the world. We are 60 million people out of 6 billion on earth. A mere 1% of the long-term problem. Go through misery and cut our emissions by 20% and then you have cut the world's problem to 99.8% of its size. Oh good! Even if long-term you think we will use twice our share of energy, then we are 2% of the problem and 20% off what we consume will cut the problem to 99.6% of its size. Useless tokenism.

I thought you said we were 1% of the problem.

Between us and USA we are 31% of the total emissions of Co2 over 240 million people.
That leaves 69% over the rest of the world. Those 5.99 Billion aren't emitting much each are they.

Do you think that's a slight imbalance?

If between us we cut our emissions by 25% that is a big saving, and far easier than anything anyone else can do , well apart from Australia.

 

[frog1520]

With your take on global warming and the causes I'm surprised you haven't been picked to be a leading scientist in this field. It would be a lot cheaper to employ you as opposed to the thousands of scientists who are currently working in this arena, who incidentally disagree with your theory.

Everyone is entitled to their view. Theres a massive industry built up around global warming / climate change now, and a lot of people have a vested, financial interest in it. There are two sides to the story, but only one is politically correct these days....

 

[marcos]

Does anyone have any information on what percentage of C02 emmisions are caused by humans and what is caused by nature ?
Also does anyone have any information as to what overall percentage of so called " Global Warming " is caused by man and the burning of fossil fuels ?

I'm not having a dig at anyone but no one ever seems to quote these figures and yet I am led to believe by Goverment's around the world that because I don't drive a Nissan Micra or a Toyota Prius I am solely responsible for destroying the ozone layer and leading to the destruction of mankind.

 

[hawk20]

I thought you said we were 1% of the problem.

Between us and USA we are 31% of the total emissions of Co2 over 240 million people.
That leaves 69% over the rest of the world. Those 5.99 Billion aren't emitting much each are they.

Do you think that's a slight imbalance?

If between us we cut our emissions by 25% that is a big saving, and far easier than anything anyone else can do , well apart from Australia.

That is really nonsense when you think it through. Humans are only a small part of total CO2 and CO2 is only part of the claimed problem. Forget the short run for a minute. We are 1% of world population. EVEN if you think that long term we will emit double the average CO2, we are only 2% of the problem. Compared with the massive increases in population worldwide, playing with our consumption is tinkering with the problem.

 

[Dieselman]

Does anyone have any information on what percentage of C02 emmisions are caused by humans and what is caused by nature ?
Also does anyone have any information as to what overall percentage of so called " Global Warming " is caused by man and the burning of fossil fuels ?

I'm not having a dig at anyone but no one ever seems to quote these figures and yet I am led to believe by Goverment's around the world that because I don't drive a Nissan Micra or a Toyota Prius I am solely responsible for destroying the ozone layer and leading to the destruction of mankind.

So it's all your fault then..now we know who to blame.

Is this any good?

 

[hawk20]

Some say the methane from farting cows and other animals is more of a problem that human CO2.

 

[Dieselman]

That is really nonsense when you think it through. Humans are only a small part of total CO2 and CO2 is only part of the claimed problem. Forget the short run for a minute. We are 1% of world population. EVEN if you think that long term we will emit double the average CO2, we are only 2% of the problem. Compared with the massive increases in population worldwide, playing with our consumption is tinkering with the problem.

You appear to be assuming every individual in the World creates the same proportion of the problem, they don't.
The figures I mentioned are not my figures, they are published ones and have been on the news tonight.
I'm not sure why you disagree with them.

Co2 is the major constituent of the problem as it makes up only a small percentage of the atmosphere, thus a small change is large in percentage terms.

 

[marcos]

I'm sorry Dieslelman I didn't realise the damage I was causing.

On a more serious note the article you posted is informative in certain ways but does not answer my questions.
I would wager that if we were given the correct figures it would turn out that the damage we cause to the enviroment would pale into insignificance compared to the naturally produced damaging gases etc.

No one has yet to come out with anything substantial, other than the lying pony the Goverment's come out. Something I find a little scary really.
Are we all so blinkered that we can't see when the Goverment's are making up a load of old pony purely for tax collection purposes and to give the friends of Tony Blair well paid but unecessary jobs.

 

[Dieselman]

Marcos
The chart is supposed to show that the natural production and absorbtion of Co2 is near enough exactly in balance, the remaining 5.5 Gtonnes comes from fossil fuels and cement production.

It shows the transfer from one location to another and the amount held in each storage 'sink'.

Does that make sense?

 

[marcos]

Marcos
The chart is supposed to show that the natural production and absorbtion of Co2 is near enough exactly in balance, the reamining 5.5 Gtonnes comes from fossil fuels and cement production.

Does that make sense?

I will read it properly in the morning when I'm sober, it's all a bit fuzzy at the moment.
Sorry but my name is Marcos and I am an alcoholic.

Seriously I will read it properly tomorrow at work, I'm not allowed alcohol at work Hic

 

[hawk20]

You appear to be assuming every individual in the World creates the same proportion of the problem, they don't.
The figures I mentioned are not my figures, they are published ones and have been on the news tonight.
I'm not sure why you disagree with them.

Co2 is the major constituent of the problem as it makes up only a small percentage of the atmosphere, thus a small change is large in percentage terms.

It never helps to understand what people are saying if you merely try to ridicule it or twist it to say something silly it isn't saying. Nowhere do I say all humans create the same proportion of the problem.

What I am saying is that population growth is a central part of the problem we face. And given that it has increased sixfold in one long lifetime, we ignore it at our peril. If it grows another sixfold, in another long lifetime, making minor changes to our behaviour will be worthless. Even halving our emissions per head will still leave the problem massively worse than it is now. So that is the big problem the world needs to address.

Now, you want to concentrate on what 1% of today's population is doing here in the UK. I say it is largely irrelevant. What matters is what we do about world population and next after that we need to worry about what the USA, China, India and Japan will be doing in the years ahead. We are a tiny island stuck off the north coast of Europe with an amazing history but with a tiny population in world terms and unable to do much to help solve the problem except by trying to persuade others to see the problem more clearly and encouraging them to address it.

Multilateral talks and actions are what is needed, not useless unilateral posturing.

And why all this is in driving incidents and roadrage rather than general interest escapes me.

 

[RichardM]

I went to a Lexus drive event on wednesday and one of the cars I took out was the RX400h. I was really impressed, I love the way it silently pulled away and I easily got 36mpg on the test drive. The computer display does definitely encourage you to drive on the electric motors. It also had excellent acceleration when needed. I can't say I was impressed with the RX overall though. I wouldn't mind trying the same engine in the GS450h. It was an 1 1/2 wait for that as they only had one so I didn't bother.

 

[hawk20]

I went to a Lexus drive event on wednesday and one of the cars I took out was the RX400h. I was really impressed, I love the way it silently pulled away and I easily got 36mpg on the test drive. The computer display does definitely encourage you to drive on the electric motors. It also had excellent acceleration when needed. I can't say I was impressed with the RX overall though. I wouldn't mind trying the same engine in the GS450h. It was an 1 1/2 wait for that as they only had one so I didn't bother.

You must have had a very short drive. If you start with the batteries well charged and only go a short distance the economy will be good as it can use up the juice in the batteries. That is how they do well on govt fuel economy tests as can start with batteries fully charged.

But in normal use, the juice in the batteries comes from the petrol. Drive up a hill and you can go down the other side charging the batteries as you come down. The main Lexus dealer warned me that not one of his customers was able to achieve the quoted 35mpg combined figure in normal use.

And AutoExpress has just found the hybrid Prius as the car that is least able to get anywhere near its claimed economy figures.

Add to that, they only guarantee the electric motors for 60,000 miles. Not unlimited like a Merc diesel.

 

[RichardM]

It was about 15 miles and was mainly flat although a mix of roads. To be fair I had read how you were supposed to drive hybrids, coast as much as possible to recharge the batteries and pull away slowly, but I didn't drve slowly. I tried to drive as I typically would to/from work.

 

[glojo]

I went to a Lexus drive event on wednesday and one of the cars I took out was the RX400h. I was really impressed, I love the way it silently pulled away and I easily got 36mpg on the test drive. The computer display does definitely encourage you to drive on the electric motors. It also had excellent acceleration when needed. I can't say I was impressed with the RX overall though. I wouldn't mind trying the same engine in the GS450h. It was an 1 1/2 wait for that as they only had one so I didn't bother.

I cannot understand how anyone would buy these cars on the pretext of economy? It makes no sense to me and I personally feel it is unadulterated snobbery.

I say this having posted the fuel figures for our 320CDI which if driven conservatively will return 40mpg. No one has explained why they opt to use a petrol engine instead of the more economical diesel, I have my own views on this and again these views are critical of the buyer. Most hybrids at present are more about image as opposed to economy.

If we do not think the ozone layer is thinning then go to either Australia or New Zealand and spend a few hours in the sun without putting on a protective potion