Impressed £67.5 billion... nope... 263 billion, and rising.

[Embattle]

But do you really have to bring up all the fucking time when it is plastered all over the internet and TV. We already get that climate change is bad for planet Earth. There are enough TV documentaries about it, we don't need you to harp on about it.

Ever the optimist

 

[Scouse]

@Embattle

Government failure to boost energy efficiency ‘inexplicable’, says IEA

Saving energy is ‘utterly essential’ to cut bills, end reliance on Russian oil and gas and slash emissions says agency

www.theguardian.com

 

[Embattle]

@Scouse As someone who lives in an energy efficient house I will just say...well dur

Last month our net grid usage was -41.4kWh and so far this month it is -31.2kWh. Our actual gas use once they fixed the smart meter gas sender resulted in us getting paid money back when the estimate they used was 300 units too high compared to what we actually used.

 

[Scouse]

@Scouse As someone who lives in an energy efficient house I will just say...well dur

100% - but the point is government inaction regarding energy effiency - and continued subsidy and roll out of yet more fossil fuel (utilising public money) - instead of fixing our housing stock and helping us transition to more efficient transportation methods.

You are against government subsidy in fixing the housing stock. It's crazy madness.

 

[Tom]

It's the little things too. There are so many quick and simple modifications that can be made to our transport network to enable more walking and cycling. I'm talking thousands of pounds to upgrade short muddy paths that can be usable all year round, rather than the millions we spend on a roundabout, or a junction widening. The old Tory council in Trafford a few years back completely remodelled a major junction that had four pedestrian subways. It now has one pedestrian subway and a load of new surface crossings. The aim of that remodelling? To introduce a single right turn lane from the south to the east. To reduce queuing traffic there. So three completely safe grade-separated crossings were removed, to accommodate a few dozen people in cars. Who get stuck at the next set of lights anyway, as the road returns to single lane running. All the pedestrians now have to cross a major highway, trusting that motorists will stop. And they have to wait to do that, whereas with subways - no wait, not ever. All this might have been avoided if Highways England (who run our motorways) would build a slip road off the M60 to access the town everyone using that junction is trying to reach, but that's a different government department and hell no are they going to listen to some upstart council.

Near me a very short little path that's part of a key cycling route in the area had historic barriers removed during the pandemic, funded by the government's Emergency Active Travel Fund. Some antisocial motorcyclists started using it as a short cut. The council's solution has been to get the police to enforce the motor restriction re-erect some barriers, once again making it much more difficult to cycle through. Meanwhile, at least two innocent pedestrians have died on roads right around the corner - and not a single thing has been done to fix that.

There's a mindset that upsetting people is bad for politics, so let's just stick with the status quo. The end result is that it remains easy to drive (and pollute unnecessarily) and difficult to travel cheaply, safely and healthily. Councillors need to realise they'd only be upsetting the noisy minority; the quiet majority are often supportive of the right thing. And I think if the government paid less attention to the professional whingers who read tabloids, and more to actual experts who know a thing or two, we'd be in a much better place.

 

[Embattle]

100% - but the point is government inaction regarding energy effiency - and continued subsidy and roll out of yet more fossil fuel (utilising public money) - instead of fixing our housing stock and helping us transition to more efficient transportation methods.

You are against government subsidy in fixing the housing stock. It's crazy madness.

Don't lie about my position Scouse, I've said many times I support a effective government subsidy (oxymoron) but I don't support a blanket subsidy since I have no intention of seeing subsidises handed to people who can afford to do it on their own which ultimately drains resources.

@Tom There are a couple of bus only short cuts near us and one is no longer enforced due to some development work on the other side and the closer one has a bollard system that hasn't worked for years thus as time has passed everyone is using it as a short cut.

 

[ECA]

The end result is that it remains easy to drive (and pollute unnecessarily) and difficult to travel cheaply, safely and healthily. Councillors need to realise they'd only be upsetting the noisy minority; the quiet majority are often supportive of the right thing. And I think if the government paid less attention to the professional whingers who read tabloids, and more to actual experts who know a thing or two, we'd be in a much better place.

Councillors get paid expenses not a wage, so the only people with time to do the job are retired folk ( 99% ) , which is why local politics in the uk is fucking wank and is all geriatric gentric because they are the voting demographic and the representatives.

 

[Wij]

Councillors get paid expenses not a wage, so the only people with time to do the job are retired folk ( 99% ) , which is why local politics in the uk is fucking wank and is all geriatric gentric because they are the voting demographic and the representatives.

Old people, people who can use it to further their business interests and busybodies.

A cornucopia of cunts.

 

[Scouse]

Councillors get paid expenses not a wage

It also means that only busybodies in general take part - rather than people of rational intellect who are trying to get on with their lives.

 

[Scouse]

Ah. As @Wij said

 

[Tom]

Don't lie about my position Scouse, I've said many times I support a effective government subsidy (oxymoron) but I don't support a blanket subsidy since I have no intention of seeing subsidises handed to people who can afford to do it on their own which ultimately drains resources.

@Tom There are a couple of bus only short cuts near us and one is no longer enforced due to some development work on the other side and the closer one has a bollard system that hasn't worked for years thus as time has passed everyone is using it as a short cut.

The solution to the bus gate issue is to contact your councillors and ask why it isn't being enforced. And the local police force. In fact you could use www.whatdotheyknow.com to issue a FoI to ask specific questions about enforcement - how many FPN's issued, etc. Also ask for estimates on how much council funding has been lost due to lack of enforcement.

 

[Raven]

Birds are all dying too. Place is fucked.

 

[Embattle]

171p around here.

Today it seems to be 179 for Petrol and 189 for Diesel around here.

 

[Scouse]

Very interesting:

Climate change: 'Sand battery' could solve green energy's big problem

A storage device made from sand may overcome the biggest issue in the transition to renewable energy.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[MYstIC G]

Very interesting:

Climate change: 'Sand battery' could solve green energy's big problem

A storage device made from sand may overcome the biggest issue in the transition to renewable energy.

www.bbc.co.uk

Very clever, it's also good it uses what appears to be low quality sand as apparently that's actually a real world issue

Sand crisis looms as world population surges, U.N. warns

A U.N. report on Tuesday called for urgent action to avert a "sand crisis," including a ban on beach extraction as demand surges to 50 billion tonnes a year amid population growth and urbanisation.

www.reuters.com

 

[Wij]

‘Greens’:


View: https://twitter.com/mark_lynas/status/1545345583262695424

 

[Embattle]

Price of offshore wind power falls to cheapest ever level in UK

Contract price is nearly 6% lower than previous auction in 2019, which could ease pressure on energy bills

www.theguardian.com

 

[Raven]

It will make shit all difference to bills.

 

[Scouse]

Britain’s electric dreams will never come true while China has a materials advantage | John Naughton

Rare earth elements hold the key to a carbon-free future, but a new report reveals the UK’s shortcomings and vulnerabilities

www.theguardian.com

 

[Raven]

Base the "green" revolution on rare earth materials (clue is in the name) get burned.

It's not really that complicated, very lucrative though.

 

[Scouse]

You have to go where the tech takes you.

Perhaps it's time we renegotiated a global settlement so we stop warring amongst ourselves and start looking at what we can do to collaborate constructively in the planet's and humanity's best interests?

 

[Raven]

The tech is a dead end.

 

[Scouse]

The tech is a dead end.

Solar?

 

[Raven]

Solar?

If the source is as damaging as what it is replacing, then it is completely pointless. Sure make Guardian readers feel better about themselves though.

 

[Bodhi]

 

[Embattle]

Are rare earths used in solar panels?

A new report by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency reveals some surprises about the use of rare earth minerals in the renewable energy sector.

www.pv-magazine.com

All I can say regarding our solar panels is during the period 27 May -> 26th June our energy bill consisted of the following:

Gas - £20.24
Electricity Import - £12.09
Electricity Export (269.1 kWh@7.5p) - £20.18
Total Bill = £12.15

I'm not going to complain about the panels which have only become even better value with the silly electricity prices current being charged.

 

[Scouse]

If the source is as damaging as what it is replacing

It isn't.

You do understand the dilemma, right? We need clean energy.

 

[Scouse]

Oh, and @Bodhi - way more rare earths are used per GW generating via the very expensive and not-buildable-in-time-anyway nuclear.

 

[Raven]

yes.

You obviously don't.

 

[Embattle]

Alternatives are being researched for non rare earth based materials in most areas, the actual problem with them is the a West did what it always does which is let China dig them up and thus control the market even though there are plenty of them in other places such as America.