[gus3049]

Horses are the way to go, they'll be worth their weight in gold when the oil and gas runs out

and don't forget the by product for the garden

Thanks but no thanks

We are already swimming in the stuff. We used to run this place as a rose and lavender nursery and a Dutch friend of ours brought trailer loads of the fruit of the horse's rear end. The fact that we are retired doesn't seem to have sunk in as the loads keep arriving!

 

[Fluff]

There's got to be a joke in the there somewhere !!!

Steve

 

[GregK]

Bag it up and sell it as Brex**** ........ badum tish .....

 

[StuBeeDoo]

I can't work this one out, perhaps y'all can explain the logic...........

As I've mentioned here before, I deliver groceries to supplement my pension. Several people I've delivered to have voiced strong objections to plastic packaging, on environmental grounds. One or two of these people have actually had the nerve to keep the packaging and send it back when they next have a delivery "to teach S********s a lesson!". These same people have had at least one (sometimes multiple) large, diesel-engined SUV on the drive. Their grocery order invariably includes the likes of kiwifruit, mango, avocado, passionfruit, sweet potato, peppers, rice, the list goes on, but you get my drift - the fruit & veg (and other items as well) have been imported from distant countries.

So you're a wannabe eco-warrior? Good for you! But you won't drive an electric car, or cut down on the amount of food you buy from half-way around the globe - will you???

A real eco-warrior wouldn't buy anything imported, anything supplied in plastic packaging, and would use an environmentally-friendly form of personal transport. ........And I'm fairly sure that in some cases that large, diesel-engined, SUV will have been driven past the store when it's open - but they still want their groceries delivered in an environmentally-unfriendly van, duplicating part of their journey home. So don't whine to me about my employer's lack of environmental awareness when you don't address issues you could actually do something about.

 

[Dopamine]

Almost the entire world of environmentalism is knee-jerk self-righteous cobblers. There is very clearly a climate and pollution problem that needs addressing, but it needs to be looked at as a whole and doing so will never sit comfortably with the self-righteous who love the sound of their own voices.

Reasoned debate died years ago, so now it's just tokenism and shouty people doing more harm than good to the underlying issue.

 

[StuBeeDoo]

Amen to ^^^ that, brother.

 

[PETER GUNN]

Need help i try so hard to miss all the crap that's being spoken about climate change , now i,m ancient and seen a few years roll by and i must say , fings ain't what they used to be climates changing , chap on the box doesn't want cows because they fart and pollute the atmosphere , same chap doesn't want us to eat meat , instead eat plants and grasses, so instead of the cows farting and pollute the atmosphere it will be us farting and polluting the atmosphere.

Another thing i don't get same chap doesn't want us to fly , well i don't anyway but he also wants us to use electric cars , now electric cars use electric which is generated at a power station, the countryside is dug up to build a power station, make roads to power station and all the other bits and pieces , so that uses power to do it , but if we don't have the power in the first place how do you do that.

Now i was getting interested when he said we need to go back to nature , so i had this vision of thousands of people all nudie trying to go to work on trains that didn't exist to jobs that were not there, so are we heading back in time when we make our clothes out of animal skin , but that chap doesn't want animals so how the hell do we do anything .

And the worst thing of all my whisky won't be here as we won't be able to have bottles , or distill it and all the bloody people would have eaten all the barley and grain as we can't eat meat .

 

[MrFlippant]

Yup. Entirely too many people on the planet. We are a virus.

 

[Ecurie Martini]

I find myself in frequent discussions on the topic - particularly those that put forth the premise that "deniers" are anti-science luddites. For the record, I am a "scientist" (BS/MS/PhD) with better than a half century of examining data and drawing conclusions.

This issue is not "climate change." The earth's climate undergoes continuous change and has so for as long as any fossil records reveal. The question is:

To what degree, if any, has human activity impacted the rate and direction of change and will modification of human activity have any influence on this change in the future?

Note - this is different from issues like plastic waste in the oceans, water and ground pollution, urban air quality etc.

I have looked over the data, graphs, conclusions and predictions of various groups and individuals proclaiming the need for immediate drastic action. I am also, from personal experience, well aware of the impact of political and emotional themes on academia in terms of funding, status, employment etc.

My current position is: Had a graduate student presented, as a thesis, the kind of dog's breakfast that is being used to advocate massive geopolitical change, said student would be faced with a choice of using his preexisting or a newly ripped orifice for elimination!

 

[gus3049]

The problem is that so many equally qualified people appear to disagree with you.

Where the hell do most of us - uneducated in the particular field - put our trust. We can only have an emotional point of view.

It seems to be an almighty gamble to do nothing.

I do agree that knee jerk decisions are a waste of time but the move to a more sustainable future does seem to be a sensible move in any case. Getting rid of half the human race seems a good idea...so long as I'm in the half that stays of course.

 

[Trisha]

Res ipsa loquitor - semper!

 

[gus3049]

It is, rather!

 

[Ecurie Martini]

The problem is that so many equally qualified people appear to disagree with you.

Where the hell do most of us - uneducated in the particular field - put our trust. We can only have an emotional point of view.

It seems to be an almighty gamble to do nothing.

I do agree that knee jerk decisions are a waste of time but the move to a more sustainable future does seem to be a sensible move in any case. Getting rid of half the human race seems a good idea...so long as I'm in the half that stays of course.

Certainly true. To the first point I can only respond by quoting a former mentor and Nobel laureate, Harold Urey, who, when discussing the disparity of answers to a problem given out as a class assignment, said: "Ladies and gentlemen, truth is not determined by majority vote."

To your third and fourth points - again, agreement but I can only look on in despair and disgust as the most vocal advocates for sustainability demonize the only proven technology that offers a practical alternative to fossil fuels - nuclear power.

When logic is invoked in framing a problem and then ignored in proposing a solution, an ulterior motive is to be suspected.

EM

 

[Ecurie Martini]

Res ipsa loquitor - semper!

Although the U.S. and Japan, have, in terms of raw numbers, more nuclear generating stations, France, the home of Descartes, leads in the fraction of total power (~70%) sourced from nuclear power.

 

[Ecurie Martini]

Logic again: There is currently a great foofaraw about emissions from ocean going shipping - freighters, container ships, tankers etc. We have a over a half century of experience with marine applications of nuclear power, from submarines to aircraft carriers. Is there a reasonable solution here? Yes, they would cost more to build but have essentially zero refueling costs over a normal lifetime.

Of course, despite the fact that the safety record of these systems is outstanding, I would guess that the knee jerk reaction in many places would be: "Oh no, not in my harbor"

 

[dvd3500]

Well.. gosh.. I mean... what a terrible thing to use less, pollute less and run the risk of saving the planet.

I am we might actually be being good citizens for no reason at all!

 

[Kit Spackman]

To your third and fourth points - again, agreement but I can only look on in despair and disgust as the most vocal advocates for sustainability demonize the only proven technology that offers a practical alternative to fossil fuels - nuclear power.

Many argue that the main problem with nuclear is what do you do with the waste products when it's worn out.

I live right opposite the first real nuclear power station built in the UK at Berkeley on the Severn, which was decommissioned in 1989. It'll be totally demolished and completely cleared by 2080...………..

 

[Dopamine]

what do you do with the waste products when it's worn out.

Stick it on top of a rocket and fire it at the sun. Perfectly safe to do since the stuff is already transported by rail in crash-tested containers, but no doubt the environmentalists will find something to complain about.

The safety record for the storage and transportation of radioactive materials is exceptional. There have been over 3,000 used nuclear fuel shipments in the US (approximately 24,000 worldwide), over the course of several decades, and there has never been a release of harmful amounts of radiation, or any injuries, deaths or environmental damage.

http://nuclearconnect.org/know-nuclear/technology/nuclear-waste

 

[StuBeeDoo]

Why is it that people can't just have conversations at social occasions? Everywhere I/we seem to get invited these days, a large proportion of the available time is devoted to playing games. I'm sorry but games are competition, not socialising.

We have a large family gathering next weekend, for my father-in-law's 90th birthday. Saturday lunchtime and afternoon are going to be taken-up with the festivities, as are Sunday late morning until early evening. I have a 04hr15 start for work on Monday, which means early to bed on Sunday evening. Therefore I only have a few hours on Saturday evening to prepare for the following couple of days..............

This morning, Wor Lass gets a Whatsapp message from Attila the son (who's going to be staying with us for the weekend)......... "As Saturday evening is going to be free, I've got a great new board game I'm bringing with me so the five of us can play.". Now, I happen to know that this "great new board game" is called Catan. I've tried playing it once and I found it that boring that I lost interest in less than half an hour, and it was still going-on after two.

Sorry, Attila, but I; a) don't have time, and b ) am not in the slightest interested. Your Mam sees precious-little of you and the current Mrs.Attila, don't you think it would be nice just to socialise for an hour or so?

...........And whatever happened to light-hearted board games? Catan is anything but light-hearted.

 

[mickey thumbs]

Be thankful that your employer has provided you a perfectly respectable excuse for the evening. I can’t decide which is worse- playing a dreadful board game or spending the time conversing with someone who brings said game to the gathering. My condolences in either case.