Climate/ecological breakdown

Net zero is a placebo, even if we reached actual zero CO2 emissions the atmospheric concentration of the gas would not go down for a century and there are other more potent greenhouse gases around such as methane (though shorter lived).

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Sleepwalking into danger, interesting video on PFAS and how its poisoning us and the planet. It includes France as well.

George is right, as ever.

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The French government says the nation installed 1.05 GW of new solar in the second quarter, bringing the country’s cumulative installed PV capacity to 22.2 GW by the end of June.

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I agree. This TED talk makes sense to me but is uncomfortable to watch. Precise fermentation seems to be the answer but for me (quite literally) it goes against the grain.

Talking of climate change, a friend mentioned on Sunday that there had been 9 months of rain in the area. Yesterday we took a look at our orchard, but found the trees sickly and with little fruit. Today talking with another friend I understand that all the fruit trees round here are like that, having had too much rain and are unable to cope with waterlogged soil.

Quite a change from the secheresse last year.

That is very sad. Here in the SW we have experienced the opposite. The cherry trees were prolific with the different varieties extending the season. Also doing well are apples, pears, plums, damsons, sloes and blackberries. Currently prolific are the different types of figs. Looking good for later are hazel nuts and walnuts. All this is available from the side of the road less than 1 km from my front door.
There are also wild strawberries, asparagus and mushrooms but, as these grow at a lower level, contamination by traffic has to be considered (a problem always ignored in the EV/ICE debate)

Road kill !

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As someone who grew up in a city, traffic contamination of wild fruits is always a consideration. However ICE powered vehicles are generally very clean now, and I will happily eat fruits taken on country roads - after a wash, of course. The days of soot covered, lead contaminated fruit are long behind us.

Wild fruits seem more likely to be contaminated with farming substances than waste from vehicles.

Possibly the main polluter from traffic is our local farmer with his ancient tractors which, considering he claims to run a bionic farm, is rather ironic :slightly_smiling_face:

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Now that I would love to see!

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It takes 26 litres of oil to make one car tyre and there are 1.47 billion cars and counting on the planet, not including other forns of transport running on tyres.
EV or ICE aside a lot of oil is needed for tyre manufacture let alone plastics and many other products.
EVs are an expensive gimmick with the powers that be convincing the populus that they will turn a corner on pollution.

There’s probably more that that in London or Paris. Think you might be out by a factor of 1000

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The horse and cart owners said just the same about ICE when they came out.
Yes other pollutants will come under the microscope as we get closer to our own extinction

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Try telling that to the family of people who have died from air pollution.

“Some 80% of the pollution we breathe in urban areas is caused by traffic.”

“It is estimated that there are around 40,000 excess deaths every year as a result of air pollution. Many of these are older people, but some of them are children. The effects of air pollution on children’s physical development continue throughout their life, with a cost to the NHS estimated at £20 billion. “

Indeed! Have corrected my error, with thanks :+1:

And, irony of ironies, the early car manufacturers touted the environmental advantages of their product against the horse and cart. Many cities had a huge issue getting rid of the millions of tons of horse manure generated and which caused huge pollution.

The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894.

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In contrast to the The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 2024 which is mainly about what comes out of Donald J Trump’s mouth.

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Balance that against the processed food industry and cost to the NHS.