Lunacy
From our Swindon correspondent:
From the BBC
Tackling climate change must be woven into the solution to the Covid-19 economic crisis, the UK will tell governments next week.
Environment ministers from 30 countries are meeting in a two-day online conference in a bid to make progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The gathering is called the “Petersberg Climate Dialogue”.
It will focus on how to organise a “green” economic recovery after the acute phase of the pandemic is over.
The thing with “the environment” is that it’s mostly about us. It’s a late 20th/21st century Western luxury. We moved out from the country to smoggy cities in the 19th and early part of the 20th century because we liked full bellies over empty ones, and would trade sooty air for that. We then got rich enough through that that we could trade some cash to make cities cleaner by insisting on more environmental laws.
Whatever environmental measures someone comes up with at least have short term costs and long-term benefits. Coming out of our hibernation and into the sun is going to probably be a sharp wake up call, especially when we count the debt that governments owe. Adding more to this in the short term, whether it’s to pay for something sensible like nuclear power stations, or something stupid like trains, is a bad idea. The priority is getting the economy running again, getting unemployment down, which means not adding more costs to people, and dealing with that giant pile of debt.
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As government shifts the focus from dying slowly enough not to overwhelm our hospitals, to staying at home staring at the wall until politicians can promise no one gets this chest cold at all, the public wide-eyed in their face-masks, why wouldn't you put in a requisition for everything you ever wanted but couldn't justify? Green New Deal on the sly? Who's going to put up a fight, now that stupidity has won the day?
'Acktually fotherington-tomas is worse than me he is goalie and spend his time skipping about he sa Hullo clouds hullo sky hullo sun etc when huge centre forward bearing down on him and SHOT whistles past his nose.'
But - was thinking of changing my car anyway. The joy of walking the streets without cars and lorries can't be maintained; but am seriously keen to get a hybrid or all electric instead, which I wasn't before. Won't other consumers want different products, having experienced the difference? Want better broadband, resist flying 9 hours to Singapore to make a 25 minute presentation now? Opportunities here as well as costs?
Pretty sure many - even those still employed - won't be keen to pay for any kind of new car after this, let alone pay a 25% premium for one. Taxes will surely go up just to pay for more unemployed, let alone the cost of the lockdown. People have taken pay cuts, so have less anyway. Once the lockdown ends, the costs of the lockdown are going to continue for some considerable time.
"but am seriously keen to get a hybrid or all electric instead, which I wasn’t before."
and that's absolutely fine. I'm not talking about stopping people taking greener options. And yes, stuff is going to be learned.
as an aside, my opinion on this is to get a plug-in hybrid. That's cleaner for short journeys but still gives you range. If you only occassionally do more than 25-30 miles a day, it's a good compromise.
"Opportunities here as well as costs?"
Absolutely. When income crashes the best thing for a business to do is to run a load of small fail-fast experiments. I've done this myself. And when things picked up I kept two of them. Some of these will maybe keep the fires burning, but a few might show the business a new path.
Nothing green about the batteries, the recycling problem, the neodymium.
Petrol unless you do high mileage, and build coal-fired power stations.
( I know, Boris doesn't have the balls. Carrie has them. )