The measures could include a ban on filament light bulbs by 2010, forcing people to switch to fluorescent bulbs.
The bulbs last longer but more are more expensive to buy.
This is one of the measures announced yesterday in the European Union's attempt to lead the world in the fight to stop Global Warming killing the planet, or at very least making it a very not nice place to live by 2080. WOW! That is far reaching. I eagerly scanned the rest of the document to find what other measures were to be put in place but it turned out to be not much more than a list of hopeful commitments to using more renewable sources of energy without actually stating what those sources were.
Well if the EU does want to lead the rest of the world in saving the planet I have a few ideas that might, if our grandchildren are lucky, just help.
1) From 2012 no private motor car may be bought or sold anywhere in the EU unless it does 75 miles per gallon. If you live in metric land that is 100km on 3.75 litres of fuel. So either the motor manufacturers build such cars or they forget Europe as a market.
2)From 2017 no private motor car may be used on roads in the EU unless it does 75 miles per Gallon. That would mean almost all the cars on the roads today would be scrape by 2017.
3)From 2023 no vehicle on the road in the EU can run on petrol. All cars on the road by then must have a Carbon Footprint better that a car running on petrol and doing 75 miles per gallon.
Other vehicles on the roads, buses, coaches, Heavy Good Vehicles, builder's vans, ambulances, delivery trucks, the list goes on, would have to have a pro rata Carbon Footprint depending on its size and what it is uses for.
4) All new buildings, houses, office blocks, hospitals, pubs, hotels what ever built after 2010 must produce at least 75% of their energy use. The technology is available now to do this.
5) All existing buildings must, by 2015 be adapted to supply 50% of their energy use.
There are many other measures in ares away from the private car and the home that need similar gob smacking measures to be taken otherwise we should all write a groveling letter of apology to our great grand children and seal it in a time capsule to be opened in 2090, not that by then it will do them much good. At least they will know we were thinking of them.
So which is it to be then, get rid if the filament light bulb, (note Australia is getting rid of theirs by 2010 so the EU isn't exactly leading there) or do something serious.
On a personal note, when I first began to understand the full implications of Global Warming I expected it to happen some time in the next 20 years. I was quiet please about this. I had missed the start of the world by 4.5 billion years; now it looks like I am going to miss the end by about 50 years. I'm a bit pissed of about that.
Really nice day on the buses, the sun was shinning, traffic was light, I didn't run out of change, everyone was out to have a nice enjoyable weekend and I didn't run late once all day. (I just thought I would mention bus driving.)
4 comments:
I have felt that the global warming argument was flawed for a long time. The Great Global Warming Swindle gives food for thought.
I think man is very arrogant to think that his puny actions will affect the Earth. we should be more concerned about how we affect each other. That we can do something about.
Meanwhile, we legislate and take stupid actions for the wrong reasons.
Martin
The last creatures that changed the climate on earth were bacteria. I don't think puniness has any bearing on it...
Disgruntled made my first point. This all sounds very sane. Here in the US our energy policy is the same as our foreign policy, same as our defence policy: "If you don't stop living on top of our oil, we'll kill you."
It was an awfully long time ago, but I was happy to get a job driving a bus because it seemed less destructive than a lot of jobs. Lately I tend to forget my idealism.
If you want to follow the links above the best way is to put "gorelied" and "channel4.com/science/" in to your search engine.
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