WAR! What is it good for?

Insects and reptiles typically don't do well in the cold and most scientists believe even a relatively small nuclear war will cause a nuclear winter.

The bombs will kill some people/animals. The radiation many more. Starvation will be the biggest kill of people and animals though.

 

Member of the Ukranian parliament who has taken up arms, claiming some countries not stepping up to help, when pushed to name those countries, France and Germany. Then named the two countries that have helped the most, UK and US.

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We might be on the bad boy list soon. Not sure about the source but went to find it as i heard this on five live yesterday whilst driving around (in my petrol car of course, no blood diesel here)

https://eutoday.net/news/business-e...s-funding-attack-on-ukraine-says-oleg-ustenko

 

I hear you mate, I'm fortunate enough to rarely have reason to drive these days, along with several years back I made a concerted decision to start knocking it all on the head, after you've driven for so many years you begin to hate it, especially on the M25.

But to your point, I'd heard diesel was problem, I don't really know much about this area, but I see in the media in recent days about some conversations with the Saudi's. We seem to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

However, I really don't know what are the alternatives, I suppose switching to electric is going to solve this problem in the long term, but I'd be interested to know the options in the short term, from anyone that knows.

Goes back to what I use to say in business, don't tell me the problem, tell me the solution. Not aimed at you by the way Bobby.

 

We're even more dependent on Saudi oil now, so the children getting bombed in Yemen will have to wait for our sympathy.

Long term, the solution is moving away from fossil fuels, hopefully this whole issue will speed it up, but it's not a quick fix

Short term, more money needs to go into public transport. Rail is an efficient way for people to commute, but rail fares are ridiculous. You can fly to Spain cheaper than you can to get a train from Penzance to Bristol ffs.

The other solution is for Boris to give everybody a grant to buy a £3k bike

 

I was joking about the blood diesel part because of the article but crude oil is used in absolutely anything, from fuel in cars (diesel and petrol), lorries, planes, ships, plastics, tarmac, power plants.

You have different grades in oil and oil producing is in places like russia, usa, nigeria, north sea, middle east etc.

As with all supply chains (i believe we dont have masses of oil in inventory), we still need some of these shipments of russian oil to keep our refineries running (i hazard a guess is why we are still accepting them but are trying to ramp down with an exit by the end of the year).

There will be reasons for this:
1. Lag in extracting at oil, chucking onto a ship and transporting it to uk will take months.
2. Contractual obligations where oil is actually purchased months in advance, to just ditch out of these will cost someone millions which they are not prepared to do.

 

Not really mate ... there is no actual proof that Russia has weapons of mass destruction that are a threat to world peace ...like Iraq did ...

 

Funny you should say that ... a Nigerian Prince with a cash flow issue has contacted me to offer me all the diesel I need in exchange for helping with a small currency problem that is inconveniencing him ...

 

For some reason people just don't want to turn away from the car, a topic I could probably write all day about. To me it's to do with the way society has changed from when I was kid. The hub was always your town centres, we've literally over decades destoyed all that for 'just in time' and more recently the internet. It's how you turn that clock back. Also return to a time of local jobs for local people, local produce, local farmers and stop all this daily commute, covid has guided us slightly on how we can change. Finally public transport, in some areas it's improved with high speed, in other areas it's got worse, local commutes. It's easy for me to say I'd turn the clock back 50 years, but how does that fit with the rest of Europe, I think a lot of that depends on geographical area and wealth, the poorer you are the more you rely on your local community, where they are not so developed as we are in the UK, although the same applies (I've not worded that bit very well). It would require a whole change of thinking, I'm not sure todays generation is up to that thought process and the efforts required on everyone of us to change.

 

Just watching Sky news, Russia put some famous 12yr old singer on a kids tv show, along with the adult presenter telling Russian kids that the things they're seeing on the Internet is not true, most of it is from other wars from around the world and some even from Internet games.

 

I was thinking about people turning away from the car.

I think theres two things:

Cars are so much more affordable now and as a society, cars are a symbol of independence and offer us that independence. Buses constrict you and if we are honest (i havent taken them in local towns recently) are they even that cheap or convenient? My hometown used to have 1 even 2 hours and stopped at 6pm.

Then you have population growth, according to google uk population was 57 million in 1990. Its now 67 million. Lets assume a 5 person household has 1 car. Thats an additional 2 million cars on the road and when you think populations arent evenly spread, thats 2 million cars in already busy areas.

This is before accounting that more of the population will be able to buy cars (cheaper cars, 2nd hand cars, everyone is generally richer)

 

I was watching one of the big meetings on TV the other day, might have been the UN council, where Russia denied bombing a hospital. I tend to have a simplistic approach to these sort of comments, such as why don't all us leaders jump on a plane tomorrow, with the Russian delegate and go visit the hospital, to see if it's still intact. Same as if you think there is no war in Ukraine, let's go visit, afterall, if it's all untrue, what do you have to fear?

 

My first thought on the news I was watching was, if Putin thinks what he is doing is legal and justifiable, then why lie about it.

 

I remember decades back, the tree huggers use to try and prevent new road building, suggesting it don't solve the problem. The opposite would argue you are preventing progress - I have to say the tree huggers were right, no sooner you change a single road to a dual carriage way, you are a decade on changing it to a three lane motorway.

 

Michael Palin, one of few people in life from the celebrity world I have time for...

 

and more...

 

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I think, like brb says, it’s a cultural thing too. Not only is it seen as a demonstration of affluence to own your own car. (Remember thatcher belittled people who used buses) but along with the way we live our lives now, which has become more insular and less community based.

What I mean by this is that we spend hours chatting online, Facebook, Insta, chat rooms, dating apps etc. We bank online, do most of our shopping online, order takeaways online etc. loads of systems have become automated and less and less of what we do on a day to day basis requires actual human interaction and I think the same mentality applies to individual transport. Most folk would seemingly be happier in their own private space in their car, than share a carriage or bus with a load of strangers.

The fact that a lot of public transport is also overpriced and under performing also tips the balance in favour of the car.

 

Really ?

If true , oh F**k