Going green isn't easy

[Spartacus]

Read that Tesla, who are making electric cars to stop carbon emission and pollution are running into issues with the greens whilst building their new plant in Germany.

BBC News - Tesla: German court halts work on new 'Gigafactory'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51525673

Something's got to give to enable everyone to be happy.

[diable rouge]

I read at the weekend that it's more green to carry on using a petrol/diesel car rather than buy an electric one. Only when the car has packed in should you go electric...

[se22cat]

Sourcing the materials for the batteries also does considerable environmental harm, not to mention using an obscene amount of groundwater.

[DulwichFox]

se22cat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sourcing the materials for the batteries also does

> considerable environmental harm, not to mention

> using an obscene amount of groundwater.

That is very true..

The materials used in batteries are harmful to the environment. The mining and processing of metals such as lithium, copper, and nickel requires much energy and it can release toxic compounds.

Electric cars need to be charged (By Electricity) which needs to be generated. More Power Stations.

You cannot get more energy out than you put in.

Much of the Pollution from cars come from Tyres and dust form Brake Cylinders..

A 20 MPH speed limit means constant breaking and cars being closer together.

With slower moving traffic the pollution is more concentrated and not distributed.

Electric cars do Nothing to ease congestion.

Cheap public transport is the real answer. But the government is NOT really looking for a Real answer.

DulwichFox

ETA.. in 5+years time we will be faced with the problem of disposing of Millions of toxic batteries.

[Spartacus]

You've got to question where we went wrong environmentally

In the past we had electric trams and electric trolley buses that were abandoned due to the issues of overhead line maintenance and inability to do a diversion if the road was blocked, yet now they are looking to introduce electric busses

We used to have milk delivered by electric floats in glass bottles but now it's all in plastic containers from the shops which people often drive polluting cars to get there.

Lemonade came in deposit paid recyclable bottles (and tasted better)

Local Fruit and veg was sold by greengrocers and if it was out of season it wasn't flown in

Local shops served goods in brown paper bags and people took shopping bags or trolleys when shopping, none of this packaged in plastic and then packed into a plastic bag nonsense

Early supermarkets often had a pile of boxes you could pick up to pack your items into to if you didn't have bags with you

We had windmills and watermills to power industry and now people are excitable about wind farms (either for or against) and hydro or wave powered solutions.

Because of government decisions to cut train and bus services people were driven to use cars

Shops were on every street so you were able to walk to them and not have to drive to the supermarket to get a loaf of bread.

And kids walked or cycled to a school near their home rather than travelling miles to get to a school that has the best results.

We all used a land-line that didn't need charging every 12 hours and only one television in the house so electricity usage was minimum as there were only a few devices connected to the mains.

Tablets were awful tasting things from the doctor ! and most things were cured with a dose of cod liver oil and not antibiotics.

People bought what they needed on a regular (often daily) basis and made home cooked meals , not ready meals which reduced food waste, helped keep obesity to a minimum and families ate together.

I sometimes think progress and big companies selling us a flawed dream has come at a cost that we are only now starting to realise.

Maybe we should look back at our past to help design our future.

[dbboy]

totally agree with your sentiments

[Sue]

And women didn't do paid work (mostly) and spent all their time at home cooking, cleaning, knitting and sewing ...

And there weren't washing machines or hoovers ....

And people died because there were no antibiotics. My mother lost her mother who died of peritonitis when she (my mother) was two years old.

It wasn't all wonderful.

[Sue]

Sorry, double posted by mistake

[Spartacus]

No one said it was wonderful Sue, I'm simply questioning why we moved away from so many environmentally friendly practices to a point where we are now worried about major impacts of our consumerism on the environment.

The antibiotic reference was in context of people stupidly taking them now for conditions that can't be treated by them thus causing resistance and potential loss of effective drugs and it wasn't a dig at antibiotics as a genuine medical treatment.