To think that cars are the biggest cause of climate change?

[malificent7]

I didn't learn to drive till I was 30 as I was concerned about the effects of cars on global warming. Everyone thought I was mad...however now that climate change is a hot topic i wonder how many people still feel that driving isn't damaging to the planet?
Then there are the car accidents, roads are an eyesore.
I mean I drive as I live in the country but I kind of hate it too.

@SelkieQualia

Our cities are designed around cars. This needs to change; active transport should be given priority.

Lots of cities predate cars!!

We have reduced our CO2 emissions from energy quite significantly in the UK by phasing out coal...we have a growing fleet of renewables and the outlook is positive (but we also have to relay on imports of energy from Europe-France and Belgium-)

Only by outsourcing manufacturing to China/Asia, reducing our pollution but making theirs increase (and not just UK either)

We have a plan re cars. No new petrol/diesel ones from 2030..how feasible it is I'm not sure..even withot logistics on how/where will the cars be charged, the electricity has to come from somewhere and there is no spare capacity (hence importing from France already, they have loads from nuclear)

Won't happen and in anycase, EV cars aren't the solution, infact their production is even more polluting plus without a breakthrough in battery tech, they have poor range and take too long to charge.

Why we aren't massively upping RnD is hydrogen transport? cars, lorries, trains, shipping?

£250m govt aid given to build a uk battery factory that will cause even more damage to the world as they seek the materials needed for batteries.

I would have thought it's big industry.

[quote duckyla]@Wheresmrpenguin you didn't drive because you lived in a city centre & as you said you didn't need too. It's completely normal but I wouldn't say it's motivated by climate change concerns just the fact you don't need too. Not sure why you're confused by my point 🤷🏻‍♀️[/quote]
I'll just duck out (excuse the pun) I missed that on OP. That explains why you're confused.

👍🏼

No need to duck out though

It’s EVERYTHING! Our whole way of life. Flying, driving, cruise ships, overconsumption, fast fashion, too much food, too much meat, electronics, the internet, aircon everywhere, paving over nature and chopping down trees to build cities, chopping down rainforests, poisoning our rivers and oceans, overfishing, it’s all supposed to be in delicate balance and we’ve completely obliterated it.
Our way of life is not sustainable at all.

@Losttheequipment

Overpopulation

Absolutely if the population was the same size as 200 years ago we could live in luxury everyone. Unfortunately we need poverty to keep our usage of the earth's resources at even this stupidly high level.

Despite having a gas guzzler car by having no children I am contributing only a small fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions of a family with children.

I think cars are part of the problem, but probably not the biggest issue.

We should be investing in global renewable energy sources and stopping deforestation. Burning fossil fuels for energy is probably the biggest overall contributor.

Fewer BBQs involving meat might help too - eating less meat, less intense farming would reduce methane emissions and be better for us.

And a global ban on space programmes. We’ve screwed up one planet already.

Cars aren’t even in the top 10 of contributors towards climate change worldwide, but in the UK, they contribute about 22%. The largest contribution to greenhouse gases in the UK is production of electricity and use of gas for commercial and domestic requirements. Quite how switching to electric vehicles might solve that is a conundrum!
Worldwide, the US, China and India are responsible for more CO2 emissions than the rest of the world.
Sweating the small stuff seems to be the UK Government’s speciality on this, and they have done a good job of convincing us that it’s our fault because of our reliance on private transport, instead of creating an infrastructure that encourages us to take public transport, cycle or walk places...

Nope. It's quite low down the list of things that affect it.
Surely you've read up on it and seen such lists?

Eating meat and dairy has a much bigger impact - apart from having children, it’s the single biggest contributor to a person’s carbon footprint.

But even then, the overwhelming responsibility lies with industry. A tiny number of companies are responsible for the huge majority of worldwide carbon emissions. Legislative curbing of industrial pollution is required to tackle global warming.

This is easily accessible information if it’s something that you care about.

The "top 5" for climate change are:

Overpopulation (kill off a few billion people and we'll be fine)
China (ditto)
Air travel (appalling pollution)
Streaming (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube etc - the data centres alone use ridiculous amounts of energy)
Cars maybe 5th on the list

Eradicating the surplus billions of people would be the most effective step but would be unacceptable to the "woke" crowd (who ironically are often the people most concerned about climate change!) who would undoubtedly cry genocide. You couldn't even euthanise China, so that's the second target ruled out too.

This is the problem: we want to prevent climate change but are unwilling to do what is really necessary so have to poke around on the edges instead. The key point is, the planet can't support 7+ billion people living well. We either have a couple of billion people living well, or 7+ billion living in poor conditions.

Ultimately the question is, why should we accept lower living standards now to help future generations, people who might not even be born yet?

People need to stop going after individuals and go after the ones who are actually causing near 3/4 of the emissions.and force government's to force them develop greener technology.
As an individual you could be child free, ride bikes and be vegan and it would make 0 difference to the planet🤷🏻

Overpopulation and over consumption.

Volcanic eruptions contribute more to climate change than anything man is doing. Iceland eruption four years worth

Did the op post this and then fall asleep?

Transport (excluding international aviation and shipping) is the largest emissions sector in the UK. The overwhelming majority of that is cars. So yes, it’s an issue.

But our emissions don’t include the deforestation that takes place to grow animal feed for our meat, or to mine for components for the things we buy, or other deforestation general fuckery. Plus all of our other consumption emissions which the UK could influence through its trade policy but chooses not to.

I wouldn't have thought of cars, if making a list I'd have put air travel ahead of road travel.

You would’ve thought wrong. International aviation emissions are less than a third of road transport emissions (based on fuel use from international aviation bunkers in the UK). Domestic aviation is less than 1% of our transportation emissions.

@duckyla

I don't understand the not learning till you were 30 thing, what did you do before to get around?

Neither did I.

I used my legs and public transport. It amazes me even now that people drive when I can walk it in 20 mins.

YABU to speculate when so many highly qualified scientists have already done the research and you can easily look this up. It doesnt matter if you "think" or "believe" something, what matters here are facts.

Cars are not actually the biggest contributer to global emissions but giving up your car is one of the bigger steps you can take to reduce your personal emissions. Along with: having no/fewer children, eating a plant based diet, avoiding flights and ensuring your house is properly insulated and runs on renewable.

Why we aren't massively upping RnD is hydrogen transport? cars, lorries, trains, shipping?

We are.
But you need to make the hydrogen somehow. it's either from natural gas with carbon capture- so still burning fossil fuels but capturing the CO2 OR it's electrolysis and you need MORE electricity to make the hydrogen from water than the energy cv you are getting from that hydrogen...the renewable electricity needs to be in excess in order for this to make sense..we don't have the capacity in UK yet..and it's a long journey and a lot of investment is required

It's pretty low down the list. Adding children to the population has the biggest impact by a significant margin at 60 tonnes a year. A car adds 1 tonne per year.

I worked out I could take a return transatlantic flight 30 times a year for the rest of my life and not hit the carbon impact an additional human has.