Climate change policy

[paulrbarnard]

I wish I was a cartoonist...

I'd draw a picture of the UK floating on a giant verdant lily-pad leaf, sunlit, populated by smug happy vegans, wearing rainbow clothes, tripping over cow-free meadows rich in wildflowers to find a lovely spot for their hummus and tofu picnics, before returning to their electric cars to drive home to their passive houses to sleep between non-bleached hydroponically grown cotton sheets.
Benign but equally smug political leaders would sit in Westminster, secure and happy in the knowledge that they were instrumental in bringing this carbon zero nirvana into existence by eliminating the 1% of the world's carbon that Great Britain produces....

....the whole would be floating on a black stinking sea of pollution engendered by the rest of the world producing the remaining 99%.

I entered your ‘prompt’ into chatGPT

 

[Chris152]

 

[Krome10]

I wish I was a cartoonist...

I'd draw a picture of the UK floating on a giant verdant lily-pad leaf, sunlit, populated by smug happy vegans, wearing rainbow clothes, tripping over cow-free meadows rich in wildflowers to find a lovely spot for their hummus and tofu picnics, before returning to their electric cars to drive home to their passive houses to sleep between non-bleached hydroponically grown cotton sheets.
Benign but equally smug political leaders would sit in Westminster, secure and happy in the knowledge that they were instrumental in bringing this carbon zero nirvana into existence by eliminating the 1% of the world's carbon that Great Britain produces....

....the whole would be floating on a black stinking sea of pollution engendered by the rest of the world producing the remaining 99%.

I wish I was a cartoonist... I'd illustrate one element of earth systems collapse with a steam powered mega trawler dredging the sea bed and billowing thick smoke into the sky. You could be Captain Birdseye at the helm, eating a Big Mac!

I don't see those who are worried about the climate (and suffering) as smug. Quite the opposite. I see them as scared and alarmed and caring.

Donald Trump and similar sceptics... Now that's what I'd call smug both in their stupid appearance and ideology.

PS - feel free to do a ChatGPT of that

 

[paulrbarnard]

I wish I was a cartoonist... I'd illustrate one element of earth systems collapse with a steam powered mega trawler dredging the sea bed and billowing thick smoke into the sky. You could be Captain Birdseye at the helm, eating a Big Mac!

I see don't see those who are worried about the climate (and suffering) as smug. Quite the opposite. I see them as scared and alarmed.

Donald Trump and similar sceptics... Now that's what I'd call smug both in their stupid appearance and ideology.

PS - feel free to do a ChatGPT of that

Interestingly you can’t use Big Mac in the prompt. I had to change it to burger.

 

[selectortone]

View attachment 192894

Interestingly you can’t use Big Mac in the prompt. I had to change it to burger.

ChatGPT must be building an interesting profile of you with these bizarre requests

 

[Spectric]

I wonder if they will use net zero as an excuse for all the bad roads and potholes because Tarmac comes from coal or petrol and asphalt from perol or crude oil all of which are on the extinction list to clean up the planet.

 

[RobinBHM]

I wonder if they will use net zero as an excuse for all the bad roads and potholes because Tarmac comes from coal or petrol and asphalt from perol or crude oil all of which are on the extinction list to clean up the planet.

I dont remember potholes being as bad during the last Labour government

I guess it mustve 14 years of the last lot eh

 

[Lons]

I dont remember potholes being as bad during the last Labour government

I guess it mustve 14 years of the last lot eh

Might also have something to do with there being around 30m vehicles on the roads in 2010 but now almost 42m, an increase of some 40%. Additionally the average weight of HGVs in 2010 was around 26 metric tonnes and in 2024 it's over 41 mt. That's a significant impact to consider.

 

[Spectric]

Additionally the average weight of HGVs in 2010 was around 26 metric tonnes and in 2024 it's over 41 mt.

And of course the EV's are heavier as well .

 

[John Brown]

And of course the EV's are heavier as well .

So are the ICEs. SUVs are heavier than Ford Fiestas. Apparently it's fairly insignificant, HGVs are the big road destroyers.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Most of the worst roads here you couldn't get an HGV on, not a large one, anyway. The main problem is nothing more than neglect.

 

[John Brown]

Most of the worst roads here you couldn't get an HGV on, not a large one, anyway. The main problem is nothing more than neglect.

I can't argue with that.

 

[Croolis]

I entered your ‘prompt’ into chatGPT
View attachment 192883

Bwahaha I gotta have a go at that...

 

[woodieallen]

View attachment 192889

What is your point?

 

[woodieallen]

Might also have something to do with there being around 30m vehicles on the roads in 2010 but now almost 42m, an increase of some 40%. Additionally the average weight of HGVs in 2010 was around 26 metric tonnes and in 2024 it's over 41 mt. That's a significant impact to consider.

Never let rampant Robin get any facts in the way. Especially if they don't bolster his blinkered view on reality.

 

[woodieallen]

I wish I was a cartoonist...

I'd draw a picture of the UK floating on a giant verdant lily-pad leaf, sunlit, populated by smug happy vegans, wearing rainbow clothes, tripping over cow-free meadows rich in wildflowers to find a lovely spot for their hummus and tofu picnics, before returning to their electric cars to drive home to their passive houses to sleep between non-bleached hydroponically grown cotton sheets.
Benign but equally smug political leaders would sit in Westminster, secure and happy in the knowledge that they were instrumental in bringing this carbon zero nirvana into existence by eliminating the 1% of the world's carbon that Great Britain produces....

....the whole would be floating on a black stinking sea of pollution engendered by the rest of the world producing the remaining 99%.

Best post of the whole thread.

 

[Chris152]

What is your point?

To indicate the extent of British responsibility for the climate crisis - some seem to want to down-play it.

 

[woodieallen]

To indicate the extent of British responsibility for the climate crisis - some seem to want to down-play it.

Ok…I’ll rephrase my comment. I think your post was utterly pointless.

I expect you must be going around pulling down statues and renaming street names to whitewash history. Keep on virtue-signalling if it gives you a cosy feeling.

 

[Chris152]

Ok…I’ll rephrase my comment. I think your post was utterly pointless.

I expect you must be going around pulling down statues and renaming street names to whitewash history. Keep on virtue-signalling if it gives you a cosy feeling.

How odd.

 

[Hypnotic Chimera]

Ok…I’ll rephrase my comment. I think your post was utterly pointless.

I expect you must be going around pulling down statues and renaming street names to whitewash history. Keep on virtue-signalling if it gives you a cosy feeling.

Isn't what Chris is doing the diametrical opposite to "virtue signalling"?

For my understanding - Chris would appear to be the type to want to retain statues (own your history to ensure it serves as a lesson to the future) and to ensure that we keep the explanations of where the money originated from to build the stately homes now under National Trust care (own your history to ensure it serves as a lesson to the future).

There is no virtue signalling involved if one would highlight the "downsides" of established history to teach to avoid similar behaviour in future - regardless of whether that history belongs to the individual's own country or cultural or citizenship history or history from elsewhere.

In any case it is definitely not a pointless input in a thread about climate change to post about the industrial revolution and the role of the UK in precipitating the current proliferation of human-made fossil fuel CO2 output.


I'd go further - and mention that a vast proportion of, say, China's CO2 output is "at the behest of" other nations - which includes the UK.

The UK is, in significant part, responsible for the CO2 output of China. Much of the consumer goods produced there end up in the UK. A hefty amount of CO2 is also produced in getting those goods from China to the UK.
This CO2 surrogacy is not captured or represented in the graphs depicting CO2 output by country. Although it probably should be in order to avoid people "thinking in a vacuum" and, without any analysis, concluding that the UK is "clean" and therefore "need do nothing about reducing CO2 output" while at the same time saying that "China is dirty and needs to get its act together to significantly reduce its CO2 output".