Why we need "Net zero"

[Beelbeebub]

11 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

One basic question I have at the moment is why are we in the UK trying to drive this at the expense of our economy and national security when China and the US are contributing to most of the emissions. 

The question then becomes "do the policies of electrfying hearing and transport whilst increacing renewable production negatively affect the UK economy and security?" 

 

It boils down to do we think uk renewable power is going to be cheaper and more reliable than importing oil and gas from the world market?

 

I think, and studies on the overall cost per Mwh of the various technologies bear this out, that renewable power is cheaper and is much harder to disrupt. 

 

Bear in mind the cost to the economy of transitioning to the NZ position is less than the cost of one oil/gas shock like either of the two we have already had this decade. 

[Beelbeebub]

12 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

Now to fund this we need to get rid of this woke fad. We need in my view to start drilling, exploring and selling our good sweet oil, to fund UK renewables. 

 

To make a point. The UK has never been bombed since the second world war. I was born in the 60's, my mum who is 95 remembers getting evacuated. We have been very lucky in the UK to have avoided that to date... so far. It's going to come as a major shock to the woke if Putin cuts our undersea internet cables!

Can you explain what exactly "woke" is? It seems to be thrown around alot as an insult. 

[-rick-]

14 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

One basic question I have at the moment is why are we in the UK trying to drive this at the expense of our economy and national security when China and the US are contributing to most of the emissions.

 

Two points:

1. The basis of this thread was that if you ignore emissions, it is still a national security priority to get off fossil fuels as we don't have enough and we can easily generate enough power using renewables if we just built them.* I tend to agree that the way that we have implemented the drive to renewables has done some damage which could have been avoided if the programs had been structured differently, but that's a different argument.

2. Emissions are cumulative, so even if our emissions are low now, we are one of the highest emissions countries in history because the industrial revolution came to us first and for a lot of that time we were responsible for a very large percent of the worlds emissions. You may say it's woke to consider history when considering energy. I think of it as taking responsibility for our actions and trying to lead by example.

 

* The argument that China controls a lot of the supply chains for renewables has weight. But so long as we are installing solutions that work without a live connection to China then if anything happened with the supply chain the installed base keeps going for at least a decade. Compared to fossil fuels which if the imports stop of those we are utterly screwed within a matter of weeks renewables wins.

Edited 2 hours ago by -rick-

[SimonD]

3 hours ago, Beelbeebub said:

Can you explain what exactly "woke" is? It seems to be thrown around alot as an insult. 

I'm sitting back waiting for the explanation. I was tempted to ask what "being 'awake' which turned into slang 'woke' to social justice, more specifically racism and discrimination" has got to do with policy decisions regarding renewables and fossil fuel extraction by the UK government, but you beat me to it.

[saveasteading]

16 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

need to get rid of this woke fad. We need in my view to start drilling, exploring and selling our good sweet oil, to fund UK renewables. 

What have you been reading?

Woke is the go-to term for trump and co for whom it means ' not extreme right wing'. I am therefore woke to them.

 

UK oil would be extracted if it made economic sense. Anyway, It isn't any use for fuel but would be sent across the ocean to make chemicals. 

Certain parties either don't understand this or choose not to acknowledge it.