Spiked Online: ‘The elitism of electric cars’: ‘EVs are still only viable for the well-off, urban-dwelling, laptop class’ – This is hardly a ‘movement… powered by people’
Hugo Griffiths: No invention has done more to liberate society than the mass-produced car. It has become as democratized as such a complex piece of machinery can be. … Electric cars upend much of this, bringing greater expense and requiring a host of well-documented sacrifices from drivers. Unsurprisingly, most are unwilling to make the switch. This issue has become so pronounced that manufacturers are now restricting sales of petrol and diesel models to avoid the gargantuan government fines (£15,000 per car over quota) that will be imposed on brands if they don’t shift enough EVs. Such threats wouldn’t be needed if the product were in demand. …
All this pro-EV legislation has been drawn up by people who tend to be isolated from the population at large. … EV advocates often blame poor sales of electric cars on ‘misinformation’.
Charging is so stacked against the poor as to be an ideal subject for fans of class analysis. If your home has a driveway (a feature that makes a house more valuable), then an EV can make a great deal of sense. Each morning, you come down to a car conveniently filled with cheap overnight electricity, priced at as little as seven pence per unit and taxed at a liberal five per cent VAT.
Not so the individual who has to park on the street. He must not only pay a commercial rate of perhaps 85 pence per unit of electricity, but is also hit with 20 per cent VAT. This means that while filling an EV at home can be as cheap as £3.50, the same amount of electricity going into the same car can easily cost £42.50 on the open road.
Our ideal EV driver has, therefore, a nice job, can work from his phone and has a house with a driveway. This is hardly a ‘movement… powered by people’, as one pro-EV publication was bold enough to call it.
The truth is this: electric cars and their policies favor the fortunate.
Bloomberg News touts new green villain: Refrigeration! YOUR fridge ‘has wide-ranging climate implications’ using ‘more than 8% of global electricity…at a time when ice caps are melting’ – ‘You really don’t need to have a tomato in December…Just don’t do it’
Bloomberg Climate Reporter Akshat Rathi: “The US alone boasts around 5.5 billion cubic feet of refrigerated space. That’s like 150 Empire State buildings worth of freezers, and developing countries are starting to catch up…At a time when ice caps are melting faster than ever, the number of walk-in refrigerators is also expanding. This cold rush has huge implications for the planet. At a time when ice caps are melting faster than ever, the number of walk-in refrigerators is also expanding. This cold rush has huge implications for the planet.”
Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves: “The power to run cooling equipment is more than 8% of global electricity usage right now…Like you really don’t need to have a tomato in December, it’s going to taste like nothing anyway, just don’t do it.”
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Related:
Flashback: Global deal reached to limit greenhouse gases from fridges and air conditioners
Now the UK government wants to control your kitchen fridge or send you to jail – Jo Nova: Are they your appliances or the state’s? If you don’t control the power switch you know the answer.
I feed my daughter crickets for protein — it saves hundreds on grocery bills
BBC: ‘What would a flying-free world look like?’ ‘Fresh fruits & veggies…would disappear from supermarkets in winter’ – ‘Huge adjustments’ in ‘supply chains’ – ‘It’s about when — not if’ – Highly perishable fresh fruits and vegetables like grapes, mangoes and avocados would disappear from supermarkets in the winter, with a rise in the consumption of frozen fruits instead.
Zoning commission rejects Boston Mayor Wu’s preferred plan for ‘climate-friendly’ buildings: Setback to her plan to require new buildings to be ‘fossil fuel free’
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/08/14/science/zoning-commission-rejects-mayor-wus-preferred-plan-climate-friendly-buildings/ Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to eliminate climate-warming emissions from new buildings hit a setback Wednesday when the Zoning Commission rejected an initiative to require large, new buildings to dramatically reduce their reliance on fossil fuels for power, heat, and cooling. The so-called Net Zero Carbon Zoning Initiative, which would have applied to newly-constructed buildings […]
Common Dreams mag: ‘Forget Wealth Tax. We Should Abolish Extreme Wealth Altogether’
Raising Taxes on the Rich Will Reduce Climate Change You laugh. But this is a serious theory recently articulated by leftist groups including Common Dreams and Oxfam – which gets U.S. tax dollars: Inequality contributes to climate change. The richest 1 percent is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66 percent, according to […]
Degrowth Means Certain Death for Humanity: ‘Nature is by far the greatest threat to humanity’ – ‘Addressing these threats requires advancing technology & wealth’
Degrowth Means Certain Death for Humanity By Marian L. Tupy Summary: falsely thinking of Earth as reliably habitable, proponents of degrowth ignore the numerous natural threats that could end human civilization. The planet faces potential dangers ranging from asteroid impacts, to supernova explosions, to gamma-ray bursts. Addressing these threats requires advancing technology and wealth, as […]
Climate Crisis or Climate Imperialism? U. of Nairobi prof: The ‘green’ ideology is designed to keep low & middle income countries under the yoke of perpetual poverty’
Climate Crisis or Climate Imperialism? By Reginald M.J. Oduor, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Nairobi For decades now, the United Nations (UN) and its collaborators have been saying that humanity faces an existential threat due to “global warming” caused by human activities (“anthropogenic factors”). Then, in July 2023, the UN Secretary-General, António […]
Freedom from Climate-Related Death Risk: Every 1% increase in population corresponded to a 53% increase in climate-risk safety
Freedom from Climate-Related Death Risk BY GALE POOLEY Our friend Bjorn Lomborg has updated his chart on climate-related deaths. Since the 1920s, the number of deaths has fallen by more than 97 percent. As the global population quadrupled over the century, the risk per million (of climate-related deaths) declined from 241 in the 1920s to 1.5 in […]
NYT exposes EV ‘green’ fraud: ‘More than 70% of world’s cobalt…the blood diamond of electric vehicle batteries, comes from Democratic Republic of Congo, where child labor & sexual violence are rampant in mines’
How green are EVs? More than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, sometimes called the blood diamond of electric vehicle batteries, comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where child labor and sexual violence are rampant in mines. About half of the world’s nickel, another key… pic.twitter.com/Ooac84FMJw — Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) July 23, 2024
NY Times frets over the ‘big environmental impact’ of ‘conventional toilet paper’ – Urges ‘recycled paper’ or bidets instead
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/15/climate/toilet-paper-bidet-environment.html What’s Greenest and Cleanest When Nature Calls? Conventional toilet paper has a big environmental impact. We’ve got the lowdown on alternatives, from bamboo tissue to bidets. By Elizabeth Anne Brown July 15, 2024 These days, the toilet paper aisle is crowded with products that claim to be more sustainable, from bamboo and recycled material to […]
Degrowthers Are the New Barbarians: ‘Degrowth movement fails to appreciate human ingenuity & technological innovation’
Degrowthers Are the New Barbarians By MARIAN L. TUPY Summary: Like Rome’s ancient grandeur, today’s economy is supported by human ingenuity. Rome’s technological marvels such as the aqueducts were threatened by barbarians who sought destruction and ultimately achieved it. Modern sources of flourishing are likewise under fire. Today, the “degrowth” movement advocates for radical reductions […]