Cycling UK Forum

While I make light of my own mortality and think the worst when it comes to the future, I feel truly sick with dread when I recall the young children of friends...

simonineaston wrote: 31 May 2022, 1:17pm While I make light of my own mortality and think the worst when it comes to the future, I feel truly sick with dread when I recall the young children of friends...

Why worry about something we have absolutely no control over.
The next generation,my kids included,will cope and they will quite likely prosper.It's what we do as a species.

PedallingSquares wrote: 31 May 2022, 1:43pm
Why worry about something we have absolutely no control over.
The next generation,my kids included,will cope and they will quite likely prosper.It's what we do as a species.

I expect the human race will survive, but I fear that the fiuture for our descendants may not be as comfortable and assured as the life of us boomers.

All a bit dramatic aint it? Seems to me we should be doing much more to influence and condemn the worlds biggest polluters, China and the US. We arent doing anything effective whatsoever, our spineless politicians are just indulging in pointless self flagelation, determined to make life as unpleasant as possible whilst studiously ignoring the elephants in the room.

Al (member of the 1% of polluters waiting for the brown stuff to hit the fan)

al_yrpal wrote: 31 May 2022, 2:37pm All a bit dramatic aint it? Seems to me we should be doing much more to influence and condemn the worlds biggest polluters, China and the US. We arent doing anything effective whatsoever, our spineless politicians are just indulging in pointless self flagelation, determined to make life as unpleasant as possible whilst studiously ignoring the elephants in the room.

Al (member of the 1% of polluters waiting for the brown stuff to hit the fan)

The best way to influence China is to reduce our emissions below theirs rather than pointing fingers and lecturing them. The problem is rich societies who caused the problem in the first place expecting to carry on with business as usual whilst telling the poor they can't do the same.

The same applies within societies, the top decile in the UK are responsible for three times as much CO2 as the bottom.

Perhaps the comments of doom and gloom are a bit dramatic and we really don’t know what the future will hold, the best we can do is to look at changes over the years and from them to try understand what direction we’re pointing in.

Compared to some the UK is a relatively low polluter in absolute terms but perhaps less so in terms of population. China and the USA are mentioned, perhaps they have similar levels of absolute pollution but their population size is very different. India would argue that they have a long way to go before their pollution per person catches up with Western Europe never mind the USA.

I’d agree that influencing other nations to pollute less is good, but as part of that influencing showing them how to (by example) pollute less seems sensible too. I’m not sure how good an example of eco living the UK is, ‘could do better’ doesn’t seem an inappropriate grading.

Edit. Whilst I wrote Axel knut beat me to ‘it’, and makes the point better than me too.

Carlton green wrote: 31 May 2022, 12:55pm ........ I didn’t anticipate COVID and I didn’t anticipate the invasion of Ukraine though, to be fair, both could have.....

They were anticipated,though the powers that be chose to ignore them.
In the case of cCovid the UK government was warned,Cygnus report 2016,foretold a likelyhood of a Covid virus in the near future and to ready PPE and ventilators,but the UK government under Maybot chose to do the opposite and ran down stocks of both.
War in the Donbas was a precursor to the invasion of Ukraine,the west chose to downplay it.

I understand that China is still commisioning one coal fired power station a week. And that they wouldnt sign up to the latest climate deal. Of course by buying loads of stuff from China we are part of the problem...28% of emmisions much of it caused by Chinese industries' emissions. Perhaps by exploiting the Gobi desert they could cut that. Same with the US with their many deserts.

Al

reohn2 wrote: 31 May 2022, 5:20pm

Carlton green wrote: 31 May 2022, 12:55pm ........ I didn’t anticipate COVID and I didn’t anticipate the invasion of Ukraine though, to be fair, both could have.....

They were anticipated,though the powers that be chose to ignore them.
In the case of cCovid the UK government was warned,Cygnus report 2016,foretold a likelyhood of a Covid virus in the near future and to ready PPE and ventilators,but the UK government under Maybot chose to do the opposite and ran down stocks of both.
War in the Donbas was a precursor to the invasion of Ukraine,the west chose to downplay it.

And this to come? From a Bank of America's analysis. Something like this was predicted way back in 2016. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -bofa-says


“Whilst not wishing to over-exaggerate GBP’s predicament as some kind of ‘end-of-days’ scenario, we are concerned that the increasing politicization of UK policy undermines the GBP in ways that would appear EM-like,” Sharma wrote in a note. “We sense something is changing in the UK, with the BOE increasingly hard to decipher and less transparent; a failure to discuss and acknowledge that Brexit has been a significant headwind to the supply side; and a sense that the BOE is losing control over its mandate.”

It's not the war in the Ukraine that has caused supply problems for energy, it's the way the UK and other nations have reacted to it.

"The decade that broke Britain: the disastrous decisions that left millions in a cost of living crisis":
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ing-crisis

An excellent reminder that it doesn't have to be like this.

Universal credit
Disability payments
The benefit cap
The bedroom tax
Precarious work
The benefits freeze
The two-child limit
Flatlined wages
The end of the universal credit uplift
The benefits increase of 3%

Of course as these are self-imposed they can be self-removed.

Jonathan

pete75 wrote: 1 Jun 2022, 8:14am And this to come? From a Bank of America's analysis. Something like this was predicted way back in 2016. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -bofa-says

“Whilst not wishing to over-exaggerate GBP’s predicament as some kind of ‘end-of-days’ scenario, we are concerned that the increasing politicization of UK policy undermines the GBP in ways that would appear EM-like,” Sharma wrote in a note. “We sense something is changing in the UK, with the BOE increasingly hard to decipher and less transparent; a failure to discuss and acknowledge that Brexit has been a significant headwind to the supply side; and a sense that the BOE is losing control over its mandate.”

It's not the war in the Ukraine that has caused supply problems for energy, it's the way the UK and other nations have reacted to it.

Thanks for that.

And if we don't pay attention to wealth creation and if we continue with the current approach to wealth and income distribution we should expect more of the same. Fortunately both are largely under our control.

Jonathan

reohn2 wrote: 31 May 2022, 5:20pm

Carlton green wrote: 31 May 2022, 12:55pm ........ I didn’t anticipate COVID and I didn’t anticipate the invasion of Ukraine though, to be fair, both could have.....

They were anticipated,though the powers that be chose to ignore them.
In the case of cCovid the UK government was warned,Cygnus report 2016,foretold a likelyhood of a Covid virus in the near future and to ready PPE and ventilators,but the UK government under Maybot chose to do the opposite and ran down stocks of both.
War in the Donbas was a precursor to the invasion of Ukraine,the west chose to downplay it.

To be fair to the UK Government near no other Government prepared for the disasters mentioned above. I would regard them as likely risks for which Governments should have a plan but that doesn’t seem to be how things work, everywhere it seems to be about - or more about - party politics rather than about caring for the whole population that elected whatever government that is in power.

War in the Donbas and in Syria shouldn’t have been accepted but Putin managed to keep the USA and Western World out of things, he’s been very clever and caused all sorts of chaos.

Carlton green wrote: 1 Jun 2022, 8:44am

reohn2 wrote: 31 May 2022, 5:20pm

Carlton green wrote: 31 May 2022, 12:55pm ........ I didn’t anticipate COVID and I didn’t anticipate the invasion of Ukraine though, to be fair, both could have.....

They were anticipated,though the powers that be chose to ignore them.
In the case of cCovid the UK government was warned,Cygnus report 2016,foretold a likelyhood of a Covid virus in the near future and to ready PPE and ventilators,but the UK government under Maybot chose to do the opposite and ran down stocks of both.
War in the Donbas was a precursor to the invasion of Ukraine,the west chose to downplay it.

To be fair to the UK Government near no other Government prepared for the disasters mentioned above. I would regard them as likely risks for which Governments should have a plan but that doesn’t seem to be how things work, everywhere it seems to be about - or more about - party politics rather than about caring for the whole population that elected whatever government that is in power.

Different countries varied enormously in their preparation for the next epidemic of transmissible disease. Some of the differences are easily explained, such as that in Canada and some east asian countries, by recent experience with other diseases. But the UK's downgrading of its preparation came despite the identification of the risk as one of the top two threatening the country. An explanation for this might come out in the official inquiry, but it will certainly come out through independent analysis.

It was under our control.

Jonathan

Carlton green wrote: 1 Jun 2022, 8:44am... everywhere it seems to be about - or more about - party politics rather than about caring for the whole population that elected whatever government that is in power.

Yes. And unfortunately that got enormously worse with Johnsonian nationalism on top of Conservative austerity. Rather than simply neglecting the poor this added polarised polemic to the mix.

Jonathan

Jonathan
Thanks,saved me a bit of typing

EDIT; just to add,also the profiteering by government ministers their families and friends from the lack of PPE and ventilators is a national scandal that's seems to be largely forgotten by many.