London Lord Mayor Boris Johnson -V- Minister Kim Carr on EV future.

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marcopolo
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London Lord Mayor Boris Johnson -V- Minister Kim Carr on EV future.

It is fascinating to contrast recent statements from the Conservative Lord Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, with a statement from Kim Carr, the Minister for Industry and Innovation in the Australian Labour Government.

London mayor Boris Johnson is speaking out again and this time has publicly committed to never buying another car powered by an internal combustion engine.

Kim Carr, the Minister for Industry and Innovation, poured cold water and scorn on zero-emission vehicles and defended his his decision to encourage local car makers to continue to invest in large petrol-powered cars."We've heard talk of some companies being able to produce plug-in electric cars or similar thingies" stated Carr, " but we're only interested in real world, not nuclear powered cars!" this last reference was to the announcements by Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Tesla. Minister Carr, went on to say"Government aid was designed to help existing car manufacturers with small changes to fuel economy, rather than redesigning whole cars."

It is especially despairing when you consider that Australian electors voted for Mr Carr's Labour Government largely on a platform of Environmental issues.

How can the ordinary voter have any faith in the competence of leaders to support EV technology, when troglodytes in position of power around the world, bleat such pathetically short sighted nonsense as Minister Carr and his curiously inaccurately named " ..Innovation Ministry??

The world turned upside down!

reikiman
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Re: London Lord Mayor Boris Johnson -V- Minister Kim Carr on ...

You may have heard of this guy we elected here in the U.S. ... what's his name.. Barry something .. anyway he promised "Change, Change we can believe in" and while that sounded good it's not very specific is it to say you believe in "Change". Things always change so of course if he promises Change then we'll get Change regardless of what change it is.

Anyway, I think part of the deal is to enact serious deep lasting Change means undoing "Business As Usual" to form what will eventually become the new "Usual".

However the "B.a.U" crowd wants to protect their idea of "Usual" because their business depends on the current B.a.U. being just as it is.

The politician who sweeps into office on a grand vision of perfection may find once they're in office that political expediency means they can't immediately step to the grand vision but have to take some kind of shorter step. It depends on how the B.a.U. crowd is handled .. right?

Is Kim Carr deeply anti-nuclear? The reason I ask is .. where is the electricity going to come from to power electric cars? Many people seem to believe that Wind and Solar will be unable to do the job and if we also walk away from Coal to make electricity then what does that leave us with? Well, Nuclear power. So if the guy is deeply anti-Nuclear (as I am) it begs the question of how to produce the massive electrical requirements to power all cars.

The electricity isn't going to magically make itself .. is it?

One of the environmental debates going on is that Nuclear power has a lot of positive attributes (as some environmental advocates point out) and doesn't contribute to greenhouse gasses etc. Some environmentalists are saying we should adopt more nuke power for that reason. Others like me have a screaming voice inside us shouting NO NUKES .. so a NO NUKES environmentalist getting elected to office might have a hard time living down promoting nuke plants, eh?

Makes me think of this posting I just made: KunstlerCast #74: Electric Society

marcopolo
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Re: London Lord Mayor Boris Johnson -V- Minister Kim Carr on ...

Is Kim Carr deeply anti-nuclear?

Well, while in opposition Senator Carr and the rest of his party were very anti-nuclear and anti-uranium mining! (fiery speeches, demonstrations, earnest chest beating etc). To show its green credentials, The Party even elected a famous former, left-wing, environmentalist, anti-mining activist, former Rock Band front man, as as it's Minister for Environment!

Since the election, Australian Uranium production has increased dramatically, with several new mines refused permit by the former conservative government as to environmentally sensitive, opening and the uranium sold to the Peoples Republic of China and possibly India. No, sadly, Mr Carr's change of heart would appear to come more from his powerful union supporters, coupled with and a hatred of new technology.

I am not sure I agree with your complete dismissal of the nuclear option. Given the ability of Australia to safely dispose of the waste (arguable), and the long and excellent safety record of well constructed and properly operated, power plants, (substantiated), It might be time to reassess the nuclear option without all the irrational passion that dominated earlier debates.

The world is running out of not just fossil fuels, it is running out of important resources like super-phosphate, and other essential products that oil can be diverted to produce. It is just a fantasy to imagine that 7 billion people can, or will live in a Utopian pre-industrial age.

Electric replacement for ICE? This is both technically and economically feasible and within a very short period. The basic technology exists, and if provided with enough resource (like those we would expend in a war) development would be astounding!

All that is required, is political and economic will leadership!.

marcopolo

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