The whole shambles is due to the privatisation of the public utilities, Thatcher’s chickens coming home to roost.

Yes, and chronic under investment in infrastructure and plant–the real British disease.

I’m amazed some tw*t or other hasn’t jumped in yet to inform us all that Lady Margaret was the best person ever, the second coming, the best prime minister etc etc (delete where you feel applicable).

Thank you.
Brilliant, I enjoyed every minute of that, and wished there was more.

What a shame it is that someone bothers to post a thread about proper engineering, with skilled people building proper flyable aeroplanes and no one, apart from me even bothers to respond.
Yet a thread about grubbing about in mud looking for (probably mythical) ali scrap will attract a thousand answers.

Andy

The UK has about 25,000MW capacity of coal powered stations. China proposes to increase its coal fired capacity by twenty two times that amount. Not many BBC people will tell you that.

It is therefore imperative that we exploit the shale gas that is literally under our feet.

Steven

Actually and to be honest, I think the BBC did inform me of that–Radio 4 I think it was.
So we at least agree that the planet’s resources must therefore be finite.
The question though remains, do you want shale gas recovery going on under your property?
No doubt this will affect property prices and associated costs.

I also realise that china is buying up huge mineral resources in Africa against future requirements.
Of course, we’re all buying the stuff they’re making.

I return to the subject of over-population.
If you had half the human population, you would have half the problems–in every respect.
Now, is anyone present going to argue with me that the Earth’s resources are finite..??
If therefore they are finite, how are we going to proceed when with an population rising close to exponentially, and therefore needing to rip out the resources ever quicker..?

See, to my mind, it’s all about ‘NIMBY-ism’. Who here would want the process of ‘Fracking’ going under their little piece of ‘paradise’? A further question might also be: ‘If resources are so plentiful, why are companies having to resort to a process like fracking, which seems to have the smallest hint of desperation about it??

I agree that I don’t see why people in the third world shouldn’t have a beeter standard of living, but at what price? If that meant a decrease in living standards here, how many, even those do-gooding souls who advocate these things would tolerate it?

There you go, there’s a few questions there to chew over.
A.

PS. And I do admit that the figures were ‘jiggled’ about climate change. Too many people were/are making money from it for it not to happen.

Charlie et al.
OK, so we agree that man isn’t influencing global climate change. However, why do a seeming majority of those who don’t agree with the theory of global warming then go on to claim it as an excuse to carry on rather selfishly doing exactly what they think fit in the environment??
Surely conserving World resources is wise from not only a environmental perspective but a financial/comercial and even a moral one.
What I tend to see is an ‘I’m alright jack–everyone else can go f**k themselves’ attitude.
Andy.

Derekf

When before “did we detrimentally affect our environment” ?

John.
You’ve only got to see the endless sh*te dumped in the hedgerows and roadside ditches of Bedfordshire to recognise that we can detrimentally affect our environment.
Come to think of it, we affected the environment when the ditches dug and the hedges were planted, so you cannot say that we haven’t affected the environment.

Surely all the Earth’s real problems (whether we either accept or do not accept global warming as a man-made concept) are caused by human over-population. It seems obvious to me that with the ever increasing human population on a finite amount of land with a finite amount of resources, then in the end, something will have to ‘give’.
My guess is that nature, which scientists these days seem arrogant enough to believe we can control (whereas I reckon we may not even be influential enough to have any sort of meaningful impact upon it–we’re more like irritants) will by dint of disease, starvation (other methods are available) eventually trim humanity down to more sustainable levels.

In the mean time, in less than 30 years I’ll be gone.
I could perhaps be accused of leaving a bigger than necessary carbon footprint with my internal combustion engine based exploits over the years, but my conscience is clear over the subject of procreation. I never had any and am glad that I never helped manufacture a load of unwanted and unnecessary extra mouths for the planet to support.

And everyone’s an expert.
Until of course it comes to actually doing it.