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Not As Environmentally Friendly As Promised

In honour of "Earth Day". (It was yesterday, h8rs):

"Here are some of the hilarious, spectacularly wrong predictions made on the occasion of Earth Day 1970:

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

https://web.archive.org/web/2009042...uld-not-believe-earth-day-predictions-of-2009

maximus otter
 
In honour of "Earth Day". (It was yesterday, h8rs):

"Here are some of the hilarious, spectacularly wrong predictions made on the occasion of Earth Day 1970:

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

https://web.archive.org/web/2009042...uld-not-believe-earth-day-predictions-of-2009

maximus otter
The last one in particularly interesting.
 
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Personally, I'm glad that such predictions were wrong!
I really can't see the problem, though. If such doom-laden pronouncements encourage an acceleration or rapid action to change our interaction with the ecosystem, then why not?
Sure, use these mistakes to encourage apathy and complacence, but if we can improve things then great. Otherwise, it's like building a village on the slopes of an active volcano - "Sure, so-called experts predict the mountain will erupt but it's not done so yet so why not build our houses here?"
 
Oh that's just the beginning. You wait. We'll start seeing more and more of these battery-powered wallet-emptiers languishing powerlessly at the side of the road as time goes on, because the infrastructure to support an ever growing fleet of them already isn't in place and it's only getting worse.
It'll become annoying. Every journey you go on by road will entail being stuck somewhere because an EV has ground to a halt in some ridiculous position.
Mark my words. Come back to this post in 3 years time when I'll be saying "I told you so".
 
This is from January 10th, and petrol prices have now come down to about £1.44 per litre, so it's comparatively even more expensive to drive electric cars. And that isn't also factoring in the higher purchase cost in the first place.

The cost of charging an electric car on the road has soared by nearly 60pc in eight months, making the vehicles more costly to run on long journeys than petrol motors.
Rapid charge points used by motorists topping up on long drives are now nearly £10 more expensive than filling up a car with petrol, analysis by motoring body the RAC revealed.
Alongside surging energy prices, a key reason behind the cost is that VAT is charged at 20pc on public networks, compared to 5pc for domestic energy use.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/electric-cars-now-costly-petrol-long-journeys
 
I’m not getting what the problem is. Is it when they try and get on the pavement, which they shouldn’t be doing?
No, it is when they leave the lane by moving right, either to make a right turn up ahead or to get to a shop on the other side of the road, or to get out of the lane if it isn't too busy to dismount and cross the zebra in the photo.
 
Calls for removal of Keynsham 'optical illusion' cycle lane

‘People have described the white road markings as "optical illusions", as the white kerbs and painted white lines look similar.’

I’m not getting what the problem is. Is it when they try and get on the pavement, which they shouldn’t be doing?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-65397742
Could it possibly be down to pedestrians stepping on to the cycle lane as in the picture? It’s a regular hazard - often they’re looking at a phone. And of course, some cyclists are wankers who don’t slow down in these situations.

I don’t know how it could be made much plainer - it’s red, with bikes depicted in white, & there’s bollards separating it from the road. If people walk into it without looking, who is to blame? Those against cycle lanes will always be against cycle lanes.

1683544083859.png
 
I don’t know how it could be made much plainer - it’s red, with bikes depicted in white, & there’s bollards separating it from the road. If people walk into it without looking, who is to blame? Those against cycle lanes will always be against cycle lanes.
It is not plain at all. The section with the bollards has a kerb painted white to look like the white paint used to mark cycle lanes. One can easily be ridden over on a bike and one can't.
 
It is not plain at all. The section with the bollards has a kerb painted white to look like the white paint used to mark cycle lanes. One can easily be ridden over on a bike and one can't.
It’s not clear whether it’s cyclists or pedestrians doing the complaining - I was assuming pedestrians. Without knowing who has been injured, where & for what reason it’s hard to say more.

In the picture, you wouldn’t ride close to the metal bollards anyway. At least I wouldn’t.
 
It’s not clear whether it’s cyclists or pedestrians doing the complaining - I was assuming pedestrians. Without knowing who has been injured, where & for what reason it’s hard to say more.

In the picture, you wouldn’t ride close to the metal bollards anyway. At least I wouldn’t.
You might want to ride through them if you wanted to get to the other side of the road. And kerb/paint confusion would easily wipe out pedestrians too so in that sense, it doesn't really matter who is falling. It is bad design.
 
From what I have read there have been at least 60 pedestrians who have tripped over in this lane.

My guess is that they have stepped from the pavement into the red lane, then tried to cross through the bollards, but found out too late that the bollards are on a slightly raised section and tripped up.

Or vice versa, they have crossed from the other side of the road, through the bollards, and not realised the red section is a bit lower then the section the bollards are on.

The articles also said that the red section has a rough surface, so when people put their hands out to break their fall, they cut their hands.

The logical answer is...cross at the zebra crossing but take extra care to watch for cyclists.
 
A solid white line along the carriageway would usually be used to indicate either the edge of the road, or (if used in the centre of the road) to denote that the vehicles on that side of the road should not cross it unless it is safe to do so in order to turn right, or pass a stationary or slow moving vehicle or pedestrians.
As such, the usage of the solid white line painted next to the cycle lane would suggest that cyclists should not move out of the red painted area onto the main carriageway, although it would be perfectly legal to do so.
That being the case, if I were cycling along there, the fact that the raised kerb is painted solid white, would also suggest to me that staying in lane would be advisable. So one should really be cycling with care anyway and avoid crossing the white painted line, whether raised or not.
1683561634717.png
 
A solid white line along the carriageway would usually be used to indicate either the edge of the road, or (if used in the centre of the road) to denote that the vehicles on that side of the road should not cross it unless it is safe to do so in order to turn right, or pass a stationary or slow moving vehicle or pedestrians.
As such, the usage of the solid white line painted next to the cycle lane would suggest that cyclists should not move out of the red painted area onto the main carriageway, although it would be perfectly legal to do so.
That being the case, if I were cycling along there, the fact that the raised kerb is painted solid white, would also suggest to me that staying in lane would be advisable. So one should really be cycling with care anyway and avoid crossing the white painted line, whether raised or not.
View attachment 66015
Yes but an awful lot of (not all) cyclists either have never seen a Highway Code or forget about it the second they put their bum in the saddle. I wouldn’t fancy trying that zebra crossing (even some car drivers don’t seem to know how they work). I’ve even see cyclists going through traffic lights that are specifically for bicycles.
 
When was the last time you saw a horse and cart on the roads?
And I aint talking about golden carriages etc either.
 
When was the last time you saw a horse and cart on the roads?
And I aint talking about golden carriages etc either.
About the same time as I saw a man wearing a smart suit and a hat. Ah those were the days when it was legal to run after a cow and bung a stick up its bum.
 
About the same time as I saw a man wearing a smart suit and a hat. Ah those were the days when it was legal to run after a cow and bung a stick up its bum.
Hang on - first I'm told about my highway code being out of date, and now you're telling me I have to stop the cows thing too?
Modern life is getting me down.
 
I see Flora are pushing their plant based spread claiming it’s better for the environment than butter. I do wonder though how far those ingredients travel compared to a British diary farm. I tried to look on their website but I lost the will to live. I want to know if it’s really better for the environment like they claim or if they are just jumping on the plant based bandwagon.
 
This is from January 10th, and petrol prices have now come down to about £1.44 per litre, so it's comparatively even more expensive to drive electric cars. And that isn't also factoring in the higher purchase cost in the first place.

The cost of charging an electric car on the road has soared by nearly 60pc in eight months, making the vehicles more costly to run on long journeys than petrol motors.
Rapid charge points used by motorists topping up on long drives are now nearly £10 more expensive than filling up a car with petrol, analysis by motoring body the RAC revealed.
Alongside surging energy prices, a key reason behind the cost is that VAT is charged at 20pc on public networks, compared to 5pc for domestic energy use.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/electric-cars-now-costly-petrol-long-journeys
Yes. And that’s not counting all the rare minerals those kids in Africa are digging out to make said EVs... let alone the transportation costs as the materials and parts are shifted across the globe before final assembly...Sure try and drive environmentally as you can ( keep an old car going longer helps a lot) ...but please don’t try an convince me your 1.5 ton EV SUV ( aka Plastic Jeep) is “ saving the planet” ‘cos it’s now fitted with a couple of large washing machine motors....
 
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