[Peakoil] Plug in for the planet's future

[Keith]

On 03/12/2012, at 4:20 AM, Jenny Goldie wrote:

Plug in for the planet's future
WHISPER-QUIET motors replaced the usual revving engines, and car enthusiasts mingled with environmentalists and green energy advocates.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/plug-in-for-the-planets-future-20121201-2aobj.html 

If it were not so tragic and misguided, I would fall about laughing. Here is a direct quote from the article:

> John Efkarpidis's orange Tesla Roadster Sport drew plenty 
> of attention from admiring onlookers. Not surprising, seeing 
> that this car costs a hefty $300,000 or so. ''I think it's about time 
> we started looking after our planet. This is one way of doing it,'' 
> he said.

Who writes this stuff? John Clarke? Barry Humphries?

On this basis we can look after our planet by buying a $300,000 electric car. If all 23 million Australians had a car like this chap, I suppose Australia would be recognized as world leaders in "looking after our planet". There was a similarly fantastic piece on "The Conversation" a couple of weeks ago about electric bikes. There must have been close to 100 reader comments and mine was the only one that attempted to analyze electric bicycles from the perspective of public/private transport options. Everyone else wanted to discuss the top speed and what they would do if they had one. If. You would have to read the comments to realize just how "iffy" those aspirations were.

Now Mr Efkarpidis might take a step back and consider what the best way might be to use his car to "look after the planet". How about selling it and using the money to move into town so he is in walking and cycling distance of where he needs to go. He is clearly a man who needs to be publicly admired, so perhaps he could lose 20kg of body fat. I'd admire him for that.

We are not going to "look after the planet" with electric cars, bicycles or other Chinese imports that reside oh-so-briefly in our hands on their journey after billions of years in a Pilbara iron ore deposit through to billions of years in the Mugga Lane landfill.

When I was a kid and was caught with slow reflexes (not as slow as Mr Efkarpidis' - his apparently take years to act), or otherwise doing something stupid, I recall being reprimanded with "Wake Up, Australia!". It's about time to reprise that refrain.
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Keith Thomas
myrmecia at gmail.com
074 2929 4146
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