There will be no resolutions for me, in fact there will probably not even be a salute to the New Year as I will be in the land of nod well before the witching hour.
What the hell can you hope for as a resolution? Peace, Happiness and Love are the key to most of the mantras I know, but I don´t think the warmongers recognise the words, let alone the spirit. A bit of empathy from the politicos might be a good one, but not much chance of that either.
Basically the world is going to hell in a handcart - and there is nothing we can do about it.
I particularly dislike all the "net zero" nonsense. Global warming is probably happening as part of the cosmic cycle - we might have hurried it along by a microsecond, but all this garbage about going electric is just a joke. The chinese are producing all the electric vehicles that we are going to have to buy, but their industries are driven by coal fired power stations. Go Figure.
There is just a political, rather than an altruistic, motive behind it (and that idiot millipede in charge of net zero things in the UK is a total lunatic. A lunatic being chauferred around in a gas guzzler, I´ll be bound). If the greeny climate change people really gave a toss about the planet, they would switch their focus to the oceans and try to stop the plastic that is rapidly poisoning one of our major food sources. You read about mercury in tuna, but the microplastics they are finding in everything we eat and drink are far more disturbing in my opinion.
Oops, mentioned opinion. I´m not sure opinions are allowed in the west any more. (well, not unless they coincide with the prevailing woke orthodoxy and don´t include anything about the zillion unmentionable issues blighting the western countries).
I was looking at the Isle of Man´s green roadmap (can´t actually think they would have called it that, so it must be my inventive memory). They cover most things except petrol cars, where there is a vague bit of phasing-out to placate the UK government people (or maybe the King).
Now, funnily enough, the island is probably about right for electrification of the roads as most people live in houses rather than apartments, the whole place can be driven round about 5 times on a tank of petrol and the wind blows often enough to spin a few windmills for "pure" electricity - the big problem is, of course, that the biggest money-spinner and tourism generator here is the TT - a veritable orgy of petrol consumption (if only of the two wheeled variety). Oh, and there is a great love of old cars and high powered cars and any sort of vehicles in reality. Most families seem to have twice the number of vehicles as there are people to drive them. Electric vehicle take-up is going slower even than on the mainland over there (and that is saying something).
Going back on the electric vehicle kick, one thing I learned in my (IT) project manager incarnation was to think in terms of lifecycle - and that had to include disposal. Now I chanced upon an article a few weeks ago where it mentioned that on the Island there were about 130 electric vehicles which had been taken out of service and which were awaiting disposal - but we don´t have any sort of disposal site (or plan it seems). Funnily enough, not something they touched on in the green plan. Knowing the way that lithium batteries catch fire with alarming regularity, I can´t believe that the ferries are going to be too keen about taking dodgy battery packs aboard, even if we could get the manufacturers to take them back for disposal*
My local pal who sold me the car laughed when I said they should start on electrifying the commercials first - he claims that the islands biggest transport company had tried to show some leadership by buying an electric powered pantechnicon - but it had a very, very limited range which turned to almost (net?) zero when it was loaded with goods, so had proved totally useless. Not a good EV advert for a very expensive partially-mobile storage unit.
And while I am on the subject, windmills are all very well, but the paraphenalia that goes to transport the power thus generated is not. I have always hated pylons for their impact on the lanscape (yes, windmills too), but the only way to do "wind-power" is to put them all in one hidden windy glen close to an existing distribution network - or better still, use the 6m twice-daily tide to create a few amps.
Funnily enough, there was not a lot in the green report about the four or more rubbish incinerators which currently resolve our rubbish and power problems. Just don´t buy a house down-wind.
* when I was working in Sy...a we received an edict from the greeny buffoons in central offices telling us we had to have a documented plan in place to dispose of old printer / copier cartridges in a suitable (described in great detail) manner (which did not allow for their being taken and used for any further purpose by the locals). I solved the problem by telling the central people that as they prescribed exactly what we should use, and actually supplied most of them, I would make use of their obviously wonderful life-cycle system and return the empties to them. Which I did. God I bet they hated me.
On that happy note, have a Happy New Year when (and if) it arrives!
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