Reaching the stars or will we....Should we?

A lot of the questions I read on the boards are to do with elements of the Universe. Questions like - Is it expanding/contracting – when did it begin – was it an enormous explosion – did God do it – what was there before the Big Bang – and so on. It is all enveloped with much semi-scientific jargon, probably spoken by students of the subject. Some even prattle on about GR and QM, and for the uninitiated these acronyms stand for General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, when they tried to put these together they failed. Interesting train of thoughts. I applaud because to be very frank no-one actually knows anything about the Universe bar that there are lots of stars and it’s pretty empty. OK let’s assume for a minute we want to travel to the stars. At the moment that’s not possible with the present technology. We went to the Moon but only just and at great cost. Even Mars is beyond the reach of humans. Gathering knowledge is great if it can be aiding our existence and here is the point – most of the knowledge gained is not really benefiting this planet and all that lives on it. To discover the exact origin of the universe as we see it will not benefit us here one jot. I have no problem with scientists discussing these things as long as we stay realistic. 

It is a sad fact that great discoveries that could benefit mankind tend to be turned into weaponry. Prof Oppenheimer is quoted as saying ‘Oh God, what have I done?’, he worked on the first atomic bombs and saw the destruction wrought. So, I think all talk about reaching for the stars should be shelved for now at least. Until we solve the big problems here on Earth. It will not do to blast hundreds of rockets into space and humans cannot live in Africa because most of it will have turned into desert thanks to global warming. People do not seem to grasp how inter-related it all is. Planes, in fact all transport, uses power. That power has to come from something. It means burning. As a result this gives off loads of CO2 and other gases. Those in turn stop the heat generated by sunlight from escaping and so builds up. If you are interested there are plenty of websites that will get into the minute detail of it. Have a go.

Staying safe on the Internet

A lot is said about being safe in the Web world. And yes, I suppose the Internet is a bit like the old Wild West, everyone carrying a gun. But some are more adept at using it than others. Should we protect our tech? Sure we should. Our personal data is as said, personal! If I want to buy something and search for it using the Internet then I don’t want cookies being stored on my system that record my preferences (I like scantily clad ladies) and worse share that with other sellers as well. So, indeed it pays to be vigilant. I discarded Windows long ago and went over to Linux. Safer but it depends how you use your systems. Clicking on everything you see will soon get you into trouble. Firefox now can give us total cookie protection, locking them so they cannot be shared. Personal info recorded by the site you visit cannot then be used by other sites building up a profile of your preferences. But even better is to combine Firefox with another search engine. DuckDuckGo is good but Startpage (all free) I think is much better and also very easy to use. All you need to do as it is not highlighted in Firefox, is to put the url (address-line) into the Firefox Settings. Click Settings , select Home and enter https://startpage.com into the address bar ‘Homepage and new windows’. Private browsing is also available. I use Startpage on all my electronic gadgets.

We all should look how we use our systems. Switch off during the night. You won’t do much at the keyboard when you’re sleeping unless you sleepwalk, in which case it will be gibberish anyway. Switch off the computer. If you have a router there might be a way to inactivate it during set times. Mine closes down at midnight and opens at 7am. Unless I start banging on a keyboard in the middle of the night, then it will activate again. The other thing you should use is 2FA (Two factor authorisation). If you are in possession of a mobile phone it is easy to set up and well worthwhile. Banking already uses it. I am not sure what would happen if you lost your phone but I am sure as a responsible citizen you won’t lose it. I also use a Yubikey, and not a single person can use my Google account unless they know my password and have the key! Relatively cheap (about £70) it is worth buying. Lots of other companies can use it too, not just Google. All well worth a look, good luck. Finally, don't forget to set up a VPN (Virtual private network). There are free ones but I definitely recommend you use a paid-for app. The paid applications tend to have many more servers all across the world and most do not collect data either to sell to the highest bidder. PIA, ExpressVPN are two that stand out and are easy to install. Both are multi platform as well. Firefox also now has a VPN capability. Not sure at this time whether and what they do with our data. But have a look and read the small print!

The bigger they are the harder they fall

Well, well, well, it is sad to see a government slowly disappearing in front of your eyes. Yes, the rot has set in. Perhaps Covid-19 has not helped. Loads of people have been under quite some strain. I suppose I have been lucky, living with a large garden. At no time, even during the strictest lock-down have we felt marooned. The local supermarket quickly moved into home delivery albeit for a small charge. But we managed. I have been horribly aware about those people in cities living in a one-bed flat on the middle floor of a tower block. That is not much fun. No balcony, just open the windows. Yet it is the price we have to pay for having 67 million citizens and rising! This can only get worse. And so it is very worrying to see a government thrashing about rudderless, making one gaffe after another. I supported Boris and to some extent still do but I am afraid the way he is dealing with upsets shows he is not capable immediately to deal with problems. Boris likes to think he is modelling himself on Winston Churchill. Well, he might look a bit like him but he doesn’t act like him. The Matt Hancock saga shows it to stark effect. It should have been obvious immediately that the Health Secretary could not continue in the job. Government ministers cannot expect to set laws and then break them themselves. Even so, the national newspaper the Sun needs to answer a few questions. For a newspaper allegedly supporting the Conservatives they did a good job demonising a prominent government member. OK that person made mistakes, well so have I, and there are thousands more couples who have or are separating thanks to having to stay together and work (!) from home. Although as I have also said before – hoge bomen vangen veel wind. (Tall trees catch a lot of wind), a Dutch proverb beautifully outlining Matt Hancock’s situation. The basic meaning is like – the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Supporters not wanted in Holland, oh dear....

Some news coming through, Welsh football supporters not wanted in good ‘ol Mark Rutte’s country. Yes, Holland that is. May we ask why that is? Oh, our rising Covid infections. The Delta variant. But I have heard it is the same, more or less over on the continent. The Delta virus is virtually everywhere! The Danish supporters are apparently OK, some 70,000 will be cheering on their team. Might it have to do with something called Brexit? Hmmmm. Nice job Mr Rutte, you are a worthy prime minister. You seem to like foreign countries. Hungary for instance.Oh I forgot that Mr Rutte is a very woke liberal promoting heavily the LBGT+ faction in Holland hence he is anti-Hungary's laws. Obviously he forgot it is nothing to do with Holland how an independent Hungary deals with its own internal affairs. But Mr Rutte aint happy and wants Hungary out of the EU. Ah, that will go down well in Brussels then. No more goulash for the Dutch!

However, if I was Mr Rutte, the woke Liberal, I would worry a bit more about Holland’s territory which for nearly half is far below sea-levels. Amsterdam lies 4 meters below. With fast rising sea levels even the Dutch water engineers will be fighting a losing battle. In fact a lot of other countries will be too. Norfolk in England is on the danger list as well. Well, let’s be fair global warming isn’t going to stop very soon is it? I am of Dutch extraction and do not like Mark Rutte and his Liberal (VVD) party one bit. They are just and totally nuts. What happened to the once great Party van de Arbeid? The Dutch Labour party? Just asking but like the Labour party here taken over by the ultra left? Don’t need to answer that.

Back to the tit for tat actions by those very intelligent continental politicians. Ask yourself friends what all of that grandstanding is for? Does it help the ordinary man in the street? Like hell it does. Obviously we do not count, we are just cannon fodder. Pay our taxes as good citizens and shut up. The grand-standing Mark Rutte’s of this world need to start thinking less of their own importance and more about how to save the planet of over-consumption and the plastic menace. And not forgetting how to solve the CO2 debacle.

What then is responsibility?

It was when one of my friends said to me, ‘The world is stark-raving mad, we cannot fly to Spain, we are stuck in this idiotic country’. It was then that I started thinking – ‘What’s gone wrong with our society?’ When quite sane people, yes my friend is sane, cannot see the portents. We have been given a brain, we can think about the future, even better we can think of the future by looking at happenings today! It is the same almost everywhere. I am a Christian but until very recently I have never heard a sermon telling us about our responsibility for the planet. In Genesis God says - ‘Here is the world, I have given you dominion over the birds of the air, the fish in the seas and the animals on land’. The word is ‘dominion’, it did not say ‘Kill everything you can get hold of’. It means taking responsibility, responsibility for the world, the planet we are part of. It sounds simple but it comes with an enormous load of side-issues. Because any living thing, whatever it may be, makes an impact on the fabric of life. Species, all species are predated on and in a way that keeps the balances finely tuned. Before you say humans are not predated on, what is Covid then? Viruses, bacteria, insects just to name a few. The big cats would eat us if they could.

All species that for any reason outgrow their space do face decline. Sometimes disastrously so. All of this means we have to maintain balances. It is really that simple. It means not outgrowing our space. It means we must look how we travel or move about. It means remembering we are NOT the only living thing on the planet. We all are dependent on each other in one way or another. It is not easy to have to curtail our appetites, and not just appetites for food but surely our resources are finite and need to be shared fairly. Now you know why I think politicians are not worthy of the name. You will not hear them talking about such issues. It is too difficult for their small inebriated brains. All they worry about is their expense account. It surely is time to face the stark truth. That simply says we are in trouble. The question is what are we, as ‘intelligent’ beings, going to do about it?

Political representation, is it fit for purpose?

If you are like me and a lot of you are then you will have had some thoughts about how we are governed. I had a question, this I posted via email to our MP (Member of Parliament) that was I think 7,000 years ago and I am still awaiting an answer. I have to say the initial answer I had was that the esteemed MP was busy thanks to Covid and she would be back blah, blah, blah. Obviously that was a lie. That does not surprise me as this sort of thing is quite normal for the UK MPs. However, it started me thinking about what in God’s name political representation is all about. Locally I have one community councillor who looks after the graveyard (!), bus stops, pavements etc, but he’s never seen. Then two borough councillors, they are more active but still have very little push. I say this because nothing much changes around here except the normal slow decay and new housing estates. The ‘old’ town is slowly decaying thanks to the enormous increase in cars and lorries. Next we have an ‘Assembly’ member, that is the Welsh Assembly or Senedd and topped finally by the MP, who travels to London which I know from experience is an arduous task. But first class is mostly empty on the Great Western Railway. So that's OK then, an extra two hours much needed sleep which can be continued in Westminster on the green benches. 

A total of 5 people representing me. That’s good isn’t it? I will have no problems ever and I will be able to grow old gracefully. Ah, unfortunately the reality is quite different. First of all the cost of these 5 people is quite enormous. I calculate their salaries to be about £120,000 per annum plus expenses. The total could well be some £200,000 annually. So, what do I get for that? A weekly rubbish bin collecting exercise with free plastic bags (!) For that I personally have to pay £1,500 per annum. It’s fun isn’t it? I must be fair though because the borough council is in charge of education and services like, well, just look at their website! So, we need people that know what they are doing (!). The point of it all is this, is the system fit for purpose? Personally I’d say, it is not. It’s easy to be despondent but there is room for improvement.

Do we really need to have so many representatives? And more are planned? Is the cost value for money? Good questions and I would love to see some answers to that. I hasten to add not answers prefabricated by the aforementioned representatives but by an independent think-tank based in Brussels. Wow, you heard it here!

Ba, ba, black sheep or is it Ba, ba, rainbow sheep?

Question – Is the nursery rhyme ‘Ba, Ba, Black Sheep’ racist? Now as I am living in Wales I thought it best to ask a sheep, we’ve got plenty of them here. They are white, off-white, muddy grey, grey, black, mottled, you name it, we’ve got it. Anyway, the sheep answered ‘Ba, Ba, Ba’ which I managed to translate as ‘Yes, as long as it is an English black sheep’. I take it to mean that Welsh black sheep are not racist. Hurrah!

So, where are we now then? The Twitterati (usually London based, ultra liberal woke weed puffing, brain addled, bald-headed, beard stained apologies of humankind) are in an absolute frenzy. I just don’t understand why they are not trying to ban any references to colour, any colour, whatsoever. LBGT+ to be banned from using rainbows. Wonderful! The new News program headed by Andrew (him of the acid tongue, long may he live) Neil is now to take on the ‘woke’ brigade and not before time! The Twitter idiots must not be deleted, no siree, they must be made fun of. It has been said many times, the ‘comedians’ we have now, the woke type, are not funny. The BBC is no longer fit for purpose. They have a hidden agenda championed by woke management. Management afraid to speak up.

Society is changing, and I am not sure who or what is behind it. Is this a way orchestrated by the rich, aristocratic minority to regain their absolute privileges? With most of humanity living back in Victorian squalor? Interesting discussion that would be. The woke liberati would not even be aware of this, that they were manipulated. In the meantime we’re stuck reading and listening to their inane outpourings. I have an idea! Send them to Wales, we need shepherds for our black sheep, and don’t forget to sing ‘Ba, ba, black sheep’.

I’ll give you this in Welsh – ‘Beh, beh, dafad ddu’. You would be the highlight of the day!

Is this the end of the marriage?

And so the rot has started. The Conservatives lost the Amersham by-election. A sound 16,000 majority was simply overturned. Despite the government’s great success of dealing with the Covid drama, other factors were seemingly  more important. Factors like the HS2 problem (HS2-HiSpeed Rail), the continuing crap with Mr Cummings, the inability to deal with immigration, rising inflation, this to mention just a few. And so the Liberal Democrats, the ultra-wokists, won the seat. It is rather funny how the political system works in this country. A first past the post system (FPTP) rather than proportional representation. In any case as far as I am concerned I prefer the continental system adhered to in the Netherlands. Now that might be because that is what I was used to but looking at it properly it has a good basis. Anyway, the UK seems to take pride in this archaic FPTP system. Basically you could argue that any simpleton who has £500 or so to spend could stand for Parliament. And indeed from time to time that happens. Just look at some of the charlatans we have in Westminster.

I am sure the Conservatives will dismiss this result in Amersham as an aberration, something to look at and ask some questions but not to worry about it. But I would say this to Boris, watch your back and your step my man. The vultures are circling, even in your own party! Leadership is not easy, you have to be a hard man from time to time. So, gird your loins, put on the armour, wield the sword! If you don’t or won’t you will be gone pretty soon. The marriage between country and Conservatives could well be over!

Education in the doldrums.....

One of the newspaper reports I read was to do with the opinion of the CEO of John Lewis, (the multi-store company). She said in no uncertain terms that the standard of young people looking for work was abysmal. Some had great difficulty working with prices, percentages and more, others could hardly spell their own name. Now, all this has been well known for some time now but it has to be remembered that education per-se is the football of politicians. They take great pride in taking the laurels and continually tinker with the curriculum. For many years it has become apparent that standards have been watered down. Everyone goes to university. But how did this come about? It is all to do with what woke people think children should be learning. The teachers coming out of the education system all have brilliant degrees. Home Economics, Performing Arts, Dancing, Behavioural Attitudes, to name just a few. But sheer science is not on the menu any more. We rather ask children ‘Draw a picture, use colours to show how you feel today’. 'How about showing your appreciation to the NHS and draw a rainbow'. Hopefully the children know the sequence of the rainbow colours then. My grand-daughter learned her tables from one to twelve, even could say the table of twelve backwards and fast. Learned this in school? No, at home with the family. She can name all the capitals of the European nations and even now has rudimentary capability in the Welsh language. She is only nine. She knows that to go to the moon you need to work out the trajectory to take. It’s no good just to point the rocket at the moon. How did we do this? On the carpet at home with an apple and an orange plus a pencil as the rocket. Rudimentary, sure it is but it gave her the idea. I am just saying that the schools are failing our children. Certainly, education can be boring, can be repetitious but if we want to be fit for the coming problems which need solving fast, we just cannot keep on drawing rainbows.

Edit: I certainly do not want to diminish the work of the NHS, I am just trying to indicate that however good and fun art is, we have forgotten that science is the basis of human civilisation. Failing science is setting in the rot as has been seen to happen so many times in the past. Yes, it is boring to recite tables but it underpins the mental capability to compute quantities fast.

Human Rights, anybody heard of them?

Can anyone in simple words tell me what you mean by ‘Human Rights’. Don’t give me the usual claptrap spouted. Because I begin to think it is just something dreamt up by lawyers to increase their earning capacity. The reality is quite simple. We are born helpless and dare I say it, without human rights. Because if our parents do not look after us we just die. People say we have a right to live. No, you don’t. If you cannot find enough food or proper shelter, you die. So, it boils down to adaptability, and survival strategy. It is also noticeable that only in our western world we talk about human rights. People in Africa and most of Asia have no time for it, they are too busy surviving the rigours of life which we seem to have forgotten.

Talking about rights, what then of other non-human life? Don’t they have a right to exist? It is a fact about nature that a species tend to expand as long as the food supply is available. Expand even to the detriment of other species. Precisely the situation us humans are in. But as we know the food supply is now at its limit. Great parts of the world, are already starving. Climate change not helping either. We talk glibly about human rights but in reality we only mean the human rights of the western world. Because if you really think that human rights should pertain to all humans then immigration as a word should no longer exist. In fact the movement of people to a better life has to be a norm. It would also mean the world population would be mostly concentrated in a narrow band close to the poles. But this would only go as far as the food supply because if the world has heated up by some 5 degrees then food growing in great swathes of the planet will be impossible. Already rice growing is in danger as is wheat in the droughts now experienced. Thus so far go human rights, it is just rubbish to ensure a nice pension for your lawyer!

Some ramifications about change....

More and more are we becoming aware of the problems associated with global warming. Let’s be fair now, we in the UK have had some incredible changes. I cannot remember we have had so many floods before nor short heat-waves. Some days in August have temperatures that are 10 degrees higher than normal. I suppose the word ‘normal’ no longer applies. I wonder what Africa is like right now. I think not so nice, drought, heat approaching 50 degrees. It is no wonder I have seen only 5 swifts here in South Wales, whilst once the skies were full of them. My daughter’s farm barn had no swallows this year. No cuckoo heard either. You might think your family holiday in Spain or whatever other country is nice. But did you walk to get there? No? By plane then? Yes, you have contributed to global warming in a big way! Did you throw that bit of cellophane from your packet of ciggies on the street? And you are still smoking tobacco? The price to pay is to be exacted later but the cellophane will be floating in the seas soon. Still driving your car to work then or just to pop out to the shop to get a newspaper? Perhaps now you might realise how much our lifestyles contribute to what is happening to the climate. It won’t be too much longer I suspect Wokestaners (Londoners) and indeed all big cities will bake in temperatures not heard of before. You think that 28 degrees is balmy in Hyde Park? Think again, it will be approaching 40 within the next few years. It will also mean most of the African population will move northwards. No guessing which country they will want to move to. The atolls in the Caribbean and the Pacific will have disappeared. For those who do not believe anything like this will happen, look at the film called ‘Waterworld’ because in many ways that’s how we will have to cope. When all the ice caps have melted the world will be literally a steam bath. Sea levels will have risen by up to seven metres! Where I live if I am still alive, will be a seaside town. Just as well I have applied for an ice-cream tent licence from the local council.

Wearing short skirts, but what next?

It might be construed that I am jumping on the bandwagon but the particular issue now being spoken about is pretty important. It concerns the issue of sexual harassment in schools. Highlighted through the splendid work and courage of one lady Soma Sara with her website ‘Everyone’s Invited’. Everyone’s Invited was was set up last year as a place where victims, mostly in schools, are encouraged to record their experiences of sexual assault and abuse. It features accounts from university-age students to pupils as young as nine. They range from reports of people being drugged and raped at parties to explicit images being shared around. Soma reported a "rape culture" is "endemic" within the education system.

But how do we think this happens? Let’s look at our culture as shown in the media for starters – newspapers with scantily clad ladies, full-on articles about sexual gratification for women (the Big ‘O’), all in the most widely sold newspapers in the UK. TV programmes depicting full-on sex, books (the (in)famous ‘Fifty Shades’ series and much much more.

Furthermore this has culminated in dress codes, particularly for girls, where the skirts are now so short even a Scot wearing a kilt might blush. In the past I have ended up in a heated argument with a lady in our office when I said a lot of women dress and wear make-up like prostitutes. Now that might have been wrong of me because as the lady said ‘I wear this to feel good’. But I retorted ‘But it also excites non-wanted responses in men’. I suppose I had a point but expressed it in the wrong way. I am not apologising because basically, as we know now, I was right. There are ways of looking good without tons of make-up, micro dresses and skirts, t*ts hanging out, or stuffing bananas up one’s trousers.

Does it sounds banal? Well, it’s up to you but if we want to have a good, well behaving society where everyone but especially young girls feel safe and go about without being molested then we simply will have to look at our behaviour and address the issues.

I know sex is nature’s way to procreate and ensure a species survival. Nature does not give a hoot whether you enjoy the process or not. Sex is merely the way to combine two different genetic make-ups. It is a strong urge but it needs to be controlled in such a way that 1. it is successful and 2. does not interfere with the well-being of participants. Or 3. the well-being of others who could be affected by the behaviour of the participants. Meaning these could be existing children of the relationship.

It will take time to alter our behaviour. Even world-wide faith systems have strong views about sex but still fail to ensure good behaviour. The Rochdale sex abuse horrors being a case in point. Christian leaders too often seem to fall foul of things whether through systems of having to be celibate or through asceticism. But if we want to walk in safety from unwanted attentions we need to address these issues, so let’s get on with it!

Hang Cecil Rhodes... oh a statue you say, hang it anyway!

Writing about our political problems is easy. But listening to some TV progs like Politics Today on the BBC makes my high blood pressure much higher. Today there was a discussion about the Oxford lecturers (bless their little hearts) refusing to teach the students at the Oriel College. First of all I thought that one of the lecturers might have molested a woman student or such things, as apparently happens in Universities from time to time but no, they were getting on the Woke train! The statue of Cecil Rhodes must die, possibly not a nice man as indeed many men or women from those times were not either, but that statue has to be removed, pulverised and the bits thrown into the nearest volcano. Iceland probably. Then we had on the discussion panel Layla Moron, sorry it might be Moran, not sure though, and Kate Porter, plus good ol’ Richard Madeley. After hearing Ms Moran I now know why the LibDems are in the doldrums and moreover will not get their fingers on the power button any time soon. Mind you she would not be better off in Labour either. Why do we have so many woke liberal lefties in politics today? Where are the people with common sense? Moreover why do we the electorate keep voting in these nobodies? As Richard indicated these statues are mostly of dead people. Nice ones and not so nice ones but they ARE dead! I keep on saying also you CANNOT change history whether you agree with it or not. But what you can do, is learning from it. But so far I would not think looking at all these woke actions, we have learned anything at all!

Where are the birds now?

Writing about our political problems is easy because there are so many. The past few years have been particularly busy. It is true to say that due to easy use of the Web, Bloggers included, commentary and opinions are now worldwide. In many ways that’s good and in others it’s a bad thing. Us humans have not yet obtained self-control in using the Internet. But despite all of that there is an item that I have not heard of as yet. It is to do with Nature. When I was an ‘ondeugend’ (Dutch-naughty) chappie every summer we could see dozens and dozens of swallows flying and wheeling in the sky above the city. Even more in the countryside. Catching the numerous insects. Since marrying a Welsh beauty (they are all beautiful over here) I have seen a decline every year. But this year is the first year I have not seen any swallows, house martins, swifts in our sky above the Rhondda valley. There might be a few stragglers here and there but the hundreds are no more. What could be the reasons? Well, apparently the scientists have decided that insects on which they live have declined sharply. In fact it has become a worrying fact that bees and other pollinators have virtually gone from our gardens. So a few years ago I planted a cotoneaster plant as I noticed in someone else’s garden that bees swarmed over it when in bloom. It is true the garden wall against which the  cotoneaster grows is now also home to bumblebees. I also noticed that bees are flying around the top of my house and getting under the eaves. So, OK so far. But no swallows. The other thing is climate, too hot further south? Hunting? Italians seemingly are particularly fond of killing birds every year when the swallows migrate. Nesting opportunities? That was a problem also with another once numerous bird, house sparrows. Our modern homes have less chance of nesting under the eaves! I have not seen a house sparrow for a few years! A great pity that we, as humans, do not take much greater care of our companions in the world and instead do everything to destroy their habitats. Hopefully we will wake up when there is just one pair of everything left. Let’s hope there’s one chap who has built a boat.

Edit - Sunday 13/6/21 - I have just seen a family of 5 swifts flying high. The air pressure is high, hot weather ensures updrafts that take insects up. The swifts follow. But I'm happy to see at least  some. But again it is pretty dismal.

Answering simple questions? Impossible in the UK.

With the nicer weather the boats are coming again.The English Channel has seen dozens, it has never been so busy. The people organising these trips must be rolling in cash! I think as far as the promises we’ve heard the government making day in, day out I think they don’t know what to do about it. Hiding behind flowery words. Even the competent Ms Patel has been banging her head against the Civil Service wall. I can tell Ms Patel she needs to wield the sword. The Civil Service is not fit for purpose. It is full of the Wokestan and Etonstan nobility! I wish her good luck. Secondly, what we see now on telly is the demands now made by the people we call ‘immigrants’. Not being contend to finally arrive where they have been wanting to go for months and paid huge sums to do so. They now expect first class hotel service, no less! Hot showers, good food and a three bed-room council house in the leafy suburbs. That’s what was promised to them in France. There is a simple question that needs asking – why cannot this be dealt with? This debacle was one of the reasons a lot of people voted for Brexit! But we are still having all the same problems we had before. I voted for the Conservatives, God only knows why, but I believed they had the gumption to get things done. I might have been wrong. Like all the governments before, just empty promises. The problems are already stacking up and it won’t be long before this Conservative government will lose its raison-d’être. It has not been easy, this Covid virus but the way we are dealing with it is bonkers. We are jumping on and off the bandwagon at the whim of ultra woke lefties who want to go desperately on holiday. Even with the CO2 belching planes of Ryanair or Easyjet. Are we absolutely doomed? Well, I have my Union Jack ready to wave as the waves close over my head. I will before expiring give the flag to the next ‘intelligent’ species to walk the Earth. Crabs.

ED Wokestan = London, Etonstan = Is a school for super privileged offspring of super privileged ultra left wing quasi nobility. Didn't you know that?

Some worrying statistics....

For some time now and in quite a few messages I have mentioned global warming and the how’s and why’s. There should be no doubt that it is humanity’s fault. Yes, you and me! We are very quickly destroying the only place where we can live. If you do not think so I refer you to plenty of web research about CO2. I was astounded by how ill-informed I was. The Carbon Independent.org website shows why. Apparently the Paris agreement (Google that if you haven’t a clue) assumes greenhouse gas emissions of a quarter of a tonne of CO2 per hour flying. So, if you use air-planes to go on holiday and care about children, future generations, and social justice, and want to stay within the personal lifetime carbon budget of 50 tonnes CO2, flying is likely to be unaffordable, and therefore need to stop flying for the time being. (The limit of 50 tonnes CO2 per person is a figure compatible with the Paris Agreement.)

A Boeing 737-400 jet is typically used for short international flights. For a distance of 926 km, the amount of fuel used is estimated to be 3.61 tonnes , including taxiing, take-off, cruising and landing. Using a seating capacity of 164 [Wikipedia, viewed 28.2.08] and an average seat occupancy (or 'load factor') of 65%, this gives a fuel use of 36.6 g per passenger km. Another website (https://micpohling.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/math-how-much-co2-released-by-aeroplane/) has worked out that 2.6kgs of CO2 is produced per litre.

Jet engines as used by the 737 (and 747) use approximately 4 litres every second, so 14,400 litres an hour. Per hour that means 37.5 tonnes of CO2 are produced. Say, two hours to Spain therefore 75 tonnes of CO2 per flight. Per passenger if full, 75 tonnes/170= 441kgs of CO2. Your holiday puts 1 tonne of CO2 on your personal balance! So, the average family of 4 have produced 4 tonnes of CO2. Even if you planted a tree to offset this you would need to plant 4 trees per person every year! A native broadleaf tree is estimated to take up 1 tonne of CO2 during its life time (about 100 years). With figures such as these you can see the damage done by flying air-planes, even to just go on a holiday. 

There seems to be a strange misunderstanding between scientists as to how much CO2 is produced by jet engines. I have a printed out conversion table which is produced by the University of Exeter. That says that short-haul flights is deemed to use 0.18 kgs per passenger per kilometre. This sounds pretty close to the truth. So, you can work out short haul costs to the environment.

And just in case you did not think car driving is so bad, the average diesel pours 12kgs of CO2 into the atmosphere per 100kms. My workplace is 23 miles from where I live, that is about 36kms. I calculate that with stopping and starting in the busy traffic I have put some 15kgs of CO2 in the air. Petrol is worse, the average petrol car puts 20kgs per 100kms!

If we use the average of 16kgs per 100kms over all and multiply that by the average number of cars on the road (the RAC has calculated some 15 million people – this might be 15 million cars but some will have more passengers. Averaging out to 10 million cars. The average length of a commuter trip by car/van varies little across English regions and Wales at about ten miles. It is highest in the South East (11.2 miles) and lowest in London (8.6 miles).

So, averaging it all out we arrive at 1.6kgs of CO2 per 10 miles x 10,000,000 cars. Therefore on a daily basis we can pump some 16,000 tonnes of CO2 into the air in Britain alone! As these are averages there will be days it is less but also days it will be vastly more!

All these figures are easily obtainable from the Web. Just as I have done. Now we know why we are in trouble.

Edit - I think scientists use different techniques and possibly use data from manufacturers but I believe the University of Exeter seems to be the more correct.