Environmentally friendly 4x4; a vent

CKhalvashi

I’ve just come out of a meeting with a friend who is standing for the London Assembly (currently on Islington Council)

As a Cllr myself, I have portrayed my own image of working with businesses and homeless people on 2 councils, and what this friend said has actually had me laughing out loud!

There is a ’12’ plate VW Touraeg that has just left my drive, for someone that’s working on a specialist area of environmental issues, and I’ve been told that it’s ‘environmentally friendly as it’s hybrid’. She did exactly the same thing with a Lexus GS450h on an ’09’ plate, which I could see the appeal of to an extent (enough of an extent to have gone and bought one).

I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this.

CK

Strider590

First of all, global warming is a lie...... Climate gate and falling temperatures and all that.

Buying a new car every year is not environmentally friendly, the natural resources used and the emissions produced during it's construction are far greater than it's impact post production.

The best thing is to drive older cars and not build so many new ones, the maths is pretty simple.... But that doesn't keep the automotive industry alive, doesn't keep people in jobs and doesn't increase spending.

However people will keep using the environment as a fashionable and socially acceptable excuse for spending money on things they don't need..... And this is the very thing that "climate change" and "global warming" (it's former name) are actually geared toward, increasing consumerism and increasing the size of the fatcat eilte bank accounts.

Hybrid's are hypocritical, Top Gear were actually pretty close to the mark when they slammed the Prius. The problem is that people who don't want to use their brains, will simply believe all the hype as it's presented, without looking at the facts.

The battery issue in hybrids is an interesting one, there's the impact on natural resources and the impact of the equipment/machinery used to extract them, then there's shipping them across the world to production facilities in cargo ships that burn over 10 tonnes of fuel per hour. By the time it's been built, it's reckoned that a Prius has done more environmental damage than a Hummer H2.

So any trying to tell me their luxury 4x4 is environmentally friendly, they might as well paint "stupid" across their forehead.

CKhalvashi

Strider590 wrote: »

First of all, global warming is a lie...... Climate gate and falling temperatures and all that.

Buying a new car every year is not environmentally friendly, the natural resources used and the emissions produced during it's construction are far greater than it's impact post production.

The best thing is to drive older cars and not build so many new ones, the maths is pretty simple.... But that doesn't keep the automotive industry alive, doesn't keep people in jobs and doesn't increase spending.

However people will keep using the environment as a fashionable and socially acceptable excuse for spending money on things they don't need..... And this is the very thing that "climate change" and "global warming" (it's former name) are actually geared toward, increasing consumerism and increasing the size of the fatcat eilte bank accounts.

Hybrid's are hypocritical, Top Gear were actually pretty close to the mark when they slammed the Prius. The problem is that people who don't want to use their brains, will simply believe all the hype as it's presented, without looking at the facts.

The battery issue in hybrids is an interesting one, there's the impact on natural resources and the impact of the equipment/machinery used to extract them, then there's shipping them across the world to production facilities in cargo ships that burn over 10 tonnes of fuel per hour. By the time it's been built, it's reckoned that a Prius has done more environmental damage than a Hummer H2.

So any trying to tell me their luxury 4x4 is environmentally friendly, they might as well paint "stupid" across their forehead.

Looking at it like that, it’s very true, however I’m reasonably conservative of what I have, and change my car when it has done 200k, rather than a set time (S-Max currently at 46k, so will be after 2.5yrs, Lexus at 7k, so will be at between 4-5 years).

The other thing that has become apparent is the LCD screens doing the same to the Amazon, although again, I change my phone once every 2 years rather than every 5 minutes.

CK

Notmyrealname

CKhalvashi wrote: »

I’ve just come out of a meeting with a friend who is standing for the London Assembly (currently on Islington Council)

As a Cllr myself, I have portrayed my own image of working with businesses and homeless people on 2 councils, and what this friend said has actually had me laughing out loud!

There is a ’12’ plate VW Touraeg that has just left my drive, for someone that’s working on a specialist area of environmental issues, and I’ve been told that it’s ‘environmentally friendly as it’s hybrid’. She did exactly the same thing with a Lexus GS450h on an ’09’ plate, which I could see the appeal of to an extent (enough of an extent to have gone and bought one).

I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this.

CK

If the cars in your signature are anything to go by, you have nothing to shout about yourself.

I hate f'kin councillors. They think of themselves as above everyone else and announce they're councillors at every possible opportunity usually with some bluster about what they do as you have, completely oblivious to the fact that 99.9% of the people who hear it quite frankly don't give a toss.

CKhalvashi

Notmyrealname wrote: »

If the cars in your signature are anything to go by, you have nothing to shout about yourself.

I hate f'kin councillors. They think of themselves as above everyone else and announce they're councillors at every possible opportunity usually with some bluster about what they do as you have, completely oblivious to the fact that 99.9% of the people who hear it quite frankly don't give a toss.

Thank you, although based on that, how many young entrepreneurs have you worked with? And how many homeless have you got into accommodation?

CK

Strider590

Notmyrealname wrote: »

I hate f'kin councillors. They think of themselves as above everyone else

I'd say 80% of the population think they're above someone else, it's the UK class system.

Councillors around here have no formal professional qualification to be so, by age old definition this makes them working class.
Upper classes have titles.....

As for special privileges, can anyone honestly say they wouldn't do the same?

CKhalvashi

I’m not ‘up myself’, it makes it a damn sight easier to assist with common problems in the community.

I don’t need the money, nor do I particularly need the hassle of it.

CK

elvis86

CKhalvashi wrote: »

I’ve just come out of a meeting with a friend who is standing for the London Assembly (currently on Islington Council)

As a Cllr myself, I have portrayed my own image of working with businesses and homeless people on 2 councils, and what this friend said has actually had me laughing out loud!

There is a ’12’ plate VW Touraeg that has just left my drive, for someone that’s working on a specialist area of environmental issues, and I’ve been told that it’s ‘environmentally friendly as it’s hybrid’. She did exactly the same thing with a Lexus GS450h on an ’09’ plate, which I could see the appeal of to an extent (enough of an extent to have gone and bought one).

I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this.

CK

You post doesn't really make sense (I wouldn't vote for a councillor who can't string a coherent sentence together!), but am I to understand that you're nitpicking about someone else's choice of vehicle when you have 3 cars yourself?!

Itismehonest

The day that all environmentalists & ecologists stop flying around the world to different conventions & meetings (there are things called video-conferences now) & stop taking planes on personal holidays, I may start to have more respect for their views.
Until then it's a case of "Do as I say not as I do" from the lot of them.
Your colleague seems to take the same approach, OP.

CKhalvashi

Itismehonest wrote: »

The day that all environmentalists & ecologists stop flying around the world to different conventions & meetings (there are things called video-conferences now) & stop taking planes on personal holidays, I may start to have more respect for their views.
Until then it's a case of "Do as I say not as I do" from the lot of them.
Your colleague seems to take the same approach, OP.

elvis86 wrote: »

You post doesn't really make sense (I wouldn't vote for a councillor who can't string a coherent sentence together!), but am I to understand that you're nitpicking about someone else's choice of vehicle when you have 3 cars yourself?!

The point that I was trying to make here is;

a) I’m not on the Environment committee, nor would I particularly like to be, as it’s not my specialist area, and
b) I have the Lexus as it’s an easy £10/day saved, when we would have had a similarly sized car with a similar budget if not. To save £3k-ish a year on a car that does the same MPG and retains more value is better for me financially, which :money: would be proud of!

CK

johnnyreggae

The 'h' in Lexus nomenclature stands for hypocrisy

The serious replies so far explain completely why