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Bob Bingham Blog page.

A series of opinion pieces on, mostly climate change and related subjects to do with New Zealand.

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Transition and Disruption.

22/8/2016

2 Comments

 
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So far we have only been partially successful in reducing the use of fossil fuels, because the resistance put up by oil and coal companies and backed by their national governments has been formidable, but this appears to be about to change and more rapidly that anyone could have foretold.
One of the problems has been the huge amount of expensive infrastructure that will have to be abandoned and the assets stranded by a transition to a clean electric economy and the companies involved and politicians who support them are not prepared to face that.
This may all be about to change and will be market driven so that car companies and electricity companies will have to move rapidly to the new technologies or fail. It took ten years between 1910 and 1920 for the horse powered transport to be replaced by cars and we are entering a similar but bigger period of transition and disruption. Watch this half hour video for an in depth appreciation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM&list=FLiUwiBc_bp0xCGnsJ2LL2Tg

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There are a large number of technologies coming together in a perfect storm of change that will change our way of life more rapidly than we could have imagined only a few years ago.
In brief, the price of solar power and wind is coming down so fast that it is cheaper than coal or oil, batteries are getting cheaper and more efficient so that they can deliver stored energy when we need it and cheaply, an electric car only has 18 moving parts compared to a petrol one having 2000 which makes them cheaper to manufacture and operate and more reliable. 

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 Computers are getting massively more powerful and lower in price and can undertake bigger tasks such as self-driving cars and trucks and there are a whole host of new technologies that are changing our lives beyond belief. This blog describes the full range of technologies.
https://medium.com/@cdixon/eleven-reasons-to-be-excited-about-the-future-of-technology-ef5f9b939cb2#.6j1mhqivh

We may have to re-engineer our society to accommodate the massive changes in employment but it will be better than burning fossil fuels until changes in the climate overwhelm us. 
2 Comments
bob bristow
25/8/2016 10:02:44 am

Since Paris 2015, life has been ticking by, with news of ever declining Arctic sea ice, cruises of the Arctic peninsular by large liners, devastating (once in 1000 year) floods, wildfire and droughts,

I've been observing EV charging points installed at local filling stations and shopping malls, all have remained vacant so far but, I will seek permission and hopefully photograph the first user I see, to celebrate the start of a new age in New Zealand. There is hope that the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers will still be available for our great grandchildren to enjoy, as my generation has enjoyed the wondrous sight.



I've not been dreaming and today (at long last) I read the news I've been waiting for . . . . .

New Zealand steering committee to push EVs
Government wants to double the amount of electric vehicles on the road by 2021.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Industry/2016/08/24/New-Zealand-steering-committee-to-push-EVs/9511472035395

Reply
Bob Bingham
25/8/2016 04:37:33 pm

Hi Bob. Paula Bennett, our new climate minister may be organising the other ministers to take an interest in climate change. We only have 1000 EV's at the moment so there is a long way to go but if the big car manufacturers put some real volume production lines into EV production we may get some action. The cars should be cheap to build and are already very cheap to operate.
Having the CEO of the car manufacturers association on the committee may not be a help as electric cars do not need dealers and are death to repair workshops and fuel stations.

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    Bob Bingham 

    Occasional blog posts on topical news items concerning the climate.  Please click the RSS feed to receive updates.

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