They Keep Throwing Your Money on the Fire.

I must admit I am confused about all this green stuff, the carbon cycle and buying CO2 tokens.

If we cut down and burn trees it produces CO2 now. If we plant trees to capture the CO2 produced it will be another 20-40 years before that carbon is finally captured agin, in the meantime the tree we cut down and burnt is no longer capturing carbon. Can someone explain to a simple soul like me why this is better than burning coal when we are told it is the CO2 we produce today that is the problem.

Then we have all these net zero/green companies who apparently are green as they offset their CO2 production by buying CO2 tokens from companies that plant trees that will again take 20-40 years to absorb the CO2 that the token buyer produced today.

I would support many green initiatives if someone could explain in simple accurate science how it will make a difference. I am still struggling trying to understand if it has been definitely proven that the increase in CO2 is totally man made or a result of climate change and because everyone agrees does not, to me, mean it is true otherwise the sun would still be revolving around the earth and quantum physics would  not exist.

I also struggle with Hydrogen. It is not a fuel, it is an energy transport medium. It apparently is quite energy intensive to produce with the exception I am told of recycling plastic waste. So unless we can get free energy to produce the Hydrogen it is an expensive transport mechanism. 

Then we have planing policies which allow for the building of vast estates of houses with no meaningfull public transport links so everyone has to drive to work or work from home with slow rural internet and use the car to go to the shops. And why does not every new house use grey water from rainwater capture?

I know the infrastructure in my village will not support more than a few fast car chargers, despite the recently renewed overhead lines and if heat pumps become the norm there will definitely be problems.

Am I a cynical luddite? confused? or an old simple fogey, it does not matter too much to me as being old does mean I will not be around to suffer the consequences.

I do support lots of insulation in houses, that makes sense to me as does wearing a jumper so I do not have to heat the house to enable me to wander around in shorts and tee shirt in the middle of winter. Unfortunately I have dogs who consider every closed door a challenge to try and persuade me to open a few minutes after I close it. 

I will stop there before asking about food waste, why we need strawberries in December, etc, etc. 

I must admit I am confused about all this green stuff, the carbon cycle and buying CO2 tokens.

If we cut down and burn trees it produces CO2 now. If we plant trees to capture the CO2 produced it will be another 20-40 years before that carbon is finally captured agin, in the meantime the tree we cut down and burnt is no longer capturing carbon. Can someone explain to a simple soul like me why this is better than burning coal when we are told it is the CO2 we produce today that is the problem.

Then we have all these net zero/green companies who apparently are green as they offset their CO2 production by buying CO2 tokens from companies that plant trees that will again take 20-40 years to absorb the CO2 that the token buyer produced today.

I would support many green initiatives if someone could explain in simple accurate science how it will make a difference. I am still struggling trying to understand if it has been definitely proven that the increase in CO2 is totally man made or a result of climate change and because everyone agrees does not, to me, mean it is true otherwise the sun would still be revolving around the earth and quantum physics would  not exist.

I also struggle with Hydrogen. It is not a fuel, it is an energy transport medium. It apparently is quite energy intensive to produce with the exception I am told of recycling plastic waste. So unless we can get free energy to produce the Hydrogen it is an expensive transport mechanism. 

Then we have planing policies which allow for the building of vast estates of houses with no meaningfull public transport links so everyone has to drive to work or work from home with slow rural internet and use the car to go to the shops. And why does not every new house use grey water from rainwater capture?

I know the infrastructure in my village will not support more than a few fast car chargers, despite the recently renewed overhead lines and if heat pumps become the norm there will definitely be problems.

Am I a cynical luddite? confused? or an old simple fogey, it does not matter too much to me as being old does mean I will not be around to suffer the consequences.

I do support lots of insulation in houses, that makes sense to me as does wearing a jumper so I do not have to heat the house to enable me to wander around in shorts and tee shirt in the middle of winter. Unfortunately I have dogs who consider every closed door a challenge to try and persuade me to open a few minutes after I close it. 

I will stop there before asking about food waste, why we need strawberries in December, etc, etc.