20 October 2010
14:5375745And thanks for the welcome, Keith
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
20 October 2010
14:5675746Lesley,
I do wonder how we educate people to lead a better life, not just for now, but for the future.
Some of the issues of concern stlll remain;
1; Big oil companies we see continue to have oil leaks at sea, which must have an
enormous effect on the sea in general
2; Because public transport is expensive are in parts unreliable, and not door to
door, and with todays cutbacks we are to see even bigger rail fare rises, that it
won't commit people out of the comfort of there car to a
poorly lit, unstaffed, and expensive train service
or a bus service where you have no idea whether or not the next bus is coming,
I recently travelled(as a regular user of both bus and rail) to aycliffe by bus
and the bus wanted to travel on, just never turned up!!!
3; As a cllr I wrote to the local paper stating how parents will drive 3 roads away
from home to school, then go back home, cloggng up all the streets between
8am to 9am and 2.30pm and 4pm.
It would be quicker(and healthier) both for the parent's and children to walk.
Just on the subject of school visits, as a pedestrian my road(which has a school)
is cloggeed up, but worse the cars park all over the pavements, and when i try
to get by, they as good as moan, as though I'm the one in the wrong.!!!
Sensible parkng, and thinking of others is the order of the day.
4; Getting big companies to move away from packaging and plastic bottles
much not required.
5; Educating people to use cars less, more so short journeys many can be done
easier by foot
Woops thats more than one liner
will leave t there for now,,,,,,,
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
20 October 2010
14:5775747howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
20 October 2010
15:1075748astonishing pictures bob, even more remarkable that the chinese can even get a sea named after them.
20 October 2010
15:1775751Hi Bob, I had seen some coverage of this oil spill, but it has not been widely reported over here. I am guessing because it did not affect white caucasians and their pension plan, whereas the BP spill did.
It was an awful disaster for all those involved and the clean up still goes on.
The trouble with oil is that all the 'easy to get to' stuff has been used and the oil companies are now using more and more dangerous techniques and going into more and more difficult terrains. Deep water Arctic drilling has NO back up plan in case of disaster - the terrain is too hostile to be able to sort out problems such as seen in the Gulf.
The Alberta tar sands oil exploitation is a phenomenal environmental catastrophe for the people of the area and the wildlife. A huge (larger than the UK) expanse of forest is to be cleared to extract this oil. The extraction method is not easy so generates huge amounts of pollution in doing so. The companies involved spin losts of green-wash, saying that they will put the environment back. What a load of tosh. How can you put back a forest that is 100s of years old? This is the trouble with oil companies, they have huge budgets and can spin all this stuff to make it look like they are environmentally friendly.
And the trouble is, a lot of people believe it!
20 October 2010
15:2775752Keith, totally agree with your point on public transport. It is neither affordable nor quality.
If the Government was serious about pollution and congestion, the services would be reliable, the costs reduced by 90% and the frequency would be improved. Other countries have reliable and good public transport, there is no reason why we cannot.
I am sure that most people would use the train or the bus if it was cheaper, but it costs £10 to get two of us to Canterbury and back when it would cost us about £5 in the car. If I travel alone I take the bus, but not often when there are two of us. There is absolutely no incentive to use this antiquated, dirty, expensive system.
Yet it could be so different, with some effective decisions and effective leadership.
We have yet to see if this Government lives up to its election promise of being the 'greenest Government yet'
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
20 October 2010
15:4675755We regularly visit a city with a great bus service - £1.20 for any journey (further than Dover to Canterbury even), £3 for a day ticket valid for any number of journeys, average wait is 20 minutes and most stops have an active sign saying how long you have to to wait for the next service. You don't have to go to a foreign country unless you count Edinburgh as being abroad, and I'm sure other major cities have similar good services.
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
20 October 2010
15:4675756I`ve yet to see any good transport system in this country, and since Beeching days there`s been talk of an integrated transport system. I don`t know what this present government promised, but I`ll believe it when I see it. There`s some superb tramway systems worldwide, but for some reason, they never seem to be very popular here. As for rail,..............!
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
20 October 2010
15:5575759ray
those illuminated signs usually only give the timetabled version of when the next bus will arrive.
colin
integrated transport is a pipe dream, the road and rail lobbies will never get together, too much vested interests involved.
not just big business, unions too will fight for their own members against the public interest.
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
20 October 2010
16:1575765Howard, that's the steam powered version
All the buses have GPS trackers on so the info is live, if your bus is late it will show.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
20 October 2010
17:2275774that surprises me, last time i was in margate they were giving off a lot of wrong information.
they may have upgraded them since.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
20 October 2010
17:2575775Yep
Milton keynes has it, tracks buses letting you exactly where bus is and how many mins away
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
22 October 2010
09:2676029This could be a reason they said no to new Nuclear Power Station. We are sat on vast amounts good quality coal, cost of imported coal, oil supplies dwindling. This might be the answer?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8494230.stm "My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
22 October 2010
10:4776041Well done Gary, thread was drifting
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
22 October 2010
11:5276055Personally I'll be glad if the atom-power station in Kent vacates, and if Lydd airport does not increase, all the better!
We've got wind galore, and surely there are plenty of buses and trains to use instead of planes!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
22 October 2010
12:0476057the power station is already vacated, been so for quite a few years now.
22 October 2010
19:4576121Carbon capture and storage (CCS) would be a good solution to the huge problem of emissions of CO2 from coal fired stations. The trouble is that the technology does not exist to be able to do this at the moment. Had Kingsnorth had in place a plan for CCS, then that power station may well have gone ahead. But the attitude there was along the lines of 'well, we will open the plant and make it CCS ready for when the technology is available'. Obviously that was not good enough, hence plans for that station have been shelved for the foreseeable future.
I still find it amazing that we run our 21st century gadgets on 19th century technology - huge fires to boil water to make steam to turn turbines. They are so inefficient that around two thirds of the energy created is wasted. There has to be a better and less wasteful way of using finite resources than coal fired stations in their current form, namely steam turbines.
Unregistered User
22 October 2010
19:5376123What you really need to worry about is not Dungeness but Gravelines outside Dunkirk.
Has an even bigger nulclear facility than Dungeness. Probably nearer to us as the crow flies.
Watty
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
22 October 2010
20:3476142paulw,you are right there.for those who dont know there are 6 nuclear stations there.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
24 October 2010
02:1676334The domes housing the six nuclear reactors at the Gravelines nuclear power plant are visible in this shot of the Northern Merchant doing a handbrake turn as she approaches the berth in Dunkerque West some years ago.
The waters off Gravelines were the scene for the action which precipitated the demise of the Spanish Armada when the English fireships were sent amongst the anchored Spanish fleet causing them to scatter in panic and subsequently to fall prey to the English guns and thereafter the elements.
