Hiya Preacherman,
Seeing as you do not know me from adam I presume you were talking about somebody you do know when you say that the ignorance and arrogance shown by people who care about the environment grates .
Don't misquote me - I said arrogance still grates. As said in my earlier message, I don't mind ignorance as long as people want to be educated. Many people think that anything which appears green is green as told to them by government and the media. However, what appears green is not necessarily the case (see below).
Your general tone though seems to be that we are all right at the moment and no thought for the future and anyone who mentions the depletion of resources or climate change is a raving looney who should be chained to a wind turbine for eternity or " educated".
I've been misread here. I don't think we're alright at the moment. In fact I believe we're screwed no matter what we do, not that we should not try which I most definitely think we should. However, we need to take the right path not the wrong one and I know that many people have been fooled into thinking that certain routes are the green environmentally friendly ones when there is a damn good chance that they're are a load of rubbish (e.g., they don't work) and are ultimately (even with good intent) just a means of taxing the masses even more.
For example, the pursuit of biofuels is seemingly as damaging if not more damaging as shown by further investigations into the viability of the whole biofuel industry which are beginning to show the whole picture. While the actual use of biofuels is much less polluting than fossil fuel use in IC engines, the production, need for a huge amount of land, replacement of food crops, etc., etc., may not reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and may cause problems elsewhere such as increasing food prices and reducing food availibility (the World Health Organisation state that 54% of the human population is malnourished). This is what I mean about educating those who are ignorant of all the facts (and I do not mean this in a derogatory way). I personally like to hear about advances in 'green' technology and their beneficial effects but I also want to make sure they work. I live in reality not a convenient 'green' dream.
Anyway, I shan't go further down that line as it is removed from the thread which was the increasing cost of fuel yet again.
Yes it has 'only' gone up 2p a litre but that is on top of all the other incremental increases over the last year or so. These increases stemmed from the incredible rise in the price of oil which has not been fully explained by the people involved. Now that the oil prices have dropped (and dropped to their lowest level for several years in fact) we should have been back to the price ranges of somewhere between 60p and 80p a litre. We're not and that is because of the weak pound against the dollar. In addition, many people are having to take wage freezes, wage drops, and even losing their jobs because of the economic cock-up the banks and governments have caused. However, 2p a litre does count for many people. They've also had to endure rises in road tax, insurance, etc. On top of that is the general rise in the cost of living, especially if you're poor. Wages are not keeping up with increases in bills, rent, mortgages, etc, so the poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer (same old story but now getting rather acute). Are these people wasting money on driving down the road to pick up milk when they could have walked? No, most definitely not. They walk. They have no alternative. (I personally keep my use of my pick-up to a minimum, ie., for work or long journeys only).
A 2p rise in isolation is nothing but it isn't in isolation; it is yet another straw that will eventually break the camel's back.
...and while all decent-minded and considerate people will care about the environment and understand that they are an integral part of it and are, collectively, damaging it, when they can't afford a roof over their heads or food in their stomach, the environment will go on the back burner. No individual or group has the right to force people into a corner like that.
Your government has already reduced VAT so you are saving on the cost of everything else you buy already but strangely there was no praise for the government for that.
The VAT reduction was a joke. Everything I bought which was subject to VAT did NOT drop in price. Everyday items such as clothing and food did NOT drop in price. Only high priced items that were advertised at their non-VAT price changed. The government didn't recieve any praise as the implementation cost more than the saving - it was a PR excercise that backfired!!!!!! Again reality is different from what people are told by the government. ...and no I'm not getting into an argument about who is worse off, Ireland or UK - I think we're all in the poo.
I should finally add that I think everyone is of the same concensus. Everyone hates having to pay any money, let alone more, to a corrupt, incredibly arrogant, incompetent, nasty, and conceited government who will throw it away. We want to use alternative methods for fuel but we have not been given that alternative.
Cheers.
