Richard Steele
After writing the other day, about the price of fuel being driven up by Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, and the subsequent price gouging by local businesses that followed, I thought I’d share a few ideas about how each of us can do better. Mainly because, we all need to do better.
Firstly, a disclaimer, as I’m not a hypocrite. I have a biggish car, a couple of v8 powered boats, and I live 60 plus kilometres, from the nearest shop.
That’s the negative side. I am carbon neutral, by virtue, of having a few hundred thousand trees, and being careful by nature, and that’s the positive side.
An official survey done between ourselves, and good friends who live in close to town, shows we do a lot less mileage than they do, as most of our trips are planned, and most of our trips serve multiple purposes. We don’t nip out because the bread has run out.
We are not slaves to self-sufficiency either, but it gives us great pleasure to eat our home grown food. I can’t think of anything better.
But that thought highlights one of the ways society has gone wrong with fuel use. We want to eat all the good food all the year round, rather than dining on what’s in season. When our tomato supply dries up we import them.
The Muldoon government bought in carless days to save fuel, and that went down like a lead balloon. But it was a good idea then, as it is now – except now we should have carless days voluntarily.
Then there’s big vehicles, especially utes and 4×4 wagons used by people just because they are big, when they don’t serve any useful purpose. You know – the big black ute, the oversized wheels, the flared wheel arches, the heavy bull bars designed to intimidate, and of course the bloody snorkel, as if that motor will ever go off road, let alone need to breathe underwater. Big utes are for real tradespeople and rural folk, who actually have a use for them.
Last year NIWA bought five $152,000 utes with huge truck motors, to tow boats smaller than I tow with a 2.3 litre Nissan. The government could lead by example.
Car racing’s another one, actually racing anything just about. I’ve never seen the attraction of watching lines of cars go round and round a track, with every competitor waiting for the wheels to fall off one so they can move up a place.
Maybe I’m just too grumpy this morning, as I don’t see any benefit in flying around the moon either. Surely we have done enough damage to our own planet, without wanting to wreck the rest of the universe.
Then of course , there’s the small matter of starting the odd war or two. Talk about wasting fuel. We need to save the planet from ourselves, and I believe that every little action, no matter how small will ultimately make a difference.
