tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5917594270963421799.post578802251822089613..comments2023-06-20T19:34:32.711+12:00Comments on New Zealand's Low-Emission Future: Can Engineers Change the World? Energy Transition Engineering Motu Researchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02438001502924434514noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5917594270963421799.post-80346566356127827512016-06-22T23:11:16.035+12:002016-06-22T23:11:16.035+12:00The number of passenger vehicles registered in New...The number of passenger vehicles registered in New Zealand has been just over 2.5 million for the past 10 years. There are 600 cars per 1000 people, compared to 400 per 1000 for the USA. In 2015 the government of NZ spent $3 billion on roading and local govt spent $1 billion. New Zealand drivers consume 152,000 barrels of oil per day and at $70 NZD per barrel, that is about $4 billion on fuel per year. There are about 100 registrations of electric cars per month which is about 0.4% of the registrations. There is no economic benefit to NZ if we import an electric car or a petrol car - it's the same. If Kiwi's changed to the same car ownership rates as the car mad, car dependent USA - that would reduce the amount of money flying out of the country. to import cars and parts and reduce congestion and fuel spend by 30%. <br /><br />We wouldn't get to save much on roads, as we would have the same roads, but we might have fewer crashes with fewer cars. And with fewer cars there would be better conditions for cyclists and buses. So - Bob - I am working on figuring out why we have so many cars in NZ compared to other countries, and what can be done to reduce the number of cars. This would keep a huge amount of money in the country (close to $300 million on vehicles and $1 billion on fuel) and reduce congestion. The evidence is pretty compelling that MORE of anything is the answer to what ever problem you want to think about at this time. Whether it is buildings or appliances or plastic bottles or cars... the answer is LESS. The transition innovations and engineering projects are about achieving less consumption and more benefit and more real value for people. <br /><br />What would it take to get you as excited about a reducing car ownership and reducing vehicle kilometres driven rate in New Zealand as you are getting about Tesla taking orders for electric battery cars? Dr. Susan Krumdieckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04352369829626786967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5917594270963421799.post-59014076053470258422016-05-12T10:25:27.994+12:002016-05-12T10:25:27.994+12:00Just changing transports energy from oil to electr...Just changing transports energy from oil to electric is a huge challenge but I have hope that it can be done. We transitioned from horses to cars in about ten years from 1010 to 1920 and now that Tesla has taken 250,000 orders for its new car the other manufacturers know what the market wants and will not want to be left behind. If they put some resources to it and get the price right we could really make some progress.BobBinghamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03683141620228599852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5917594270963421799.post-77654515570650615392016-05-11T18:10:25.060+12:002016-05-11T18:10:25.060+12:00The last interview of the late David Mackay FRS ba...The last interview of the late David Mackay FRS backs up Susan's conclusions. He concluded that the extremely popular 'bright green' techno-utopian view of the future was an 'appalling delusion': http://www.theguardian.com/.../idea-of-renewables... Retired Otago Physics Prof Bob Lloyd draws many of the same conclusions.<br /><br />If the gov't would choose to perform the broad spectrum, non-partisan risk assessment that the Wise Response Incorporated Society is calling for, then perhaps our policy makers would have some coherent basis for futures thinking that is cognisant of the 'solution spaces' (as Nicole Foss calls them http://bit.ly/1hnVubo) that are actually available to us... Again, others, such as NZ futures thinker Dr Wayne Cartwright, have reached similar conclusions, albeit expressed in more guarded language in his excellent 'Creating Tomorrow' series in Element magazine: http://bit.ly/21VbkfD <br /><br />However, in their blind reliance on the dangerous religious fundamentalists in the treasury http://bit.ly/1YAmvtG, the incumbent party has failed to give their civil servants the neccessary evidence in a coherent form. Truly the blind leading the blind....Nathan Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11610580082498250447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5917594270963421799.post-74844376415562427542016-05-11T17:45:58.183+12:002016-05-11T17:45:58.183+12:00These initiatives would have been excellent decade...These initiatives would have been excellent decades ago when we might have been able to slow down this monster but factoring in the 10 to 20 year lag between cause and effect we have passed the point of no return as we leap ahead into runaway abrupt climate change. I personally will be surprised if industrial civilisation still exists at the end of the decade.Kevin Hesterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17544649247126017710noreply@blogger.com