From Cow Burbs in New Zealand To Tesla World

 The World as I have known it from my years of growing up to being a young man and years of work has vanished. One of the many reasons seem to be that our globe is heating up, causing dramatic changes in weather patterns, food production and lots of ditto connected effects.

Governments have been put under pressure to cope with the rising problem. Climate meetings have been held in many places around the globe. The result? Besides of some technical innovations, not really anything which is gonna change the course of global warming. So in their desperation to show the public a plan of action, governments have chosen to impose financial fees/taxes on the use of fossil fuels, like oil, natural gas and coal.

However, some governments have gone further. The latest idea is a tax on cow burbs. (farting) Yes, that's right, cows fart and their farts contain methane gas, which is considered a climate gas. And this glorious idea has sprung up in the brains of New Zealand politicians, where farmers are now seriously uttering doubt whether their government has lost all common sense. 

A tax on a cow burb, will certainly bring in some money, especially since New Zealand has approx. 10 million beef and 26 million sheep. And according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's ambitious plan, the goal is to reduce 10% of methane gas emissions from animals.

WOW!

Can you picture New Zealand cows and sheep with a methane gas filter on their behind?  Or is Ms. Ardern's plan rather based on eradicating 10 % of farmers in the country? 

This incredulous plan shows how far removed from reality politicians brains are. And it's also becoming transparent why so many people are losing faith in their government. For New Zealand, the next logical step will be to get rid of 10% of their population, as people, not unlike animals, are also polluting the atmosphere with the very same dangerous methane gas while farting. (the side effects of that will even be less polluting traffic}

In Europe and North America, where such outlandish ideas haven't been promoted yet, the governments have announced other ambitious plans, f.ex. to prohibit the sale of fossil-fuel powered vehicles from 2030, mandating the wide-spread use of electrical vehicles. Now, there are lots of discussions on the draw-backs and benefits of EVs, but what has been largely ignored is that electrical energy is not something we can harvest from trees. It will simply not be available in sufficient kwh to serve all households, industrial demands and the vehicle fleet of hundreds of millions of people. Right now, Europe is facing a huge energy crisis due to sanctions imposed on Russia. Costs pr kwh are soaring, (letting energy providers earn billions), and it doesn't help that lots of nuclear power stations have been shut down in the nineties. So all-of-a-sudden coal-fired power plants are having their renaissance, despite the previously announced ambitious plans of reducing CO2 emissions. It is very doubtful that Russian energy will ever get back into western Europe, so electrical power will most likely have to be produced through environmentally unfriendly means. The jump from fossil fuels to "Tesla World" will not be painless. Consumers will have to be prepared to stop using high-powered ACs and lowering their inside home temps during cold northern winters. Air traffic will have all but to stop, and the same goes for world-wide shipping. Have you ever seen the momentary pictures of airborne planes in the world, or the ditto crowded oceans?

             Image from flight tracker showing part of USA

Ship traffic around Europe and Africa as shown in marinetraffic.com
These images might give you just an idea what the world is facing. If governments are to make the slightest dent in greenhouse gas emissions they gotta stop life as we have known it (and gotten used to). If we want to stop all further global warming we gotta stop all of the above and start living in turf houses eating garden vegetables only.

I seriously doubt that's gonna happen. Instead, we will have to live and deal with the warming globe.

So We've Come To This Point In Time Again

 Our tourist season is almost over, the leaves have already been flying off of the trees and I even cut down one of our stately maple trees, cause it had been on a steady decline for the last 3-4 years. It'll serve us one more time though - as firewood in our stove. 

A foggy morning at the beach and a Herring Weir waiting for the next summer.

The first week in October ended with a cruise ship visiting the area, resulting in multiple border crossings with cruise passengers for us.

The next cruise visit the week after, got cancelled, due to inclement weather, but this Friday we will have another couple loads of cruise people coming over to the island. And that will conclude our season for good.

 

And then it'll be "leaving-time" soon -  meaning the last renter has moved out of our RV and we will be packing up for the trip southwards. This time it's gonna be Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. More details about our final destination will be coming forth later. We have traveled parts of that part of the country many years ago, but are looking forward to do some more in-depth traveling this time. 

                  7 days on the road should get us south

Driving along the East Coast we try to avoid big city areas

Evenings are now spent with brooding over road maps and possible overnight locations. I even re-activated an old DVD with "Microsoft Streets". But of course our cell phones will give us updated travel information.

Our days are busy with doing cleanups outside and in the garage, and getting those vehicles which will stay at home ready to meet the harsh reality of winter.

The trailer itself got window curtains after some of the blinds started to fray. Propane needs to be filled and all functions checked and re-checked. Our tow vehicle, a 2015 Chevrolet Express 3500 has received a different rear axle ratio which should make a big difference in towing. The former one was a 3.42 while the new one is a 4.10. Translated that means that the drive axle will be turning 4.1 times to make the wheels do one complete turn, while the former gear made it turn only 3.42 times. This way, more power comes to the wheels. The van will now have a lower top speed, but that is not essential for us. Another consequence is that the speedometer will show a higher speed than the van is actually going. Again that is not of any concern to me as our GPS will always show correct speed. Matter of fact, it even shows the allowed max speed at all times.