Ex-Ford Chassis Guru: Hey! Ministers! Leave Those Cars Alone!
Richard Parry-Jones is Ford's former chassis guru, the man who worked miracles for Ford of Europe's mainstream motors. icWales.co.uk reports that the Welshman isn't enamored with the ongoing assault on motoring in the name of climate change. PJ told members of the Cardiff Business Club (at The St David’s Hotel & Spa) that CO2 emissions must be reduced by all sectors; cars are only a part of the climate change problem. In other words, don't throw the four-wheeled baby out with the rising bath water, boyo. “Should we not look again at the sheer cost effectiveness of cars providing transportation and pleasure to society and embrace and encourage new car technology and improved road capacity?" Hey, good luck with that. Meanwhile, the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) wants his fellow Welshmen to know he's not a car slut. "I am pro-mobility and I am pro the environment – and actually I think most of us are.” If only common sense were common.
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Katie:Global warming is a man-made problem and WE need to fix it 1. no scientist has proven global warming 2. even if the planet is getting hotter no scientist has proven that its due to man 3. even if the planet is getting hotter and its us no scientist has proven what it is we are doing that is causing it. what if its something else we are doing (like running billions of air conditioners that turn energy into heat). the planet has been significantly hotter (the whole earth was a dust bowl) well before man was on the scene. the planet has been significantly colder (the whole earth was a snowball) well before man was on the scene. the largest source of energy on earth is the sun. there has not been enough investigation into what is actually happening with our climate and current models are not nearly sophisticated enough to even begin to describe the situation fully or with any amount of certainty... lets not destroy our economies and way of life on a guess. how about we actually pay someone a few billion to actually investigate this and determine for certain what is happening and why (including doing contradictory analysis - something that isnt happening now because no scientist can get funding unless he follows the party line). dont expect to see any politician support this idea though...too many lay people who have no knowledge of science and no understanding of the difference between fact and theory already believe the hype - even though no one has proved one god dam thing... in short - global warming is not a fact...
And cigarette smoking does not cause cancer.
Cigarette smoking does not cause cancer. Wouldn't ALL smokers develop it if it did? Smoking is just one factor in one's propensity to contract the disease, but it is not THE cause. Again, more incomplete statements. How about this: Cigarette smoking can be harmful to one's health. By the way, if the Earth is as surely headed towards doomsday as the anti-CO2er's hypothesize, shouldn't our solutions be far more dramatic? I mean, famine, drought, rising oceans to draw proposals more likely to actually reverse the CO2 levels, eh?
There are different genetic susceptibilities. Some people will definitely get lung cancer if they smoke, but there are people who can smoke like chimneys without getting lung cancer due, I believe, to single gene differences. Eventually, people will probably be able to find out what their susceptibility is so that they can make an informed decision about whether to quit. Of course, smoking causes far more heart disease than cancer, and the relationship is probably considerably more complex than that between smoking and lung cancer. There are better, safer ways to satisfy a nicotine craving. And yes, measures to mitigate CO2 should be far more dramatic. (see Plan B 3.0, by Lester Brown, for example.) Unfortunately, H. sapiens have trouble responding to abstract threats, and by the time this is no longer abstract, it will be too late.