Motorhomes, 2 foreign holidays per anum, & carbon footprints...

[Sneaky Blinder]

We've recently retired early, hopefully early enough, to enjoy a few years of travelling and exploring.

We used to take 2 foreign holdays every year, and our beloved dog was deposited into an excellent, but expensive, pet hotel.

We've now taken the plunge, and spent a large sum of money on a portable, mobile, comfortable hotel suite that's dog friendly.

There is so much of this beautiful island, and Ireland, that neither my partner nor I have visited, it really is a disgrace on our doorstep.

So, my point ?

Just consider the following:

The Earth is a gift for all of us, especially future generations, and should be cherished and protected.

It turns out planes are even worse for the climate than we thought

Aeroplane contrails have a larger warming effect than all the CO2 emitted by planes that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the first ever flight

www.newscientist.com

Climate change is real, not a myth, and we can all see it it, if we open our eyes.

Evidence - NASA Science

Takeaways The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia. Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking...

climate.nasa.gov

We all have a responsibility to curb our behaviour, to help future generations, despite the misgivings, oversights, or wrong judgements, of our forefathers.

The motorhome market is niche, and as a new potential buyer, you hold all of the cards.

New sales, in 2018, were just less than 15,000. EV & Hydrid car sales were just less than 10,000, and total new car regs were a wee bit less than 150,000.

Caravan and motorhome numbers on Britain's roads set to SOAR

THE number of caravans and motorhomes clogging up Britain's roads is set to soar by more than 50,000 in the next five years, new figures claim.

www.express.co.uk

But again, like many tabloibs striving for sales, they never put things into context.

These are official, reliable figures...

Q1) How many vehicles are there in Great Britain?

A1) At the end of June 2019, there were 38.7 million vehicles licensed for use on the roads in Great Britain.

Cars make up the majority of licensed vehicles. There were 31.8 million cars (82.3 per cent), 4.1 million LGVs (10.6 per cent), 0.51 million HGVs (1.3 per cent), 1.3 million motorcycles (3.4 per cent), 0.15 million buses & coaches (0.4 per cent) and 0.76 million other vehicles (2.0 per cent) licensed at the end of June 2019.

All body types apart from buses & coaches saw an increase in overall registered vehicles since the end of June 2018. The largest percentage increase was for LGVs at 3.1 per cent, followed by cars at 1.1 per cent, and motorcycles at 0.9 per cent and HGVs at 0.8 per cent. Buses & coaches fell by 2.3 per cent, which reflects the decline in new registrations.

The total number of licensed vehicles has increased in all but one year (1992) since the end of the Second World War. From 1997 to 2007, the annual growth in licensed vehicles averaged 670 thousand per year, although from the mid-2000s it begun to slow somewhat. Following the recession of 2008-9, growth slowed further but did not stop, averaging 170 thousand per year between 2007 and 2012. Since 2012, the average growth has been 610 thousand per year, but this growth has slowed in recent years with the reduction of new registrations.

Source: Vehicle Licensing Statistics: April to June 2019

Historical details about the number of licensed vehicles can be viewed in table VEH0101.


I have no axe to grind, I am not affilliated to any club, I have no children, nor grandchildren to bequeath to.

An animal charity will benefit from that.

Point is, we're still separating our household waste, worrying about unnecessary packaging, thinking about what we're purchasing, recycling, ...and we've bought our first motorhome !

 

[buttons]

Will that be before or after the Tundra releases billions of tonnes of CO2 ?

That will depend if you are blocking the streets of London this week or sitting in your lab looking at evidence and doing calculations. Which side will you be following Brian.....??

 

[Southdowners]

The Norwegians, who are already doing a fine job of persuading people into electric cars through state subsidies, are now looking at ships:

Get inspired by our stories and start exploring | HX Hurtigruten Expeditions US

Learn more about the spectacular destinations and attractions you can experience on a cruise with Hurtigruten.

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It’s not always clear cut though.

As you’ll know, Norway is an oil/gas rich country. It produces and exports 20 times it’s own needs to other countries. So the burning of this enormous amount of fossil fuel is carried out in the recipient countries.... which makes Norway looks as if it’s carbon neutral.

 

[Allanm]

So Buttons, a challenge eh?
We have Euro 6 engines in our motorhome and car. Ok, so we use diesel but these engines are low emission. So to offset our use of these and minimise our impact on the environment, we do the following.
Before we buy anything we check if we can buy used or just do without it.
We don’t eat meat. We recycle as much as we can. We don’t buy cheap clothes and recycle what clothes we no longer wear ( Mrs A makes new stuff out of our old clothes) and we don’t wash clothes till they need it using Eco washing liquid
We don’t have a dishwasher, we use Eco washing up liquid and ethically produced soap.
We try not to buy anything with palm oil in it.
We buy from charity shops if we can. We don’t send cards, we make Christmas and birthday presents or set a low limit to buy anything, generally used ( charity shop things)
We don’t use any single use plastic at home. We don’t use our oil central heating but have a pellet stove for heating that uses sustainable sources for pellets. ( our stove is 97% efficient)
We grow a lot of our own veg and plant shrubs and trees and bee and insect friendly flowers.
Food we do buy is locally produced as much as possible so no air miles. The vast majority of the furniture in our house was bought used, made from recycled materials or upcycled. We cycle as much as we can instead of taking out the car.
We have low energy bulbs in our well insulated house, ( that we have just finished renovating) we don’t waste energy lighting up the outside and turn lights off when we don’t need them. (all the lights in our village go off at 10 pm) none of the electricity we use at home comes from fossil fuel.
We have a water free compost toilet, we don’t use bleach and make our own cleaning materials.
We don’t buy or eat fast food or have takeaways, we have virtually zero food waste and very little general waste.
We repair what we can so we can reuse it if possible.
We buy recycled toilet paper and tissues in bulk from a company that donates 50% of their profits to build toilets in places like Africa and India
There’s probably more but we are continuously thinking what more we can do.

So, how are you reducing your impact on the environment?

 

[tonyidle]

Possibly because we live in an unfair society tonyidle where some can afford to purchase a 50k motorhome to leisurely meander around Europe using up the worlds resources while others just have the one holiday opportunity to get to the sunshine for a week during the school holidays.

I have been in that position and didn't fly - in fact I have flown only twice in my life (once to IoM, once to Cyprus for daughters wedding). I have no fear of flying (although I don't much like airports) I just don't see the need. I suspect if the skies were full of people flying only once each year they wouldn't in fact be very full at all and maybe that's part of the answer - to restrict individual air miles rather than using the usual method of using ticket price. And I wish my mh had been that cheap .

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[Spriddler]

It's the over-populated world's avarice and demand for cheap and/or disposable products and the latest model or fashion that needs changing.
Those who believe that electric cars, fewer flights and recycling (among many more sound-bite initiatives) will solve the problem are treating the effect rather than the cause.

 

[buttons]

I have been in that position and didn't fly - in fact I have flown only twice in my life (once to IoM, once to Cyprus for daughters wedding). I have no fear of flying (although I don't much like airports) I just don't see the need. I suspect if the skies were full of people flying only once each year they wouldn't in fact be very full at all and maybe that's part of the answer - to restrict individual air miles rather than using the usual method of using ticket price. And I wish my mh had been that cheap .

Lets not just restrict flying how about doing the same with anything that is using fossil fuels, to include those run on batteries of course. What is this obsession you have with not flying. Are you sure there is not just a little apprehension with you about getting on a plane.
I will be flying off to Cyprus next week as it happens not for a wedding though just a holiday...

 

[SpeedyDux]

It's the over-populated world's avarice and demand for cheap and/or disposable products and the latest model or fashion that needs changing.
Those who believe that electric cars, fewer flights and recycling (among many more sound-bite initiatives) will solve the problem are treating the effect rather than the cause.

Disposable fashion is a trend that the younger generation seems to have grabbed with both hands. The average is 5 weeks' ownership* then cheap clothes get binned and mostly go to landfill. A thoroughly non-environmental trend on several levels. Big carbon footprint too.

When the students living next door moved out after their final exams, suddenly the wheelybins were overflowing with their discarded clothes. They could not be bothered to donate them to charity instead.

Likewise all the apparently "single-use" tents and mountains of rubbish left behind after music festivals. Ridiculously wasteful.

If the Extinction Rebellion crusties manage to change that bad attitude towards the environment on the part of many others of the same younger generation, that could be a plus factor.

[*heard that on the BBC]

Anyway, back on topic, our MH is a trade-off for no longer taking package holidays involving flying. We both walk everywhere local so use of her 10 year old car is minimised. We buy clothes from charity shops. Etc etc.

 

[Ivory55]

We eat local vegetables, it’s just that they go on a trip around the country to distribution centres to come back again. Haha

 

[M-J]

I fart in to jars to offset our motorhomes carbon footprint

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[shawn&emma]

We eat local vegetables, it’s just that they go on a trip around the country to distribution centres to come back again. Haha

When I worked in a supermarket in Kent we had several suppliers/producers within a few miles from our store but the delivery lorries used to collect from them after coming to us then return the produce to the Milton Keynes distribution centre before finally coming back to store. In the case of say strawberries it could be within 24 hours.

In some respects it used to wind me up but there was the logic that the lorry was going back and then would get sorted to return to us agai, sort of made sense instead of having vans running around.

In the early days we used to have deliveries from everyone from wine suppliers-local cheese makers but now most goes of to the centre. As a store it was better we'd get just maybe 2 artics a day delivering everything instead of a constant line of diferente companies delivering their own goods.

 

[Spriddler]

We eat local vegetables, it’s just that they go on a trip around the country to distribution centres to come back again. Haha

A relative has a market garden in West Cornwall and for 40 years has been forced to sell his produce exclusively to a distributor since whilst he could be profitable with the demand in the tourist season he would not have a sufficiently large demand at other times. Hence everything is shipped by lorries 360 miles to Covent Garden before returning to Cornwall, often already wilting.
I visit my local tip with grass and hedge cuttings (not allowed bonfires and don't need a compost heap) and am always both amazed and saddened at the volume of 'good' reusable stuff being thrown away. The public is not allowed to take away others' discarded stuff. No doubt the staff at the tip make a few quid from reusable discards.
I worked in Cornwall for two years in Gov't business development for the South West (before the bureaucratic handcuffs destroyed my will to live). I noted that huge refrigerated artics came from Spain to collect spider crabs from S West fishing harbours which they took back to Spain for processing into flavourings, soup and adhesives. When I proposed that this processing was carried out in Cornwall instead of Spain in order to create local jobs and reduce vehicle miles and pollution (especially in crowded rural roads) it was squashed as they would lose the huge export grants and rebates available to the British boat owners, the fish co-operative and the British owned haulage company which was part-owned by the fishing cooperative. There's more to it than that but that's the gist of it.

 

[tacr2man]

You do not have to justify your use of a motorhome, imo.

If everybody modified their behaviour, went vegan one day per week, flew only once per year, recycled as much as they could, and bought an electric car in the next 5 -10 years, then we're gonna make a big step forward.

May be too little too late, but it's management / government to blame, on short 4-5 year turnarounds, no punishment for failure, and no long term targets to attain to.

Dont beat yourself up , about only doing a little bit , as even if you did everything the MMGW brigade suggest , it isnt going to solve the so called "problem" . It was just touched on in a couple of previous posts
re HGV and deforestation . The only solution is massive de humanization , and vastly reduced standard of living of the remaining selected . The climate warriors are slowly painting themselves into a corner , living needs energy. Solar and wind isnt going to even scratch the surface. Nuclear is banned as salvation . Even hydro is frowned on . Biomass will last literally minutes in the scheme of things fossil fuels are out! Impose what they want and cities will die from centre out for a start . Enjoy your ice powered MoHo while you still can . BTW The carbon dioxide level in exhaled air is about , 38,000ppm (parts per million).

 

[Potty]

I wonder how the protesters got to London? Did they walk or cycle? How many have bought the T-shirt which will be discarded in a few weeks? I think this FB post says it all

 

[peterc10]

Why does everyone need to fly once a year?

I don't know about everyone, but I fly once a year to visit my daughter who lives in the USA and I do not swim well enough to get there by myself.

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[tonyidle]

Lets not just restrict flying how about doing the same with anything that is using fossil fuels, to include those run on batteries of course. What is this obsession you have with not flying. Are you sure there is not just a little apprehension with you about getting on a plane.
I will be flying off to Cyprus next week as it happens not for a wedding though just a holiday...

No apprehension about flying whatsoever - my brief experiences were enjoyable. Exciting even - especially the IoM trip on a twin-engined piston prop aircraft. Or as it turned out reduced to one engine half way back. If I'm totally honest I've never felt the need and we've had dogs for as long as I can remember - three at present - and would never consider kennelling. The IoM trip was pre-dog ownership and nearly 50 years ago and for the more recent Cyprus trip I had a friend house/dog-sit. All our holidays have been caravan or motorhome based and will continue to be so which, along with the dogs, precludes flying. I do think there needs to be a sea change in attitudes to all forms of travel / transport though. The daughter of a friend of mine travels between the Continent, UK, and USA on a weekly basis as part of her job. She's a board member of an international company. I cannot for the life of me, given the standard of modern communications, understand why anyone needs to travel as part of a management role. If she's doing it many thousands must be doing it. Why? On a different note maybe holiday air travel should be the same as a cruise liner but using dirigibles and maybe even following the Trade Winds routes?

 

[Spriddler]

I don't know about everyone, but I fly once a year to visit my daughter who lives in the USA and I do not swim well enough to get there by myself.

Don't beat yourself up peterc10
A jumbo jet flying from London to New York uses around 18000 galls of fuel.
It's a flying distance of 3470 miles. That's approx. 5 gallons per mile.
It carries around 500 passengers.
That's 0.01 gallons per person per mile which probably wouldn't get my m/h to the end of my drive, so if we all flew instead of using motorhomes........?
Flying and motorhoming are tarnished by the reputation of being luxuries (which for most they still are) - not so long ago the exclusive preserve of the middle and upper classes.


Sources:

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[Rob Hammond]

I’m fitting a new kitchen at home ,so to do my bit I’m reusing the hinges to the doors

 

[buttons]

No apprehension about flying whatsoever - my brief experiences were enjoyable. Exciting even - especially the IoM trip on a twin-engined piston prop aircraft. Or as it turned out reduced to one engine half way back. If I'm totally honest I've never felt the need and we've had dogs for as long as I can remember - three at present - and would never consider kennelling. The IoM trip was pre-dog ownership and nearly 50 years ago and for the more recent Cyprus trip I had a friend house/dog-sit. All our holidays have been caravan or motorhome based and will continue to be so which, along with the dogs, precludes flying. I do think there needs to be a sea change in attitudes to all forms of travel / transport though. The daughter of a friend of mine travels between the Continent, UK, and USA on a weekly basis as part of her job. She's a board member of an international company. I cannot for the life of me, given the standard of modern communications, understand why anyone needs to travel as part of a management role. If she's doing it many thousands must be doing it. Why? On a different note maybe holiday air travel should be the same as a cruise liner but using dirigibles and maybe even following the Trade Winds routes?

Interesting… We've had dogs but they are either house sitted by the kids or placed in the kennel. They are dogs, they really don't mind you leaving them to go traveling, makes them more happy to see you on your return.
As far as Air ships and the trade winds. it will never get off the ground. People are set in their ways with regard to getting where they are going in the shortest time possible. Next week it should take us 30 mins to get to the airport then 4 hours to be landing in Cyprus where our car will be waiting for us to drive to our hotel in time for lunch being served. They would still be pumping the zeppelin up when we are taking a siesta by the pool.

 

[buttons]

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[Allanm]

I wonder how the protesters got to London? Did they walk or cycle? How many have bought the T-shirt which will be discarded in a few weeks? I think this FB post says it all

View attachment 337697

You forgot that everyone’s house was heated with coal and pollution got so bad in the 50’s that the government had to bring in the Clean Air act and plastic bags were introduced for shopping in the 1970’s, the consequences of which are destroying life everywhere. And what about man made fibres full of plastic that will never disappear?

So, not in their lifetimes and previous generations, as you so eloquently put, fu***d up their planet before they were born and they are living with the consequences. However you try to put it, the younger generations are going to have to clean up the cr4p left to them and if protesting is one way some people will take notice, then that’s a good thing.
We support the climate change protesters and make donations to their cause. We were even at one of their rallies a few weeks ago in Cambridge.

 

[Ivory55]

Why don’t you protest in France if that’s where you live. Or are you just another one of those who live somewhere else and want to tell others who live here what they should do.

 

[tacr2man]

We haven't got very much further than the Inca , who used human sacrifices when their gods were angry (crop failure) . To them it was a immediate survival problem . Due to "advances" in living , and all the free time we now have we have to find things to worry about in the future , so in our slight understanding of climate/weather some have found a new religion, and its shaping up to leading to human sacrifice , but at a distance not in the developed world (to start with) . As in any religion there are the fundamentalists !

 

[peterc10]

Don't beat yourself up peterc10

I'me not. But others appears to want to beat up on me for wanting to see our daughter once a year.

 

[tonyidle]

Interesting… We've had dogs but they are either house sitted by the kids or placed in the kennel. They are dogs, they really don't mind you leaving them to go traveling, makes them more happy to see you on your return.
As far as Air ships and the trade winds. it will never get off the ground. People are set in their ways with regard to getting where they are going in the shortest time possible. Next week it should take us 30 mins to get to the airport then 4 hours to be landing in Cyprus where our car will be waiting for us to drive to our hotel in time for lunch being served. They would still be pumping the zeppelin up when we are taking a siesta by the pool.

When we had kids at home we did the same. They are now in their 40s with their own families and each of them has 2 dogs. My very brief experience of kennelling wasn't a good one: the dog didn't eat in the kennels, was distraught, and ill for a week when we collected it. My dogs are all rescues & have had their share of kennels. I would never do it again. I just threw the airship thing in . It does surprise me though that, green issues aside, no-one has considered building a holiday around them. To my mind it could be a fantastic and very different experience to any other.

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[tonyidle]

I'me not. But others appears to want to beat up on me for wanting to see our daughter once a year.

No I don't! I was trying to point out that a lot of air travel isn't necessary. Visiting family excepted of course.

 

[Wildbill]

Climet protester in London pissing on the memorials leaving hundreds of tents behind getting plenty of news time 20'000 supporters of solder's AtoZ protested over the governments decision to prosecut northern Ireland veterans not one mention on the news thay left London not even a sige packet left and no arrests
climet Change protesters boil my pxxxss

 

[buttons]

When we had kids at home we did the same. They are now in their 40s with their own families and each of them has 2 dogs. My very brief experience of kennelling wasn't a good one: the dog didn't eat in the kennels, was distraught, and ill for a week when we collected it. My dogs are all rescues & have had their share of kennels. I would never do it again. I just threw the airship thing in . It does surprise me though that, green issues aside, no-one has considered building a holiday around them. To my mind it could be a fantastic and very different experience to any other.

Dogs and kennels Ours would starve, not through bad conditions though. He is a one lady dog and anyone else is fair game to eat. Including me.
They have been testing high tech airships not far from here for years, they fly them around and get backers and publicity. Then it all goes flat (excuse the pun) they disappear without trace. I can only assume it is not as easy as it looks to produce one for leisure purposes. They are produced from a light composite material and look fairly stable when flying over the motorway. Could be size that is the problem, landing and maintaining would be difficult without a huge specialised hanger like they have near Bedford.
Perhaps they will be leapfrogged now by drone travel….

 

[Allanm]

Why don’t you protest in France if that’s where you live. Or are you just another one of those who live somewhere else and want to tell others who live here what they should do.

Like you, telling me what I should do?
If you had read all of my post that you refer to, you will have seen that we went to the rally in Cambridge a couple of weeks ago. ( whilst we were visiting my Daughter)

 

[Allanm]

So, I just reread your post, ( it’s early). We were in Cambridge visiting my Daughter when the protests took place, so we walked to the nearest one.
Would you rather I flew back to France to take part in one there then?

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[The Wino]

I wonder how the protesters got to London? Did they walk or cycle? How many have bought the T-shirt which will be discarded in a few weeks? I think this FB post says it all

View attachment 337697

I think facebook posts like the one you quoted to me give the impression of the poster of it being an old git (like the ones that Harry Enfield used to portray)who wants to keep on polluting the planet and doesn't give a toss about future generations. If they think all the things they mention were so good why would they complain about people campaigning to help the environment for the future?. This does apply to the person who wrote the original post not you but what does supporting the post do thats any use?