Students urge support for energy policy
(CNS): Local youth environmental activist group Protect Our Future recently hosted a demonstration and presentation of letters in front of the Government Administration Building last week to show their support for the plans and goals set out in the government’s revised National Energy Policy and to urge others to help roll out the adoption of green energy and achieve its goals as quickly as possible before it’s too late.
“Although the new energy policy is a major breakthrough for the Cayman Islands Government, without urgent changes in Cayman’s treatment of the environment, some of the goals that have been set may be too late,” the young activists warned in a release about the demonstration.
POF members have proved to be strong vocal advocates for the environment, with beach clean-ups and impressive social media campaigns promoting environmental issues. Their latest demonstration was originally meant to coincide with the Global Fight To End Fossil Fuels campaign on 15 September but was postponed due to very heavy rains.
The demo attracted students from across the Cayman Islands as well as a few older activists and highlighted concerns across this community about Cayman’s very slow adoption of green energy. The new energy policy is hugely ambitious, but achieving the targets of 100% renewable energy and 100% electric vehicle imports by 2050 will be difficult.
While CUC has said it is committed to the policy, it is unlikely that Cayman will achieve the target in less than 25 years, given the power provider’s decision to still convert its storage and generators to use natural gas.
However, POF is calling for solar panels to be installed across parking lots and residential areas and for people to be trained to work in green industries as soon as possible, helping the Cayman Islands move away from all fossil fuels before the target date.
“Due to the malignant nature of carbon emissions and the lack of care that we have taken while considering this issue, it is time for us to finally move in a more sustainable direction,” the young people said. “With the release of the NEP, the government is hoping to make room for these changes, which will allow us as an island to join together to make sure they happen. While also providing our amazing islands with better energy safety, as we will no longer depend on other countries for our energy supply.”
The students said that while there is “plenty to worry about”, the Cayman Islands could spearhead a movement that spreads to other islands. “The renewable energy movement may be larger than us, but if other countries see change, we believe that they will change too. However, only together can we protect the future of our planet,” they stated.
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Category: Energy, Science & Nature
Meanwhile, celebrities and the politicians who tell you not to eat meat (and eat bugs instead) fly around in private jets that produce thousands times more carbon than your car.
No thanks, I think I’ll keep eating meat and driving a reliable gas car.
The real problems in Cayman are the cost of living, education and crime rates. Climate change is an irrelevant distraction.
These young people are going to be sorely disappointed if they believe Wayne Panton is serious about sustainability, climate change or anything meaningful beyond a few sound bites that might win him a few votes.
I applaud these young people so much. The problem is, they are expat children and will never be taken serious by the current Caymanians in charge. I’m sorry but it’s true 😔
But are they, and is anyone ever Caymanian enough for the idiots that think their secret criteria ever matters? A big FU to those who choke us back from truthful representation, seriously.
Your electric car is nowhere near as green as you think: Here are the hidden eco-pitfalls of the NetZero cause’s pin-up
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12317297/Why-electric-car-near-green-think-hidden-eco-pitfalls-NetZero-causes-pin-up.html
Electric vehicle fires: The little-known but terrifying reality about EV batteries – after one from an MG caused a blaze that destroyed five cars and a Tesla burst into flames
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12516565/Electric-vehicle-battery-fire.html
The Environmental Impact of Battery Production for Electric Vehicles https://earth.org/environmental-impact-of-battery-production/
…by the fossil fuels lobby
Oh do grow up.
Most EVs can charge in an hour on DC to 80%, or on DC solar at work for, what should be, zero grid penalty, or by ac level 1 for 200+ miles using less power than 8 hrs of normal household refrigeration cost. Or we can continue to perpetuate the same false petroleum lobby fallacies. We have the choice and opportunity to make educated future-forward data-driven consumer choices in Cayman rather than adopt unsound USA right wing political ideology. Crunch the data and get on board.
Most EVs get between 3-5 miles/kWh. By your math, 200+ miles of charging at a Level 1 charger (which, by the way is really only referencing the input voltage and relative speed of charging), would be about 40-67 kWh of energy. A typical fridge in a domestic setting probably uses about 1-2 kWh per day.
This isn’t to say that EVs aren’t a better alternative to ICEs, only that don’t open up the argument to detraction due to your bad math. EVs still use less overall energy and emit less net GHGs than ICEs over their lifetime usage.
Let’s tackle this one by one shall we. First article disuccses initial emissions of an electric car manufracturing is more emmissive than a petrol car. However over the car’s lifetime it ends up producing on average 60% less carbon emissions than it’s gasoline variant. https://theicct.org/publication/a-global-comparison-of-the-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-of-combustion-engine-and-electric-passenger-cars/
Electric vehicle fires, in 2020 of the 1.4 million fires that took place in the US, 15% of those were the result of ICE. electric car? represented 0.02% of those fires.
https://www.nfpa.org//-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-reports/US-Fire-Problem/osFireLoss.pdf .
Though you might say, well there’s more ICE cars than electric, fine let’s use another report. A report but a major insurance company found that for every 100k ICE cars sold, there was around 3400 fires, the same amount for electrics? 25.1. This was using data collected by the NTSB. https://www.autoinsuranceez.com/gas-vs-electric-car-fires/.
Next you might say, oh the fires are more dangerous! This argument is totally idiotic because the same could be said when ICE cars were first introduced to replace horses. Every major fire union is undergoing training to tackle these kind of fires just like any kind of new technology, it’s not a reason to not adapt EVs (where they work best, like in cities).
EVs aren’t some super green alternative that is produced using smiles and happiness. It will have it’s own set of emissions however from a safety standpoint, air quality and long term emissions. EVs beat ICE vehicles by every metric. Stop spreading silly dailymail narrative that’s attempting so hard to actually prevent the necessary modernisation of humanity.
you charge EV with fossil fuels, you build them with fossil fuels.
Kristin Zimmerm (GM) was asked: So what is charging the batteries right now? what is the source of….? She answered: Well it comes from the building…”Lanse” [electrical co] infused power to the building, so I don’t know…I bet they are a bit of coal, heavy on natural gas, are they? 95% COAL, Peter Lark from Lansing board of water &light added. YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP!
https://fb.watch/nqY57Wr4AD/
You can’t make up how idiotic this comment looks.
If you were to suddenly replace every ICE car with EVs but still power them with coal and gas power plants, carbon emissions would plummet.
Why? because EVs at about 90% thermally effecient whereas gas cars are around 30%. To break that down for you, 30% of the energy produced by a gas engine is actual usable energy to propel the car, the rest is wasted heat and in turn emissions. This in turns means acording to the EPA, ICE cars for 2021 are on average 25.4MPG and 347g/mi of CO2. EVs? converting KWh to MPG would result in EVs on average having 100MPG and around 200g/mi of CO2 (this also accounts for the CO2s emitted during manufacturing and mining).
Do you understand why still being powered by coal/gas plants doesn’t matter here?
sources:
https://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Insights-into-Future-Mobility.pdf
https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-trends-report
Maybe, but the power grid would collapse after you replace about 10% of the cars. No thanks.
Why do people keep spreading this rumor? It doesn’t really have any kind of statistical basis. In the EU if suddenly. 80% of cars were EVs, grid demands would increase by about 10%
https://cdn.eurelectric.org/media/3558/decarbonisation-pathways-all-slideslinks-29112018-h-4484BB0C.pdf
Did the power grid collapse at the introduction of microwaves, thermally ineffecient bulbs, data centres, dishwashers etc etc. all sorts of various electrical products that have huge amperage demand and grids adapted just fine. What a silly argument
Repeatedly calling people idiots adds little to your argument. It does tell something about you.
I comment was idiotic, I’m not calling the person themselves an idiot. It’s telling when they make a comment without looking closely why it doesn’t really matter.
Though I guess it’s easier to comment on me saying it’s an idiotic comment rather than acknowledging what my actual comment was about.
It’s easy to adopt the mainstream ideas, wich are being pushed down our throats 24×7 that fossil fuels, livestock farming, meat eating are at fault, while completely closing our eyes and ears to the facts that electrical cars, horticulture, “green” sources of energy have if not equal, but close enough carbon footprint.
where be the adults?…..when these serious issues are only being highlighted by kids it make a mockery of a very serious issue
We can all do our part.
Thank you to these young advocates- well done!
Celebrate World Habitat Day and be a part of the solution: https://fb.watch/nqSoiVN5fM/
After missing numerous previous deadlines with regard to the dump remediation deal, two months ago, Wayne Panton promised that the dump remediation deal would be finalized by 30 September. It is now 2nd October and there is radio silence in this regard…again…
I suppose we will hear in a few days that the deadline has been deferred yet again on account of “the complexities to ensure the public gets value for money”.
The more likely explanation – is that the government is not able to focus on any of their responsibilities and promises because they are so busy dealing with their own internal agendas and dysfunction.
Please start putting the public fist and be better CIG.
There is an environmental disaster happening each and every day at the dump, why isn’t fixing that the priority for any environmentalist in Cayman?
Every individual can make wise decisions to reduce consumption and the use of plastic. But fixing our energy issue and freeing us from a monopoly is where the regulators need to be accountable.
The dump issue should be the singular focus of environmentalist in Cayman. Get that addressed and then progress to the next. Get consensus from the people on the next priority and address that. It’s simple enough if you can resist the popular causes pushed on big social media platforms.
Direct all the rage at the PPM and PACT, including every hand that was recently raised in Parliament for conflict with CUC. This is not consumer-side indifference, it’s an agreed stonewalling of energy transition by those profiting from the status quo.
#theyaresupported
#isshethough?
Thank you to the young people. You are the ones who are going to make a difference.
Only if they think for themselves. Education is about teaching people to think independently, not follow social media vox populi or government narratives. How many of these kids can cite academic papers? There is still much division on the severity of climate change and just how much influence we can have. One scientific piece of evidence is largely being ignored and very easy to correct with no downside. Save and plant more mangroves. They can absorb more CO2 than most plants. Fossil fuels will be with us for some time to come, like it or not.
An extremely important point. There remains much concern about how solar panels are made (fossil fuels being required) and their disposal – they cannot be recycled.
So include a levy for safe disposal at the outset. This doesn’t have to be a battle.
Making solar an even less attractive option.
https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-dark-side-of-solar-power
…by the fossil fuel lobby
Solar panels and their componentry are recyclable. It’s just currently expensive to do so. As we continue to problem solve and innovate in this area, those costs will drop.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/08/19/1032215/solar-panels-recycling/
Not here in Cayman they ain’t! Your solar panels are going to the landfill.