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Could this be what we’ve been waiting for?
The UK has recently been gripped by fuel shortages encouraging many to seriously consider changing to using electric vehicles. Could this be just what the marketplace needed?
Anyone living in the UK won't need me to tell you that there is currently a fuel shortage at many petrol filling stations. The news of this Brexit induced nightmare hasn't escaped the media's attention in other parts of the world. Pictures of long queues of cars with owners desperate to buy fuel, fights breaking out on filling station forecourts, and members of the armed forces being drafted in the drive tankers have made the UK a worldwide laughingstock.
To be fair, there is a shortage of qualified HGV drivers across Europe; it is just that the UK government has seen fit to take the country out of the EU, thus making the country far less of an ideal employment prospect for any driver considering working here. A number of drivers have mentioned the poor rates of pay and a lack of facilities offered to drivers in the UK as additional reasons for considering alternative places to work.
But what the current mayhem has resulted in is a significant upsurge in the number of people considering a change to an electric car. The media in the UK recently reported a huge increase in enquiries for Ev's, not surprising as some fuel retailers have been found to be profiteering from the shortage and raising the already high cost of fuel in the UK.
Until now, the unconvinced UK motorists have trotted out the usual arguments of 'a lack of charging infrastructure' and 'range anxiety' as significant factors in their reluctance to change. Forget about the climate emergency, which is likely to be far more catastrophic than any Covid virus. As long as I can continue to burn dinosaur juice, I'm happy! But now that the supply of the aforementioned fermented dinosaur has been curtailed, many would seem to be seriously considering a change.
As someone who has been concerned about the impact we are having on the environment and the need to do something about it quickly, I hope the current situation will see many more conversions. I also hope that the UK government also looks to address the need to generate more green energy, something they will undoubtedly talk about at length at the forthcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow. Sadly, given this government's track record I fear Greta Thunberg’s prediction that it is all going to be blah, blah, blah will come true.
It would seem that we in the UK always need something else to focus our attention on, the blatantly obvious, at least when it comes to whoever is currently in government. Suddenly attention has been turned on the need for the country to be more energy secure. With wholesale energy costs across Europe skyrocketing, in some cases to levels that will see consumers unable to pay their bills, the need for sustainable and reasonably priced electricity has suddenly become urgent.
So maybe the shortage of fuel will prompt those who can afford to do so to convert to electric vehicles, and perhaps the unaffordable cost of electricity and gas will encourage the construction of more low carbon local alternatives. It is just a shame that the same momentum that these issues are currently enjoying didn't come from the more serious problem, the need to address climate change. But if the destination is where we want to be, maybe we shouldn't question the route we took to get here?
Anyone living in the UK won't need me to tell you that there is currently a fuel shortage at many petrol filling stations. The news of this Brexit induced nightmare hasn't escaped the media's attention in other parts of the world. Pictures of long queues of cars with owners desperate to buy fuel, fights breaking out on filling station forecourts, and members of the armed forces being drafted in the drive tankers have made the UK a worldwide laughingstock.
To be fair, there is a shortage of qualified HGV drivers across Europe; it is just that the UK government has seen fit to take the country out of the EU, thus making the country far less of an ideal employment prospect for any driver considering working here. A number of drivers have mentioned the poor rates of pay and a lack of facilities offered to drivers in the UK as additional reasons for considering alternative places to work.
But what the current mayhem has resulted in is a significant upsurge in the number of people considering a change to an electric car. The media in the UK recently reported a huge increase in enquiries for Ev's, not surprising as some fuel retailers have been found to be profiteering from the shortage and raising the already high cost of fuel in the UK.
Until now, the unconvinced UK motorists have trotted out the usual arguments of 'a lack of charging infrastructure' and 'range anxiety' as significant factors in their reluctance to change. Forget about the climate emergency, which is likely to be far more catastrophic than any Covid virus. As long as I can continue to burn dinosaur juice, I'm happy! But now that the supply of the aforementioned fermented dinosaur has been curtailed, many would seem to be seriously considering a change.
As someone who has been concerned about the impact we are having on the environment and the need to do something about it quickly, I hope the current situation will see many more conversions. I also hope that the UK government also looks to address the need to generate more green energy, something they will undoubtedly talk about at length at the forthcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow. Sadly, given this government's track record I fear Greta Thunberg’s prediction that it is all going to be blah, blah, blah will come true.
It would seem that we in the UK always need something else to focus our attention on, the blatantly obvious, at least when it comes to whoever is currently in government. Suddenly attention has been turned on the need for the country to be more energy secure. With wholesale energy costs across Europe skyrocketing, in some cases to levels that will see consumers unable to pay their bills, the need for sustainable and reasonably priced electricity has suddenly become urgent.
So maybe the shortage of fuel will prompt those who can afford to do so to convert to electric vehicles, and perhaps the unaffordable cost of electricity and gas will encourage the construction of more low carbon local alternatives. It is just a shame that the same momentum that these issues are currently enjoying didn't come from the more serious problem, the need to address climate change. But if the destination is where we want to be, maybe we shouldn't question the route we took to get here?