 |
| The author in front of one of the electric Volvos that will be pulling a car trailer between Cato Ridge and Durban harbour, June 2023. |
This started out as a quick report on the first electric Volvo lorries to work in South Africa. But with more corporates than ever now using fake news of and false narratives about climate change to tax the public, it turned into a a bit of a diatribe against the Net Zeroists.
Sorry about that, but someone has to speak facts to the kakistrocats with whom the WEF has replaced the burocrats in governments around the world.
So now I'll tell the story how once upon a time, a really, really long time ago, carbon was not seen as an enemy of life. Here's hoping the story will lift the wool from the eyes of all "Net Zero" touters.
First of these is the prolific YouTuber, Sam Evans, aka "The Electric Viking", whose channel I am a happy subscriber to. Like me, Mr Evans just luurves isself a 'lectric drivetrain. And as we all do, he also admires Tony Seba's musings on all kinds of future abundances, from food thanks to precision fermentation, to energy so cheap, it will basically be free. You can listen to more on that in the video below.
However, to Sam's mindlessly touting the idjeet's line that we must all use less carbon, I had to reply, which reply ended thus: "We ignore that carbon in Earth's atmosphere was at 180 ppm when our emissions started feeding the starving-for-carbon plants and polyps, so that our satellites can now show growing green areas in dry places like Oz; and diverse divers report the Great Barrier Reef is expanding. In short, love them 'lectric drivetrains for the thrill of instant torque and the savings from fewer moving parts to the factor of 100; and preach Seba's prophecy of decentralised energy on demand. But regardless of all that, if we want tropical climes to return around the globe, we need to "Burn baby, burn!"
For the whys and wherefores of my exortation to burn it, check out Dr Moore's treatise: "The Positive Impact of Human CO2 Emissions On The Survival Of Life On Earth".
The second interruption to what should have been a quick electric lorrie report came in the form of a week-long barrage on all media platforms from carbon abolitionists with their "Net Zero" campaigns. They were almost as tiresome and loud as that rainbow-waving lot who all seem to tie-dye their hair at the same tattoo parlour.
Spend your pride here
So I decided to do the right thing and arm my family and friends (which includes you, dear reader) against this barrage from well-meaning "deluds"* with the chart below.
It shows we can and should enjoy with pride our braais, fireplaces, V6 engines and especially cement kilns, knowing that we are doing our bit to release gazillions of poor little carbon molecules that have been trapped for millions of years, so that they can go back to helping Mother Nature grow positively refulgent again, as she was during the explosion of life that was the Precambrian Era, when CO2, you'll note below, was over 10,000 ppm.
 |
| The green line shows a 600-million year decline of CO2 levels, which are shown in the purple line. The tiny uptick of the purple line at the far right came just in time to save plants, and hence all life, from carbon starvation. This uptick is said to be mostly due to burning of fossil fuels, which helped to rapidly push CO2 levels to some 400 ppm. This is A GOOD THING, for the CO2 level is still far lower than it has been during most of this 600 million history and we need much more CO2 to feed the many more plants that must grow to help change the climate back to a global tropical zone. (Chart Source: “Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core.” Nature 429, 2004) |
This cherry that broke the back of my irritation cake was when KDG Logistics exec, AK Kamdar, touted a Nasa chart, which focuses on only the last 800K years of above chart (the last bit in the red circle) to explain why he ordered the first electric Volvo trucks to work in South Africa.
AK also said the electric drivetrains "can take the fright out of freight", but his highly intelligent brand of cognitive dissonance freights the fright into my cogs. AK told the assembled media how proud he was that these new electric lorries would not spout carbon as do their Volvo trucks, each of which he said belches out about a ton of CO2 per trip between Jhb and Durban, despite Volvo's famous frugality with fuel.
Afterwards, I told AK while I respect his decision to go electric for the (claimed) lower running costs from electric drivetrains having up to 100 times fewer components than those of internal combustion engines, as well as the sheer (proven) thrill of riding high on heaps of instant torque, I could but only disagree on sending out a ton less CO2 per lorrie into the atmosphere.
For as a grower of fine flowers, I am concerned about the lack of food in the air for my plants. Because after listening to all the "fluff stuff", as AK called the PR bits in his speech, one thing is for sure: We definitely do not want to go back to the carbon-poor world described by J.K. Ward, et al, in their 2005 study, “Carbon starvation in glacial trees recovered from the La Brea tar pits, southern California”.
 |
| The first all electric Volvo lorries in South Africa will mostly run the 100-km round trip between the vehicle depot at Cato Ridge and the RoRo ships at Durban harbour. |
Save the puppies and the slime moulds
Now don't get me wrong. I am all for 'lektrics. I had turned a little Daewoo Matiz into the world's first all-wheel drive hybrid just to prove how easy it is and commuted to work on the first electric scooter in my city (using 100% recyclable lead batteries). For electric drivetrains are really, really lekker, especially the solar powered ones, during that all-too-brief slice of time when the batteries hold a charge.
 |
| Just imagine. |
But do not buy electric drivetrains with the aim to reduce emissions. I'll explain why, using simple words in the style of a Baptist preacher:
1. I say to you we NUHEEED to get more carbons, aaaymen!
2. I say to you we NUHEEED those carbons to GUHROOOW the plants, aaaymen!
3. Because on this Earth, all life -- not a bit of life!, not some life!, but AUULLLLL LIFE!, are carbon based, from bacteria to puppies to slime moulds to fungi to you! Hallulujah!
This preaching is a basic biological fact which I humbly proposed that AK, who is a great guy and a deep philosopher to boot, should consider when he next revises his book, "Road Freight Sustainability 4.0, Reducing CO2 emissons while improving profit".
For as I told The Electric Viking, we must "Burn baby, burn!" if we want to extend with enough plants to end this uncertain (but certain to end) interglacial period we are lucky enough to live in. Although maybe not quite as enthusiastically as allegedly nefarious powers who reportedly benefit from climate change scares, are accused to have done in Canada this week.
 |
| Photo credit: Becker News. |
The real first electric truck in SA
Now, back to my electric lorrie report. While Volvo never claimed so, many at the handover function assumed these were the first electric trucks in electricless "Sufferika".
That title goes to a MAN truck that was used to test an electric truck drivetrain, the components of which ended up in the Rooikat electric gun, as far back as the mid-1980s. Nor is Volvo first in the light electric truck category, as a local energy company has been testing 8-ton Chinese electric trucks in South Africa since 2021.
These handsome e-lorries are, however, the first Volvo electric trucks to operate in South Africa. And let the record show, the Swedes have long been delivering what Tesla just keeps promising, even if Volvo only manages to sell their pioneering trucks at undisclosed (but presumably heavily subsidised) prices.
Deluds: Collective noun. Referring to a group of otherwise quite intelligent people who are proudly, even fiercely, deluded on some topic. They quaffed all the Cool-Aid, then chewed and swallowed the pamphlets. And they spend a lot of money to do so. They are ALL IN. You will never take them alive!
