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Featured UKs Daily Mail peddles half truths to knock green motoring

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by GT4Prius, Nov 10, 2017.

  1. GT4Prius

    GT4Prius Active Member

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    Ok it's the Daily Mail so we don't expect them to let the truth get in the way of a good story.

    See below.

    Here are a few reasons why this is not right. I am sure there are many more.

    1. The M.I.T. study is based on U.S. power generation, and climate the vehicles on that basis. This may be true in the U.S. but not necessarily elsewhere. But it is a politically decided fact about electricity supply rather than an inevitable fact about electric cars. The same newspaper campaigns for low electricity prices and against wind farms!
    2. The Mail article says that 51% of the energy generated in the UK and used to power an electric car is from fossil fuels such as coal and gas. This figure is about right in terms of current uk electricity generation mix nationally, but it is not at all true to say that this is necessarily the mix that goes into every electric car. For example, most of the car charging points that I see at motorway service stations are run by Ecotricity, which is a company with an energy mix which is 100% renewable. People, like me, who have PHEVs probably only change their car at home. At least, that it's true for me. So I choose which energy supplier to buy my electricity from according to their energy mix. In my case the majority of my supply comes from low cabin sources. So far as coal is concerned, the fossil fuel mentioned in the Mail's headline, government figures say this:
    "Of electricity generated in 2016, gas accounted for 42.4 per cent (an increase of 13 percentage points on 2015) and coal accounted for 9.1 per cent (a decrease of 13 percentage points on 2015)."
    3. To say that particulate emissions from electric cars are just as bad as any others in terms of tyre and brake dust is also false. Big electric cars may produce more tyre dust than smaller petrol cars, although this must vary sufficiently according to how they are driven, but not brake dust or clutch dust. Hybrids and electric cars use regenerative braking so the use of their friction brakes and the wear on their friction brake surfaces is much less. So there is much less particulate emission from that source. And fully electric cars and prius hybrids have no clutches either.


    Guy Walters: Electric cars are not as green as you think | Daily Mail Online

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  2. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Isn't that the entire point of The Daily Mail? I don't think it has ever been held in high regard for factual reporting. They are the Fox news of UK print media.
     
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  3. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    The big issue choking EU/UK is smog/NOx/particulates in cities and the big issue causing that is diesels.
    EV's in cities (as well as ultra low emission gaso hybrid Prii) will be better there, no doubt.
    This is what the article fails to convey.

    Now if/when you start to say EV is better for climate change/CO2, or has better life cycle analysis, then I think you do start to get on a little shakier ground, that the article is pointing out, but that's a "red herring" because diesel smog/NOx/particulates is the issue (if I understand the EU/UK situation).
     
    #3 wjtracy, Nov 10, 2017
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2017
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  4. pilotgrrl

    pilotgrrl Senior Member

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    I've heard that particular tabloid called "the Daily Fail" for its quality journalism.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
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  5. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    About 10 years ago, the Sunday Mail wrote about Sudbury nickel mining destroying the region only they cited 1972 photos and data. Lightning strikes twice at the same press only this time they didn't cite a City that would sue them for slander. Regardless, I added this comment:

    "Cleaner Cars from Cradle to Grave" Rachael Nealer, David Reichmuth, Don Anair, Union of Concerned Scientist, November 2015, pp. 3. "Under the average U.S. electricity grid mix, we found that producing a midsize, midrange (84 miles per charge) BEV typically adds a little over 1 ton of emissions to the total manufacturing emissions, resulting in 15 percent greater emissions than in manufacturing a similar gasoline vehicle. However, replacing gasoline use with electricity reduces overall emissions by 51 percent over the life of the car. A full-size long-range (265 miles per charge) BEV, with its larger battery, adds about six tons of emissions, which increases manufacturing emissions by 68 percent over the gasoline version. But this electric vehicle results in 53 percent lower overall emissions compared with a similar gasoline vehicle (see Figure ES-2)." Bob Wilson, Huntsville, AL

    Bob Wilson
     
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  6. Data Daedalus

    Data Daedalus Senior Member

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    Also known as “The Daily Fail”.....


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  7. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Another criticism of the Daily Mail article:


    Bob Wilson
     
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  8. GT4Prius

    GT4Prius Active Member

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    Kudos Bob. This video says it all. Deserves a LOT more than 2 liked IMHO.

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  9. Bill the Engineer

    Bill the Engineer Senior Member

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    Is the Daily Mail owned by Rupert Murdoch? It sounds like the Fox News of the UK.
     
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  10. GT4Prius

    GT4Prius Active Member

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    No it's not owned by Murdoch, see below.

    Sadly in the UK we have a number of "newspapers" which are of this type.

    Daily Mail - Wikipedia

    In a "Reith Lecture" (Reith Lectures - Wikipedia) a while ago about accountability, Philosopher Onora O'Neil made the point that freedom of speech for "news" sources should not include the freedom to misinformed and lie to us.

    It's one thing to have a political bias and agenda, but quite another to deliberately lie, misquote sources and misinform. Although there are perhaps lots of shades in between.

    Newpaper regulation is a hot topic in the UK. You can understand, given this attitude towards the truth, that these sorts of newspapers would find their style very cramped by anything that held them to any kind of truthfulness. In fact most of the UK newspapers seem to object to the idea that there should be regulation to ensure that people who are injured by false reporting can get proper redress.

    Ironic, since individual freedom of speech is increasingly restricted by law in this country, and people find themselves being prosecuted or sacked from their jobs because they say things that the state, or a certain influential political concensus, dislikes.

    For example:

    Felix Ngole: My court case proves Christian beliefs are being censored by our government


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  11. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    We have "supermarket tabloids" which are sold on the checkout lines at grocery stores. They cover the latest news about space aliens, bat boy, and impending deaths of famous people. In 1974, I was in the Marine Corps and our lady Gunnery Sergeant would bring her's in. We kept telling her it was a terrible paper but she would say,'No, they have good articles.'

    One day, it was on the desk and I idly thumbed through it. The Gunny and Staff Sergeant were talking about something and noticed what I was doing. So I stopped, stood back, and pointed to it in an anxious voice,"Hey Gunny, here's an article that blind man can't see."

    She and the Staff Sergeant came over to see the article about 'a blind man can't see' and I instantly regretted the joke. They laughed a little and about an hour later, I got the assignment that was the equivalent of 'cutting grass with scissors.'

    The main content of these tabloids are advertising for 'health food' and all sorts of dubious, over priced, products. They are just another scam designed to separate the foolish from their money.

    Bob Wilson
     
  12. RCO

    RCO Senior Member

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    You have to give some of us more time to get through all the postings. FHoP is towards the end of my list! ;)
     
  13. PaulDM

    PaulDM Active Member

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    More like a supermarket tabloid
     
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  14. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    enquirer?
     
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  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i threw one in for good measure
     
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  16. Data Daedalus

    Data Daedalus Senior Member

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    Popularly known as “The Gutter Press” in the UK. I’ve been known to peruse it online - purely for the comments section - mildly amusing occasionally (and often a good measure of how irretrievably “stoopid” so many humans are in the 21st century), otherwise it’s one of the worst, mildly toxic news rags in the UK.....I’m not sure if they have proper journalists or a large room filled with a thousand gibbering monkeys and typewriters bashing away............. the dire mediocre quality of some of their articles is something to behold.

    The worst bit is when they gratuitously slaughter a technology article they’ve written; with such inconsistencies, mistakes and spelling errors (never mind butchered technology facts), that you wonder why the journalist couldn’t simply double check his facts on YouTube.

    p.s. The comments section of this online news rag is an unfiltered magnet for inbred mindless trolls - any article about EVs or The Prius is met with the most repugnant form of pure hatred and astounding levels of deeply ingrained illiteracy.


    iPad mini 4 ? Pro
     
  17. PaulDM

    PaulDM Active Member

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    I can’t really see how that post actually contributes