This topic contains 9 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
Culture Shock With apparently ever-increasing globalisation most of us have an expectation that we can travel to other Western countries and find faci
[See the full post at: How Far Behind is the US in General, and Disney in Particular?]We had a similar experience some years ago. Our son was working in Nashville and his daughter attended the local school and almost all the children were delivered to and collected from school in massive SUV’s and RV’s etc, plus the famous yellow school buses, all mostly diesel, engines running with aircons blasting away, forming long lines (queues) as they waited. Our son lived close to to the school so our granddaughter and other local children were able to walk to school, but had to “run the gauntlet” of all the fumes and noise from the vehicles.
I guess things haven’t changed much although EV ownership is increasing I understand.I think that you can put this down to the influence in government of big oil in the USA and to a lesser extent of big coal in Australia.
Our relatives in oz are amazed at the extremely slow uptake of renewable energy production in one of the most sun drenched countries on the planet and that a large portion of the nations electricity is produced in coal fired power stations!
just imagine if Australia left the coal in the ground and turned a minute section of the infinite outback to solar power generation?
The Aussies could supply the domestic market with cheap electricity ten times over and keep the lights burning in most of south east Asia!
And yes my expat Brummie sister in-law’s house is about the only house to have solar panels on the roof in her Adelaide street.
Correct me if I am wrong but It is interesting to note that the USA and Australia are the only two nations on the
planet that decided not to ratify the Kyoto agreement, I wonder why and one can only hope that things change 😉It seems like many Americans still think, for whatever reason, that using less will impact their way of life in a negative way. And it seems almost impossible to have them understand that there are ways to not be wasteful and still lead the same life.
I too have always been amazed at the amount of waste going on over there. They just do things way less efficient without better results.
When I go there, I usually go shopping at Whole Foods as they are slightly greener and sell mostly (not only) organic. You still have to pay attention though as they do carry some products that don’t fit their image.
They also have a salad bar with a large variety of options (not only salads but also prepared pastas and stuff) so for a quick bite with good vegetarian options we went there regularly.As for places to eat, as vegetarians we usually stuck to Italian and Indian restaurants as the American ones seem to find ways to include meat in EVERYTHING, including blueberry muffins and ice cream. Ugh.
We once went to the Waffle House as we where doing a long drive and there where no other options in the small town we passed by. They had 3 non meat containing waffles on the menu, most items on the menu where burgers and steak. Weird, for something called the Waffle House, no?Anyway, fascinating country, love to travel there, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
Thanks for the comments, guys! If you want to add a comment to the original article (it looks like no-one’s prepared to be first!) it’s here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-far-behind-us-general-disney-particular-dr-trevor-larkum
That might start an interesting discussion.
Good article, if a little long,I live in the Kingdom of Mourne, S.Down, beautiful clean air, rolling hills, red kites,etc Why won’t the TransLink bus company ask their drivers to switch off the massive diesel while they sit for ages in the depot?
On a more serious note relating to th American experience, Bing sings, but Walt Disney. (Sorry Trevor)I did the same Disney trip this year in July, also staying in Davenport. Was your Appebees the same one next to IHOP, near to Publix in Davenport?
We had a great time there for the whole two weeks, but could not help noticing, just like yourself, the lack of renewables there. Our villa was the same as yours, everything on 24/7. With so much sun there you would expect to see solar panels on every roof.
My observations were that the reason they have not taken off is because energy is so cheap there in comparison. My medium sized hire car (large by UK standards) cost me $17 to fill. I think the Americans get and expect to get cheap energy, and as long as that happens they will not bother to look at cost saving renewables.
All the same, Disney and Orlando was a wickedly great place!Good article, if a little long,
Fair enough – I just felt I had to get it off my chest!
Was your Appebees the same one next to IHOP, near to Publix in Davenport?
Actually it was – did you have a better experience there?
Yes, we used that Applebees about four times and found the food really good each time, although one of the evenings we hit it at busy time and had to wait about half an hour.
As for the IHOP we had 13 out of 14 of our breakfasts there and got on first name terms with the staff. Thankfully due to the heat and exercise i am not about four stone heavier, in fact lost two pounds whilst i was there…….still not able to work that one out.
Great article, it took my mind back to our trip whilst reading itPerhaps the US, made a little mistake halving the mains voltage, hence doubling the current, and using twice the amount of copper? I noticed on several visits the appearance of 230v sockets for high inductive loads.Not to mention 60 hz.Anyone seen Nikola Tesla?
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.