Jim's Quality of Life OnLine

This comment was written by Jim on 24 December 2008 – 6 days prior to his passing.

The twinkling "diamond" lights on the tree outside my home in Brighton are solar powered.

The solar panel for these lights is about the size of two match boxes and sits on the fence facing the sun. When it is a sunny day, the lights will shine at night for about 8 hours. If it is a cloudy day, they may only shine for about 2 hours.

The string of lights is light sensitive. It automatically turns on the lights at dusk and turns them off again automatically at sunrise.

The lights require no electrical connection and appear to come to no harm out in the weather.

In these days of climate change electricity restrictions, is this the way many of our Christmas night displays should be going?

Cheers,

Jim Vickers-Willis
Visit Jim's website at www.vickers-willis.com

We can have valuable employment growth in meeting the needs of climate change - if our political leaders will just start making the right decisions.

The all-electric car produced by Ross Blade, at Blade Electrical Vehicles in Castlemaine, is ready to be produced in great numbers. 18 have been sold locally and one man I have spoken to, Allan Gray, the Editor of Earth Garden magazine, tells me he drives his Electron (yes that's the name) into his garage every night, plugs it into the wall socket and charges it up off solar panels on the roof of his garage.

Already Blade Electric Engines is receiving overseas orders - one quite substantial. Ross Blade said yesterday; "we have a high class product. We need - and I believe deserve - every possible help from our Government. After all, Australia can be a leader in electric cars which are badly needed. For Australia, it has the potential of an employment bonanza."

Isn't this an area where we need the best possible Government support - particularly financial support to aid research and development and marketing - to bring the cost of electric cars down below those of the standard petrol vehicle.

Yours faithfully,



Jim Vickers-Willis
CEO

You are invited to visit our web site at:
www.vickers-willis.com

Having watched a demonstration, and heard a talk by Mr. Ross Blade about his all- electric car (no petrol at all), we wish to urge that promotion and production of this car in Australia be given urgent consideration by the Federal Government.

Mr. Blade told how a Melbourne man, Mr. Alan Gray, drives his car into his garage each night, plugs it into the wall and then it is re-charged from the solar panels on the roof of his garage. Sometimes he tops it up with "green" electric power. He says that on average it costs him ninety-seven cents per 100km of driving. Maintenance is also cheaper than a normal petrol driven car because the electric motor has fewer moving parts.

We wish to ask, what is the reason why research and development of these cars is not being promoted by our Federal Government? Although at present, because of small numbers, they are more expensive, when all things are equal the electric car should finish up cheaper than the petrol car because an electric motor is cheaper. Mr. Blade said that so far he has sold fourteen of these all-electric vehicles and he has had to fund the entire development from his own private resources. There has not been any Federal Government assistance or incentives whatsoever. With help, we feel there is a great opportunity to establish a valuable Australian industry - and at the same time be a big help to the environment, because these cars have zero emissions.

Could we expect a positive attitude from our Federal Government leaders - to help Australia be upfront in the exciting and necessary development and use of all-electric cars?

Yours faithfully,


Jim Vickers-Willis
C.E.O
Plus (attached) 16 additional signatures to this letter.

Is it "moral" to promote future misery for multi millions of people? Should the world's major religions be promoting the distribution of contraceptives and promoting comprehensive sex education? With the present-day world population over six and a half billion - and with millions starving to death - we have already passed our sustainable limits for both our major food energy sources, grains and fish, as well as very quickly reaching our fresh water limits.

As a matter of urgency, do the well-meaning people at present opposing such things as abortion, contraception, RU486 - for moral reasons - need to rethink this matter?

The anti-abortion lobby groups also have allowed themselves to be used politically - and this has resulted in helping to return governments which, far from being pro-life, have actually turned out to be pro-war.

We hear about climate change but our real world problem is population.

A hundred years ago there was no talk or worry about climate change. As the population of the world grew bigger and bigger, we had the Industrial Age coping with the demand for more and more goods and services and food. Pollution! Now, as this demand increases further, we need more production to cope with the demands - creating more pollution and damage to the environment, leading to climate change.

Simultaneously we have the "lungs" of the world (the forests) being denuded to provide for the housing needs of more and more people.

Shouldn't we all urgently adopt the slogan 'populate and perish'?.

Jim Vickers-Willis,
Convenor "Quality of Life Online",
Author" The Magic of Life",

You are invited to visit our web site at:
www.vickers-willis.com