Be prepared for change

As the election is all but over and clearly out of our hands, I thought I change the subject today. Nevertheless, it’s a clever title prepare for change

? On Election Day eh!!!

Listening to a recent political panel discuss the issue of phasing out oil. It seemed they could only see it happening over a very long period. It would be quite impossible to imaging it occurring in a matter of months or years. They argued the population is addicted to oil, for their cars, heating their homes, and in many cases their jobs. When I look back on the twentieth century and consider the many advancements through those times it makes me wonder. Change can often happen when we least expect it. In the 1900s the average working people had never seen a camera, radio, telephone, record player, automobile or even electric lights. At the end of  Second World War television became the largest technical advancement in our homes. My father purchase a black and white with a nine inch screen with outside aerial.  We had one commercial free BBC channel that broadcast from 4pm to 11pm. By the 1960s we had transistor radios that would fit in our pockets and man had walked on the moon. So let’s take a moment to look at 2019 and all the amazing advancements. Autonomous cars, 60 inch flat screen vivid colour TVs . Satellites, space travel, selfies, cell phones, blue tooth,  ATMs, credit cards making cash all but extinct! Now let’s return to the 1900s for a moment. In Belfast transportation was horse drawn. The city had thousands of horses, including a huge work force of men and boys. Hundreds worked in the stables, drivers, grooms, vets, farriers, cleaners, labourers and trace boys. Of course these workers could see change was coming and their jobs would soon disappear.  Indeed they disappeared over night when the tram lines were electrified. You may argue going from horse to electric is not the same as phasing out our dependence on oil. However, if suddenly there is a huge advancement in electric vehicles or perhaps another new source of clean energy. Then anything is possible, maybe the oil industry like the horses that went before them should be prepared for change. Just my thoughts of having lived through many of those changes, but of course, not the horse drawn trams! God Bless and keep reading, while I check my on heat pump.