Lindsay Wood ponders the merits of taking an occasional refresher from the pros.

I’ve rarely been in the cab of a big rig, let alone driven one, so I can only imagine what it’s like to be in charge of such mighty machinery, day in and day out. However, I received some insights over the summer, as I covered almost the country’s length in my campervan. And in the process, I enjoyed the benefit and pleasure of following long-haul trucks.

With the Desert Road closed, I took a major detour through Taranaki and, for over 100km, trailed comfortably back from a curtainsider as it wound its way north from New Plymouth. I was struck by how smoothly the driver maintained speed and by their precision in narrow spots.

I repeated the exercise several times, following far enough back not to pressure the trucker and leave room for others to pass. And in the process, I developed even more respect for those in control of the long-haul fleet while saving myself stress, fuel and quite possibly a little time.

How great it would be if there were an easy way for all of us amateurs to get regular refreshers from the pros. It would make us better and safer drivers and likely improve fuel economy and lower emissions to boot.

In a very different field, Hannah Ritchie is a pro at analysing data and produces Sustainability by Numbers and Our World in Data. We could do worse than take a refresher from her, too.

Her latest is analysing the UK’s seventh carbon budget, and right there is lesson one: New Zealand is way behind, starting a decade late and just issuing our second. It shows in the results, too, with the UK halving its emissions since 1990 while ours have increased alarmingly by bout 25%.

And if we look at methane, the UK has already cut about 62% of its agricultural emissions since 1990, while Aotearoa’s have increased by 12%. Even worse, official policy just looks for “no additional warming” (ie, no real methane reduction). With methane at 43% of all our emissions, it’s like our government thinks we’re playing a game, not dealing with a life-or-death crisis.

But perhaps the most striking of Ritchie’s insights is on energy, including an amazing comparison of the entire UK energy system now and, potentially, in 2050. With clever charts (above) she shows how the UK currently loses over half of its energy to waste (orange). However, with the dramatically higher efficiency of electrification over fossil fuels, that halves by 2050, bringing the potential to do 10% more work with 33% less energy. Add in greatly increased renewables (blue) and that also means greatly reduced emissions.

Ritchie is jaundiced about hydrogen (sound familiar?). Under the heading ‘Hydrogen cars and heating are dead’, she writes: “We see no role for hydrogen in buildings heating and only a very niche, if any, role in surface transport.”

It’s time our amateur drivers learned from the pros and time our government stopped playing games with our future.