Motorbikes and the Dordogne

Global warming and the environment

Jude, my wife, is planning a horse riding holiday to Canada with her sister Lib. This will involve a flight from London to Calgary. One of her concerns was the CO2 that the aircraft will pump into the atmosphere for the trip.

When you consider that aircraft CO2 is a small percentage of the total CO2 output of mankind, her trip is insignificant. In the UK there are many military aircraft that take off from and airfield, fly around for an hour or two and return to the same airfield, they burn up to 5 tons of fuel doing it.

Then there is the Tony Blair trip around the world that is happening at this very moment. He is not going anywhere for any other reason than to inflate his self importance. When he gets back he will jump into his polluting government car and drive around the country telling the UK population how they must cut greenhouse gasses. Do any politicians in the UK drive economical cars?

I would suggest that, if global warming is the issue that the UK government tells us it is then they should stop charging 17.5% tax on things like loft insulation. It could be that the global warming debate in the UK is just a way of taxing the residents and having an excuse to do so, they need the tax to fund the wars that they seem to get involved with. One thing that is a popular way of banging on about this subject is to damn 4X4s, especially those on the school run. I must point out that at 43 mpg, my 4X4 is less polluting than a 2 litre Ford Mondeo petrol! If the school runs are the problem then re-introduce the free school buses that the government got rid of.

The latest craze is to limit rubbish collections to once every 2 weeks, is that for any other reason than to save money? How many people will drive their cars to the local council tip, which could be 10 miles away, to dispose of the surplus? This will only add to CO2 outputs, but remember, it burns more fuel and earns more tax.

posted by madman @ 1:57 pm