Tuesday, January 23, 2007

What are environmentalists for?

What is the point of these so-called environmentalists? Just what good do they do and what sense do they convey?
It was reported on TV last night that part of the M1 South of Sheffield is to be made into 4 lanes to ease congestion. There will apparently be no great swathes of land going under tarmac.
'Win-win' do I hear you say?
Sadly not so for leading enviromentalist Julie White who declares that this will "cause more exhaust emissions."
Please dear reader, stop and ask yourself just how? Indubitably, we shall have the same traffic as before, moving more steadily, thereby emitting the minimum amounts of fumes. At present we have this motorway with traffic congested, emitting the maximum amount of fumes.
"But new roads create more traffic" is the plaintive and deeply-flawed argument used by car-haters.
Okay. So just who is going to go out and buy a private car because one road moves more freely? Which firm will buy more vans or lorries? Just how many extra people will shun public transport to use their own vehicle on an M1 journey?
Similar claims of 'increased traffic' are used when by-passes are built. Have these people not heard of 'displacement'?
It is about time we recognised that the only way to cut emissions is to have better traffic flow and reduced journey times.
This nation has fewer motorway miles per 1,000 cars than any nation in W. Europe!

LINK: http://www.shrubwalkers.com/prose/list/not.html

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