And I’m struck by the amazing variety of ways in which cars have ruined our lives.
Let’s abandon this disastrous experiment, recognise that this 19th-century technology is now doing more harm than good, and plan our way out of it. Let’s set a target to cut the use of cars by 90% over the next decade.
It’s a classic, isn’t it? George gets by just fine without a car – although as I recall he didn’t in rural Wales with a small kid – and therefore the rest of us should. Project much George?
Here you may see the Monster.
Witness the level of entitlement, arrogance and puffed up me, me ME-ism that the Almighty himself would disdain. On display from a jumped up middle class leftist eco-freak London Bubble turd.
Moonbat is worthy of display in a sideshow cage while ordinary decent people throw shite at him. This POS would have the Almighty as a junior partner–if he deigned to hire him at all.
The freak doesn’t like modern society. Time he and his evil eco-freak gang were put on an iron-age farm to–no wait–Iron is technology. Put the fuckers to hunting and gathering on some island somewhere and have cameras hidden to show what happens when middle class dickwads meet their beloved Mother Nature in the raw.
Nor is there anything too amusing here. Remember the fucking eco-freak bullshit is the Globos plan to impoverish ordinary people so they can’t fight back. Taking people’s cars by price boosting is what that twat Macron was about when it all went wrong for him.
Everybody get on Gab Dissenter so the Gladrag can’t do anymore comment blocking.
I’m waiting for his piece on the environmental impact of the cancer drugs that are saving his life.
The freedom the car offers to the masses is anathema to a snobby authoritarian like Moonbat.
Does he no longer live in rural Wales? Good news for Wales.
Ecksy, nice use of shite there.
George obviously had trouble hailing a cab recently…
‘Cars are killing us.’
How can someone be so dim? How can someone so dim get a job with the Guardian? A feature, not a bug?
‘wonder how many of the people sitting here might be ill as a result of air pollution.’
We fixed air pollution 40 years ago. Seems we wasted our money.
‘Pollution now kills three times as many people worldwide as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.’
Simply a lie. Steve Milloy, junkscience.com, has proven that pollution kills no one, not even in Chinese cities.
‘I step up to his window and ask him to turn the engine off.’
Try that in South Carolina, buddy.
‘Transport should be planned, but with entirely different aims: to maximise its social benefits, while minimising harm.’
The purpose of transport isn’t to get you from A to B, no, it’s for social benefits.
‘In this age of multiple emergencies – climate chaos, pollution, social alienation’
OH, MY!
All fabrications of the Left, and HE BELIEVES THEM! What a maroon. Western Civ has pretty much conquered our problems, so the Left must INVENT new ones with which to scare us into accepting communism.
“But for the great majority of journeys they can easily be substituted, as you can see in Amsterdam, Pontevedra and Copenhagen. We could almost eliminate them from our cities.”
There’s almost no difference between levels of congestion between Amsterdam and most British cities. Manchester and London score a lot higher.
https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/trafficindex/list?citySize=LARGE&continent=EU&country=ALL
But it’s also worth noting that there’s a large city effect in there. Copenhagen isn’t a major city. It’s like Bristol or Portsmouth.
Can’t really add to Mr Ecks here – the evil on display here is of a rare form. The undisguised contempt for individual freedom, the hatred of modernity- but for the Socialist aspects it reads like something from the 1800s…
I’m struck by the amazing variety of ways in which trains have ruined our lives.
Let’s abandon this disastrous experiment, recognise that this 19th-century technology is now doing more harm than good, and plan our way out of it. Let’s set a target to cut the use of trains by 90% over the next decade.
Electric cars went out of fashion fairly early on in automotive history.
I agree with Moonbat
Indeed, as an experiment lets do away with cars, vans and lorries entirely in one city as an experiment and see how we get on with pollution
Maybe London?
I’m still wating to find a job advert that doesn’t require transport to get to, usually insisting in having a car.
Just two days ago I had an interview for a job that would require either 40 minutes car journey or 60 minutes bus journey to get to. The alternative being the expense and disruption of moving house away from somewhere I’ve spent ten years saving up to move *to*.
@BoM4 – I work in Copenhagen, it’s congested as hell. And that’s despite the heavily subsidised public transport system that I use.
Interestingly, all the bikes in Copenhagen make the traffic congestion worse. At a junction with traffic lights, the bikes get green at the same time as the cars. the bikes pass down the inside of the cars so any that want to turn right have to wait for all the bikes to pass first. Then the lights are red again. It’s normal for only three cars to pass every time the lights are green.
BTW, Copenhagen has ca. 600k people, rather more than Bristol or Portsmouth.
Ooh – just seen that Bristol has ca. 550k people. My bad.
Good point, jgh. The Left assumes we all have the capital to handle their demanded changes.
“You vill drive an electric car.”
So, the value of my ICE vehicles drops to $0, a massive personal loss to me, and I have to pay tens of thousands for a POS electric vehicle.
Times 300 million people.
300000000 X $100000 = $30,000,000,000,000
30 trillion dollars we are going to spend on a Lefty fad.
“The freedom the car offers to the masses is anathema to a snobby authoritarian like Moonbat”
And the push towards electric cars – which will never offer the range and quick refuelling of petrol/diesel – will do much the same job, without the political risk of trying to ban personal transport altogether.
It’s normal for only three cars to pass every time the lights are green”
That happens in my part of the world, WITHOUT needing any bicycles to do it. Just a council determined to drive cars out of the city, by limiting “Green” time to as little as 10-15 seconds…
The 19th century technology is called “bicycle” and creates very little noise or pollution. Monbiot is obviously confused.
The history of the car is traced to the 18th century but almost all of its history and edevelopment took place in the 20th century.
Hmmm. Well, I’ve always liked horses and ride when I get the chance. I could possibly enjoy this societal regression. They do require a bit more care though. Have to be fed daily and not just once a week as I might fill my car, and there is their rather substantial crap to dispose. But my car has never trotted up to the fence hoping for a pat and a treat. I’ll have to give this some thought. On the other hand, I was thinking of taking a trip of a few hundred miles. I might need to allow a month rather than a week.
“recognise that this 19th-century technology is now doing more harm than good, ”
Soooo, he want to get rid of trains and buses also? Does he think animal drawn vehicles will be an improvement?
TD
With regard to houses, people often forget how draining they were on the available resources: approximately a third of the agricultural land in pre-mechanised days was required to grow feed for the working animals. We got all that back with the tractor and ICE.
“Houses”
grrrrrrr
Horses
Pingback: Moonbat Flies Again – Longrider
I have more time for Moonbat than for most of his fellow eco-nutters.
At least he is upfront about what he wants – no cars, no flying, no long distance travel of any kind, compulsory vegetarianism, energy rationing, etc.
Much more honest than the likes of Caroline Lucas, Ritchie, Colin Hines, Greenpeace, who support the same agenda but are rarely so explicit.
Will our jet packs in the future be polluting. He’ll want them banned before we get them !
“At least he is upfront about what he wants – no cars, no flying, no long distance travel of any kind, compulsory vegetarianism, energy rationing, etc”
And (presumably) none of the environmental damage involved in the production of newsprint, printing & distribution? Or the power guzzling (and by then heavily censored) internet? Looking on the bright side, at least we won’t be subjected to his rambling any more….
I agree with Moonbat
Indeed, as an experiment lets do away with cars, vans and lorries entirely in one city as an experiment and see how we get on with pollution
Maybe London?
I was running an away-day workshop with my team in central London on 7/7/05 when the bombs* went off. As a response all buses were taken off the roads and it was amazing how quiet (as in noise quiet) it was on the roads, even though there were still cars and lorries running. I hadn’t realised how much noise the buses made with their screeching brakes and constant engine revving as they stopped and started.
It was so pleasant that I decided to walk back from Leicester Square where we had dinner to Marylebone, even though there were plenty of taxis around.
The lack of noise will be one major benefit of going electric, I suppose.
*Bizarrely we only found out when the Aussie on the team received a text from his daughter in Sydney asking him he was OK. When he texted back a “?” should replied about the bombs and we put the news on.
One reasonable point in Moonbat’s whole article. Residential parking permits in urban areas are indeed underpriced.
I am not so dismissive of Monbiot as others on here. He’s
in favour of new nuclear power stations to produce electricity and he’s written interesting articles about the consequences of deforestation on subsequent flooding.Obviously banning all cars is an idea that is never going to fly, but his concerns about air quality /noise pollution ,streets ruled by cars to the detriment of children, and the abysmally low rate of cycling in the uk are not just issues that can be ignored forever (starting with a proposition that never going to be enacted was pretty dumb mind you) I see it more of a quality of life issue rather than a climate change issue. I live near a main road and the volume of traffic increases each year – in fact traffic only seems to cease at about 3 o’clock in the morning and starts up about 5 – so that’s 22hrs of constant traffic noise each day. Whilst i own a car i do most of my travel around town for shopping on my bicycle as the traffic and horrendous parking is just not worth it. If my various physical problems are playing up i use an electric bike.
The problems Monbiot explores can’t be ignored forever no matter how many insults people throw at him (and no doubt me)
“The lack of noise will be one major benefit of going electric, I suppose.”
Over 20 mph, they sound like any other car.
That’s OK, average traffic speeds in central London are around 7mph and 16mph in the rest, for most of the day.
Wonder how much cycling usage is correlated to landscape (flat plains vs hilly valleys) and climate (not much fun at -20c)
@ BiND
That’s why they close the roads for the London Marathon – too many runners would trip over slow-moving cars otherwise. [In fact, I know a couple of guys who can *walk* a marathon at 7 mph.] Something drastic needs to be done about London traffic (reversing everything that Red Ken did would help but it won’t be enough0.
I was very surprised how much cycling there is in Bristol, given how far from flat it is. Obvs flat places like Amsterdam have an advantage for the cyclist, but this can be largely ameliorated with gears; Dutch city bikes have just the one, whereas only the obsessively trendy go for that in the UK.
We don’t have (many) city bikes in the UK – apart from rental systems like Boris bikes, all cyclists want to appear either as though they’re just setting off on the Tour de France or preparing to ride the Lewis & Clark Bike Trail.
Where I live you can’t travel more than a couple of miles before hitting a mile-long 15% hill (ones that have been used for King of the Mountains on the Tour of Britain). Great fun (if you like that sort of thing) for a spin on a weekend, but really not practical for cycling to work or going shopping.