[BBC News] Concerns over island's car fumes

[Gladys]

Where is that?

[grant]

Foxdale?

[=^..^=]

I'm guessing its the forest fires in california. Or foxdale.

[Roger Smelly]

Looks a bit like what the farmers do when they need to get rid of the plastic that they wrap there bales in.

 

As soon as it gets dark a load of fires appear in the countryside lol.

[Gladys]

If it is Foxdale, then this global warming has really impacted on the sea level!

[=^..^=]

http://newsdesk.si.edu/images_full/images/...orest_fires.jpg

[Frances]

the figure of 64,000 Manx registered cars is somewhat surprising - the UK has 339cars/1000 population - that figure puts the Island at about 800-850 /1000 and probably makes the Island the highest car ownership per capita in Europe

[mojomonkey]

I think its actually registered vehicles and not solely cars. As there is no MOT system I suspect that there are a lot of cars sitting in garages, fields, etc. that never actually move. Car ownership is high of the Island but surely it can't be as high as the reports suggest.

[Albert Tatlock]

Even if the number of vehicles and vehicle pollution is increasing, I think she is forgetting that this is an island, whose capital is adjacent to the sea, and where nowhere on the island is further than 11 miles to the sea. Emissions tend to be blown elsewhere so are unlikely to, for example, accumulate or sit over Douglas for too long. That said, if you are sat outside drinking a coffee adjacent to a traffic jam, or even inside a pub on the same road, there are a wide range of chemicals emitted from car exhausts e.g. benzines, that are not paticularly good for you, but just because you can't see them doesn't mean they are not there.

 

It's not rocket science to realise that if the population increases then so will emissions (no matter what emission quota per person you ever set). This increase in the amount of cars (and hence emissions) is a form of emissions trading on the island - i.e. if you encourage people to come here from the UK, Ireland and elsewhere to work, they will bring their cars. But on the plus side - overall for the planet - people here actually end up doing half the average UK mileage, thus emitting half their previous vehicle emissions. More people inevitably means more pollution - full stop. You can't have your economic cake and eat it.

 

However, the real fallacy not addressed by the environmental groups and certainly not by most politicians, is that they set targets for pollution, but refuse to face up to the fact that the real answer to 'saving the planet' lies in reducing the worlds population which is increasing each and every year by more than the population of the UK. Putting this into an emmissions perspective, the number of power stations in the UK is around 230 - or 4 new power stations a week to match the population increase). Until politicians start addressing worldwide population control, any environmentalist with a brain should have realised by now that he is pi**ing in the wind. People villify waste, yet don't seem to have a problem, or even realise that there is a problem, when couples have e.g. their third child. Regardless of whether particular populations are decreasing is irrellevant to the planet as a whole - which sees an extra 75 million polluters arrive each year.

[Lonan3]

Anyway, I've no problem with it, as long as they do actually try to get people out their cars by providing things like cycle paths, they push the park and ride scheme properly, and re-look at the commuter trains idea from the south and north.

 

Agree, you can only tax people out of their cars if you encourage an alternative, and cycling and public transport are both areas which are piss poor on the island.

 

I contacted the Douglas Development Partnership recently to ask whether there were any places around central Douglas to park my bicycle, as the offices I work in has no facility. They said that as far as they were aware, there are no proper spaces to secure a bicycle in Douglas. On the subject of cycle paths, they said they were planning to introduce an official path from the back of the Pulrose golf clubhouse, down the old Castletown road, onto the North Quay and down the Promenade.

 

Sounds like they're just using the railway line? That's a good start like, but people live in places other than pully.

 

No. Sounds more like they're using the Nunnery Walk.

[The Voice of Reason]

I thought the emissions test was coming in next year? And that they were bringing in revised road tax until the emissions thing is up and running? I may stand corrected on that.

 

Anyway, I've no problem with it, as long as they do actually try to get people out their cars by providing things like cycle paths, they push the park and ride scheme properly, and re-look at the commuter trains idea from the south and north.

 

I contacted the Douglas Development Partnership recently to ask whether there were any places around central Douglas to park my bicycle, as the offices I work in has no facility. They said that as far as they were aware, there are no proper spaces to secure a bicycle in Douglas. On the subject of cycle paths, they said they were planning to introduce an official path from the back of the Pulrose golf clubhouse, down the old Castletown road, onto the North Quay and down the Promenade.

 

I've heard a new cycle path is opening somewhere in Langness possibly on land owned by a celebrity motoring correspondent. Might be worth a try.

[ai_Droid]

However, the real fallacy not addressed by the environmental groups and certainly not by most politicians, is that they set targets for pollution, but refuse to face up to the fact that the real answer to 'saving the planet' lies in reducing the worlds population which is increasing each and every year by more than the population of the UK. Putting this into an emmissions perspective, the number of power stations in the UK is around 230 - or 4 new power stations a week to match the population increase). Until politicians start addressing worldwide population control, any environmentalist with a brain should have realised by now that he is pi**ing in the wind. People villify waste, yet don't seem to have a problem, or even realise that there is a problem, when couples have e.g. their third child. Regardless of whether particular populations are decreasing is irrellevant to the planet as a whole - which sees an extra 75 million polluters arrive each year.

 

Here we go, Adolf Tatlock talking shite again.