I fucking hate the bbc, its only when you live and travel to forighn lands are you able to see the true eztent off the bbc's vast corporate empire. Their products and services are everywhere, the magazines, tv shows, news, media, channels with advertising. I watched Little Britain in Morroco, In US, australia and in cambodia.
They are a huge company and why are we still expected to pay for it? ( I dont and never have and never will, ha ha to those idiots that do)
Being on holiday, I had time to read this article posted by Mike. Regarding cycling and lung health:
When I first rode a bike in town, around ten years ago, to work / pub etc I could taste the pollution in my mouth and throat, it was a hard metallic kinda taste difficult to describe. After a week, I didnt notice it any more. However when I drove my van (food delivery driver - dont ask!) especially in high summer this taste was more noticeable and I totally agree that people in vehicles suffer more pollutant intake than cyclists as we are breathing more heavily usually and the pollutants are in and out before they have a chance to settle.
Now, as a cycle courier since last May I dont notice it like I did ten years ago as I've acclimatised. I cough up stuff due to being a mid-range smoker (15 or so cigarettes a day) some mornings, but not all, and I dont think pollution has a bearing on this. Its my fault for smoking.
I do enjoy getting a job to SW1 or W8 as it involves the parks which are a nice change from a cramped busy street like Fleet St or Wigmore.
Dunno what the solution is - banning cars is all good but impracticle??? And electric silent death cars instead? No chance the money involved to set up all the chargers to replace petrol stations would be charged to all of us 'taxpayers' most likely (along with the BBC and all the other stuff the public is taxed on)
Blame for pollution is obvious - oil companies, politicians, the economy, and people who choose to buy and operate polluting vehicles. You do not need a car in London, and I've not owned one since it became impossible to afford it on a regular working wage (petrol increase, maintainance costs, the total pointlessness of car ownership I could go on)
There is so much to be said for that sticker 'One Less Car' in this instance. All I know is I'd love a less polluted city with more trees. . .hang on, thats the countryside innit
Only when the cost of death outweighs the cost of benefit will we see adverse change. Electric cars and bikes are a solution. I would love to use an electric scooter that I charge the batteries with solar power to get to work. The technology is there.
Soldiers/civilian casualty...expendible in the middle east as oil is a much need resource.
palastinians expendable till israel gets its complete country, ...a land apology for the holocaust?
smoking deaths.... still a profit made on the tax verses the loss to nhs cost of treatment.
^ Aint no appology for the holocaust. And aint no appology for the current Israeli holocaust against the palestinians. Soak the shit in and who gives a fuck?
Oops. All I was saying was that this was a pointless article that made the fatal mistake of contradicting itself. The ins and outs of it do not really bother me. Just pointing out pointless journalism.
ties in nicely with the BBC's current narrative to ingratiate themselves with the tories to keep the license fee- see "Menacingly rolling towards Ben Brown in my wheelchair"...
Who knows what terms were agreed to when they finished the 2nd world war, Russia can have all Eastern Europe, jews get Israel, the rest of europe allowed to rebuild, the americans get bases in europe.
I didnt read the article...... bbc online reports about any newstory seem to be polished and devoid of opinion or critisism. Their coverage of cycling events and cycling newstories is pathetic.
Didn't see myself saying this, but an absolute unequivocal +1 to mike. Nothing more to say than the article is pointless hot air, it goes nowhere. A 15 year old science student could have made the same assertions. There's no more to it than that. We all need oil, even to power our laptops! And there are plenty of places where a car is a must once you venture a little out of central london.