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  • From: Graham <grahamburnett@blueyonder.co.uk>
  • To: eco_vegans@yahoogroups.com, Permaculture Association <office@permaculture.org.uk>, "Permaculture Magazine, Maddy Harland" <maddy@permaculture.co.uk>, Permaculture UK list <permaculture_uk@yahoogroups.co.uk>, "Permaculture Magazine, Tony" <tony@permaculture.co.uk>, PermaLearners <permalearnersuk@yahoogroups.com>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Infernal Combustion Engines
  • Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 23:08:22 +0000

Just thought i'd share a blackcurrant wine-powered rant I've just submitted to the Idler message board where car ownership is being discussed at the moment...
http://www.idler.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2185#2185

Quote;

"I long for the day when the concept of 'private transport' will be considered as vulgar and antisocial as throwing your shit out into the street from an upstairs window.

Which isn't to say we shouldn't be able to get about. A truly imaginative government that actually cared about sustainability (a contradiction in terms of course) would invest massively in clean, green, public transport infrastructure, as well as ensuring that every able bodied citizen had was given a free bicycle on their 5th birthday and taught how to ride it properly.

cars would be designed for low maintenance, user servicability and collectively owned, and stripped of the mythologies surrounding them bestowed by the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and all the TV ads, ie, they would be seen as purely functional objects used to get from 'a' to 'b' as efficiently and cleanly as possible.

Govts would offer huge tax breaks for people who choose to work within wlaking/cycling distance of their homes, and conversely impose punitive tax increases on those who insist on driving to work, unless they can provide evidence that they car-share.

90% of food would be produced within 20 miles of where it is to be consumed, as much as possible on a garden scale, or community food growing projects, etc... The canals would be restored and revitalised for the transport of non-perishable goods that can't be produced within a locality.

People could internationally teleconference by internet rather than travel by plane to 'business meetings'.

Just a few ideas..."

Cheers Graham, the voice of reason... "Be realistic, demand the impossible!" (graffiti, Paris, May 1968)



  • [permaculture] Infernal Combustion Engines, Graham, 11/22/2005

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