permaculture

[Graham <grahamburnett@blueyonder.co.uk>]

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)