The general public (or maybe just the general media) has got it a bit wrong about climate change, I reckon.

 

The motor industry is constantly being made to feel guilty for giving people the greatest level of personal freedom ever achieved in history. Carmakers are being threatened with tough regulations on CO2 emissions by the European Parliament that could drive many models out of production. Environmentalists accuse them of not working fast enough to develop cleaner powertrains, and not marketing their less polluting cars as heavily as their most popular models.

 

Meanwhile it’s apparently perfectly acceptable to get several dozen pop and rock stars to fly halfway around the world to one of eight major soundstages that consume who knows how many million megawatts of electricity, and dress it up as raising awareness of global warming.

Somebody work out that carbon footprint, please!

 

Okay, so I may be slightly biased, but the mud slung at the motor industry makes me mad sometimes. Do airlines get the same high profile slating for having flights available so cheaply that people can spend a weekend in Prague for less than a theatre trip to London? Do we see travel agents marketing tree-planting holidays in the UK as the greener alternative to a fortnight in Florida? I don’t think so.

 

Cars and the motor industry have been an essential part of my life ever since I discovered there was no bus after 6pm through the quiet Norfolk village where I grew up. So I’m quite happy to sacrifice that annual inter-continental holiday for the daily use of a decent car.