Imagine the scene. Your name is Hans Meier. The year is 2020. Your successful new company allows you to buy the latest German built innovation with competing models from France and America all vying for your attention. You accelerate to the recommended speed and start the nav computer calculating your flight window into low Earth orbit. In a few seconds you confirm the flight and as you lift off the tarmac the wheels are pulled up snugly into their bays. The windscreen is replaced with the flight HUD and you begin your ascent to the recently opened orbital hotel. It has been up there for a few years but had to complete all the safety requirements before accepting traffic. As you wonder at the view of Earth, the nav computer requests docking clearance and you look forward to exploring the new orbital hotel that you’ve heard so much about.

Enough future wow’ness to have you guffawing in your cornflakes ? .. Maybe. We live in this world now though. Maybe 2020 is an optimistic date for such a scenario, but search the internet and you’ll find a number of flight capable cars in production now. International air traffic authorities are working on a system to allow the safe passage of such small scale (as in small vehicles) traffic.

So why is Al Gore being the ultimate kill joy ? Germany is currently resisting calls for a speed limit on German autobahns after calls from the Social Democrat party … inspired by a speech by Al Gore (according to The Independent , here in the UK, anyway). For a start I don’t think it’s even proven that speed limits reduce pollution. Patch a few scenarios through some traffic simulation software and B does not always follow from A.

But here we see the pattern from, not just Al Gore, but from many other environmentalists. “Don’t do that”… “Dont do this”…”Guilt, guilt, guilt!”. Marching around like a load of tin pot dictators who have completely misunderstood human behaviour. People rarely respond to the negative. What about what we CAN do AND be environmental ? These people seem to be determined to depress us into the ice age, er, sorry, I mean the warm age… or do I ?

I still think an international effort should be setup to look at a replacement for oil/petrol and the petrol engine.There are good signs. Hybrid cars. Electric Cars. Alternative fuels, but it seems scattered and faddish if you ask me.

Tell people what CAN happen if we take the precautionary principle and keep things clean. We have a rapidly developing Space Age. The Shuttle. A magnificent Space Station in orbit. Rarely do I hear ecologists harping on about these extraordinary human achievements. Sometimes I wonder, if secretly. they want to shut the whole game down, planetary exploration probes and everything ! As readers here will know I threw my ecologist magazine across the room the other day. Just today I noticed this leaflet had fallen out of it…

“IS THIS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO READ THE TRUTH?”

Warning: The Government is clamping down on freedom of speech so fast that Vernon Coleman’s book, Living In A Fascist Country may be the last chance you’ll ever get to read the truth about what is happening – and why.”

It contains such gems as …

“Sending Tanks To Heathrow: How And Why Politicians Have Learned To Use Fear As A Weapon.”

I won’t go on. Every statement in it is loaded with fear and paranoia. Playing on people’s worries about identity cards or the War in Iraq. Sure, there are problems, but this lovely leaflet that dropped out of my Ecologist just epitomises their whole attitude for me. Capitalism is the Ultimate Sin. The Space Age is the Ultimate Capitalistic Excess. These people live in the Ice Age ! When they read this they will no doubt think I’ve turned into some right wing purple Wart Hog. Oh grow up ! I hope you get to this sentence: while simultaneously supporting Capitalism (and yes it does have it’s dark side) I want to see endangered species protected. All species. I want to see us take steps to protect our atmosphere and help the impoverished of the world (that dark side of Capitalism). I DON’T want to see Ecologists throw up a new enemy of the people where there isn’t one. I want them to see what drives people and how that can be worked with to make the world a better place.

DJ Barney