to wonder where people get this expectation that they are entitled to drive round in cars, polluting the planet.

[totallybewildered]

How did it become an automatic right to drive round everywhere. Do people do it just because they can afford it? Does anyone avoid it for he sake of the human race, and the planet? I know some people have little choice, but many people who do have a choice, drive anyway.

I don't waste resources I use them. Normal people drive cars and don't appreciate people like the op inflicting their pathetic 6th form politics on the people who contribute plenty already. I don't give a giant shit about 100 or 1000 years time. For fuck sake when I was 18 there wasn't even Internet. I think they will have found something to do by then. or the world will have been ended by the constant invading and warmongering that a tiny little island full of smugly cycling mums refuses to stop. Especially when it is all in the name of nicking their oil.

FGS what a load of self absorbed whingeing. Does it really hurt for you to think about whether your car journeys are necessary or not? Our parents and grandparents probably managed for some of their lives without a car, what's so special about you lot?

I've got a driving licence but never got a car, due to the environment.

I just cycle, take public transport, or taxis if none available, which is do-able without the expense laid out on a car, insurance, petrol, mot, etc.

Oh, and to all those smug car drivers I don't give a fuck about the environment, o.k. right, nice for your children and grandchildren wait till the inevitable collapse of the House of Saud......

PMSL at Smug McSmug whinging about car drivers being smug :o

It would take me over an hour and 2 buses to do my 7 mile drive to work on public transport, and if no one drove I wouldn't have a business to drive to! My current car is £0 tax due to low emissions with stop/start, can't do much better than that I'm afraid!

I don't drive... DP has a car that gets used perhaps twice a month. We live on the outskirts of London in an area with fairly good transport links. I have noticed that other people seem shocked that we don't take the car to go to the supermarket (

Ah, another 'light the blue touch paper and back off' thread

Ok I'll bite ,Iflyaway I challenge you to do my journey to and from work starting the journey some days at 4.45 am to arrive at work at 5.30am , some days at 5.00am and finishing some days at 2.00am some at 3.00am depending on shifts,for the same price as my small car. It's a 40 mile round trip normally but sometimes it's an 80 mile trip depending on where I'm based.

Don't worry sweetie, if things go wrong in Saudi I'm sure you will use fossil fuels to invade them and nick their oil

Ah, love a good Eco-Git popping out of the woodwork (sustainable wood of course).

So you use a taxi? How is that better for the environment than the same journey in a car?

Is your bike fair trade, made from fairly mined & smelted steel - or is it knocked up in a Chinese factory belching smoke into the sky?

Unless you live in a tent woven from your own pubes and live solely on platitudes and smugness you're no better than those you try to look down on - so please fuck off & bore someone else.

I don't buy stuff made in China unless by mislabelled goods. I buy expensive shoes once every 10 years or so that were made by Italian craftsman not little kids in sweatshops. I refuse to buy mass produced "disposable" shit and have had my kettle for 12 years. I hate waste and mindless buying in Primark. I drive a Ford F 150 Raptor and it does 9 miles to the gallon but I bet I am more considerate than the op and have the bonus of an awesome ride!

tent woven from your own pubes

Hmm. (Ponders business plan)

FGS what a load of self absorbed whingeing. Does it really hurt for you to think about whether your car journeys are necessary or not?

There are plenty of us who drive just for the fun of driving. I use £6-8k of fuel every year just playing, not actually going anywhere. All my cars are high performance with large engines and shit fuel enconomy. I really could not give a fuck about the environment.

YANBU. It's ok to point out that people drive way more than they reasonably need to, even if the OP is not 100% perfect environmentally herself! If only the totally perfect are allowed to criticise anything, everyone will remain silent, while the planet burns (which is what many of you boasting about your large cars apparently want).
And how many of those saying that they need to drive a lot because they live rurally have chosen to live rurally because of the nice / snob factor? If you earn your living by farming, fine, otherwise, living rurally has involved a deliberate decision to use more petrol.
And shut up about "flying is worse". So don't fly AND reduce your driving -I don't see global warming going into full scale reverse gear just because you do both.

I love my job. I literally dig the oil out of the ground (on and offshore) and natural gas as well. We liquefy the gas and sell most of it to the UK. Wonder if the op has hot water? heating? maybe just charges made in China slave labour constructed internet device is charged by lentil vapour.. ..

I think your global warming is a load of boring bullocks. your government will have ended the world in WW3 long before the planet is ready to die.

People are dying already, due to global warming.
Enjoying those floods and droughts? Or are they no worse than boring?
And I don't see immigration becoming less of a problem as large sections of the planet become uninhabitable.
Driving your DD 20 miles to ballet class may come to seem less of a priority - at least to her.

Unless you live in a tent woven from your own pubes

Best line I've ever heard on mumsnet

stop buying cheap crap from China then and supporting illegal environmental practice. Because if you think a few mums riding bikes makes a difference you are even more sheltered than you sound.

People are dying already, due to global warming.
Enjoying those floods and droughts? Or are they no worse than boring?

They'd happen anyway because the planet goes through hot/cold cycles.

BTW - the planet will survive just fine as it always will.

Your great, great grandchildren might not, but to be honest - who really gives a fuck that far down the line??

Iknow - You're just making a fool of yourself with your natural hot and cold cycles. Grow up and stop reading only those (hugely dishonest because financed by the oil industry) accounts that suit your own selfish interests.
Your children will suffer, and even you will suffer, unless you die in the near future. The planet will survive, but there won't be much life left on it.
But hey ho, you'll have enjoyed your large car.

Just because the planet goes through hot/cold cycles, doesn't mean it's completely fine to artificially induce it to go through one.

That to me is on a par with saying most animal species become extinct over time anyway, so it's OK to shoot as many tigers as we like, they would have died out anyway.

Are you sure it was the oil companies? Could have been Nestlé. Or the nasty Co services? Or maybe Thatcher?

More 6th form...
I actually work for one of the world's biggest oil companies and am unfortunate enough to have be involved in joint ventures with China. I can tell you now, our production in ME is incomparable to that filthy shit hole you eco kids buy your iPhone and other guardian reading device from . Do let me know your experience of the oil industry dear