Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad

'Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.'

George Orwell

Of course, Orwell was going on to eulogize Napoleon's vision for the vuture, rather than going on to condemn our disregard of environmental imperatives.

Nevertheless, his 'four legs good, two legs bad' does still have a ring to it, doesn't it?

We might do worse than to consider what we do in the light of things that are going wrong, or have already gone wrong in the hope that we can correct them before it is too late.

Orwell was condemning totaliarian regimes posing as socialist ones. At least that is what I was told when we read it at school. It's nice to include something from the pen of the great writer to get us to think, don't you think so?

I have seen much on this beautiful planet of ours, but I fear I will not be able to see it much longer if things don't change and change now.

Every morning, I see thousands of vehicles pass me, heading for destinations that are well served by public transport. I see most cars have one person in them - the driver - and I see the pall of smoke coming from each car.

Let me give you something to think about for a moment. If all the exhaust pipes of all the cars that pass me and probably pass you were placed next to each other, we would have a metal chimney of sorts, but it would be hundreds of yards across, and it would be belching exhaust fumes day and night.

Where, I ask you, would we want to locate this massive chimney? Near your house. Next to places you walk in the evenings; near children's playgrounds, near schools and hospitals - where?

Let me help you find an answer: the chimney is already in those places; it may be a tad smaller than I have depicted, but it is still bigger than any from those dark Satanic mills.

In fact, such a chimney, made up of every car exhaust on the road would shock us all. It would be sufficient to shock many of us into getting on our bikes, or, horror of horrors, start to walk more.