Mike Rutherford's column

28th March 2007

	According to the most devious ecomentalists, much of the blame for global warning is down to the car, which is the work of the devil

However, I'm not a petrolhead in denial. I'm more than prepared to concede the phenomenon exists.

Furthermore, I believe that, in no particular order, man (with barbecues, for example), woman (sunbeds), child (electronic games), animal (digestive gas) and mother nature (volcanoes) are all - to varying degrees - responsible for harmful emissions, and therefore contribute to global warming. So do wars, factories, power stations, retail outlets, office blocks, domestic heating and lighting, kitchen appliances, farms, building sites, street lights, trains, boats, planes, cars, buses, coaches, trams, trucks, vans, tractors, refuse and street-cleaning vehicles, jet skis, helicopters, motorcycles and countless other 'offenders.' Can't be fairer than that, can I?

Notice how vocal and near-hysterical some of the professional scaremongers employed by the global warming industry were in early March? Equally apparent was how silent they fell towards the end of the month.

They originally complained spring had arrived prematurely and that, barely eight weeks into 2007, we really shouldn't be enjoying the blossom on the trees, the birds singing at dawn, bright blue skies and temperatures that had coffee-shop owners reaching for their patio furniture. The inference was clear: Britain's climate is becoming sub-tropical, the three-quarters-of-a-million square miles of the Greenland ice cap will turn to water, we'll all drown and polar bears won't have anywhere to live. There will be no point setting up long-term savings accounts for our children because there is no future for them on a planet cremated by selfish parents with a scorched-earth policy.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot, according to the most devious ecomentalists, none of the above damage can be blamed on emissions from heavily subsidised buses, coaches, trains, trams and taxis, whereas much of the blame can be attributed to family motor cars which are the work of the devil and designed to make us burn in the corridors of hell.

So we reach the second half of March. Winter has gone, spring is here and that surely means the sky is glowing at gas mark 7. The earth is parched, the rivers are dry, and Britain and Barbados share the same air temperatures.

Not quite. The week that officially marked the end of winter and the start of spring in Britain will be remembered for snow, sleet, hail, high winds strong enough to blow vehicles down the road and storms so relentless that we had enough rain for each of us to wash our cars every Sunday for the next year.

As I said, I believe in climate change. But that doesn't necessarily mean I go along with the view that the planet is, no ifs or buts, burning itself up. Fact is we sometimes have to put up with atrocious Arctic-like weather and treacherous driving conditions in the first week of spring and, by the same token, we're occasionally blessed with tropical summer days in autumn. It's just

as I remember when I was a kid in the Sixties; as my dad does about the Thirties; and my grandfather about the early 1900s.

There's no right or wrong, good or bad time to own a 4x4. But if you have one, think of it in the same way that you view a fire extinguisher in the kitchen or smoke detector in the hall. Hopefully you'll never need them... But, with this weather, you might.

Mike Rutherford writes for the Times, Daily Telegraph and Independent, presents ITV's Pulling Power and is founder member of the Motorists' Association

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