Tree-huggers without visions

Few things annoy me more than "environmentalists" who are unable to look further than the tip of their nose. One of these dumb tree-huggers, Mårten Wallenberg at Naturskyddsföreningen, lashes out at road investments, and insists that instead of building a smarter and sustainable road infrastructure we should be taxing the motorists to death, only allowing the wealthiest of Stockholmers to utilize a car in order to fulfill their daily transportation needs, whatever these may be:

– Förbifarten löser inte Stockholms trafikproblem. För att komma ned på en rimlig nivå när det gäller köer och framkomlighet räknar vi med att trängselavgifterna måste fördubblas till 2030, säger Mårten Wallberg.

Looking at a 20 year perspective I have to ask, what exactly is Wallberg so afraid of? Is it the mere sight of cars in and around the city that offends him? Is it the thought that people will be able to manage their time in a more efficient way? It can't be the pollution, because surely no-one in their right mind thinks that gasoline and diesel will be the prime means of propulsion in 2030, considering the massive technological advances that have been made in environmentally friendly fuels over just the last few years?

So why exactly is it you want to deny the less wealthy citizens of Stockholm the right to drive their zero-emissions car to and from work, kindergarten or the grocery store, Wallberg? Stop talking nonsense and focus your energy on how we can get the infrastructure in place to support the current environmentally friendly fuels, like biogas.

U2, the treehuggers

U2 are quite the treehuggers, with lead singer Bono traveling around the world (mind you, that's not a very environmentally friendly habit in itself, but hey, tell that to fellow treehugger Al Gore) preaching about the dangers of global warming, planting trees, making sure he gets great publicity and appears genuinely concerned...

...as long as it doesn't interfere with his band's megalomanic world tour, featuring a 390 ton stage the shape of a spider, and 150 tons of lightning equipment. The 44 date U2 tour will cause carbon emissions equal to 90.000 people flying from Dublin to London, or the waste created by 6500 average Brits, basically your average village, in an entire year. On the other hand, the tour is expected to give the band a net income of over 2,5 billion SEK, an average of 58 million SEK per concert.

So much for the environment, eh? I guess the general consensus is saving the environment is all good as long as you don't have have make any (economical) sacrifices yourself. I know, I feel the same way.