Jeremy Clarkson: Just been for a walk round the farm and I’m a bit alarmed by how few butterflies there are.
Something is afoot.
Danny Wallace: Diesel-smelling Top Gear host who threatened climate protestors misses butterflies.
To be fair. His farming ventures have moved his opinion on climate in a positive direction. People can change their mind and that is a good thing. I would even go as far as calling it a very good sign that even a person as stubborn as the great ape Clarkson can change their opinion on this matter is absolutely fantastic. Good on Clarkson! And fuck the other guy for shoving up the past in his face when he is trying to be better.
To be fair. His farming ventures have moved his opinion on climate in a positive direction.
But have they? His insistence at this point is that he doesn’t have to do anything, or change anything, science will “solve the issue”. Nothing better than someone who thinks any mess they make can be cleaned up by someone else so why bother trying to make any changes that makes your life slightly less convenient?
He added: ‘I won’t drive a Tesla. I’ve got probably 10 cars, all with V8 engines. I don’t think electric cars solve anything. Science is going to be needed here, not politics. Science will solve it eventually. Always does.’
https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/29/problem-jeremy-clarksons-global-warming-joke-20736068/
To be fair. His farming ventures have moved his opinion on climate in a positive direction.
Uhh isn’t progressing to electric cars… science progressing to help solve the issue? What a strange train of thoughts.
Uhh isn’t progressing to electric cars… science progressing to help solve the issue?
No. It isn’t.
It’s capitalism shifting their private transport scam from an energy source that they exploited the living crap out off to another that they haven’t mismanaged into the ground yet.
I know someone who has a similar outlook (climate change is real but science will solve it, so we don’t need to change anything). Basically anything science produces toward that end they will move the goalpost and say it’s not worth pursuing because science will fix it.
It is essentially their way of making climate change denialism seem reasonable and open-minded. I think if somebody came up with a miracle device to magically reverse everything, they’d complain it’s too costly at any price.
He’s right about electric cars not solving anything but wrong about politics not solving it. Science has already provided the solutions like over a decade ago but no one is willing to implement it.
Science is pushing electric cars for a reason. Clarkson’s an idiot.
No it’s capitalism and the car industry that wants to continue selling cars that are pushing for EVs.
Cars in general are bad for the environment and the people around them. EVs are a bit better than internal combustion, but it’s not a miracle.
EVs still emit tons of rubber particles because of tire shedding, they are heavier and require more energy to move around, they still require vast amounts of paved parking and roads, and they can still crush pedestrians and animals.
If you have to have a car, it should be an EV if possible, but it would be better to reduce the amount of cars in cities and around us.
I’m really tired of this pervasive fantasy where people actually think we can get rid of all cars and bring public transport to the masses in the space of a year.
We live in a car centric society and changing that is going to take a decade at the minimum.
EVs are our best solutions currently, we don’t have time to wait for trains or hydrogen. We should absolutely start trying to phase cars out completely but that doesn’t negate the fact that saying “EVs don’t help” is essentially being an oil barons mouthpiece.
changing that is going to take a decade at the minimum.
And that’s way too optimistic. Given the life expectancy of modern autos, the “quick” option of EVs will be a couple decades or more.
Building car-centric towns and cities has taken most of a century of constant growth. Now those cities exist and we no longer have the growth so rebuilding them is a much bigger job. We’re talking many decades, likely a century or more. In the meantime we can’t afford to be stuck with ICE.
Although maybe you’re not from the US so the problem is not as severe. Here in Massachusetts we also have the advantage of so many towns and cities being built out before cars. We’re “behind” on being car-centric so hopefully can fix that trend more quickly
I don’t think electric cars solve anything. Science is going to be needed here, not politics. Science will solve it eventually. Always does.
meh. he profited personally off of lambasting the very scientists who were trying to warn us. he literally made his fortune off of glorifying petrol guzzling shitwagons.
fuck clarkson. he’s a fucking toolbag who’s just now - as the world is on fire- is slowly starting to wake to the crisis he personally helped fuel.
Someone missed the episode(s?) where he raced the public transit system and lost. Or raced other drivers in noticeably slower cars in highly congested traffic and lost, or raced a bicycle and lost.
A semi-common through-line of the show was that cars are, and should be, for fun. (Full disclosure this was often pushed most heavily by James May, but I feel like Jeremy could have said no at any point.) They often lambasted average and everyday use cars.
I loved my old sports car! It was 2 seats and too much power! I had to get rid of it because it was unreliable and unsafe for traveling with my first kid. Neither would have been an issue with good public transit infrastructure in place.
Cars are not the problem, but car dependency absolutely is.
(I don’t totally feel this way and do think cars a major contributing factor in some problems, like pollution of microplastic particulates from aggressive driving, but that isn’t as quippy.)
But where would you get the gas to power your sports car without the massive fossil fuel infrastructure?
From a refinery? Losing car dependency doesn’t mean that the global oil industry goes away over night. Shoot, if we invented completely safe and cheap scifi teleporters, making all current forms of transportation obsolete, I don’t believe every factory in the world would stop producing gasoline.
My thinking for this primarily comes from vacuum tubes. The technology has been completely replaced by better performing, cheaper, smaller, and more reliable components for about 50 years now. However, there are still 2 or 3 factories churning out tubes for guitar amplifiers supplying the world for the handful of enthusiasts who enjoy that sort of thing.
Go ahead and throw mechanical typewriters into that same category of “Wow! I can’t believe that they still make these?” as well.
To those curious, do not check out the original post
Comments are entirely “cloud seeding”, “blocking solar radiation with dangerous chemicals”, and sensible people arguing for encouraging biodiversity being shut out, a few by Car Man himself
a few by Car Man himself
I was put off until this part. Curiosity is now at high levels. Expecting massive hoop jumping and that’s always funny to watch.
I quite enjoyed Top Gear. However. I have since found Clarkson to be just another rich old right winger that doesn’t care what he says. He’s a bit of an asshole.
He’s a bit of an asshole.
You couldn’t tell that from the show itself? Just don’t keep food away from him.
Some people can play assholes for a show but are decent IRL. Clarkson appears to be an asshole who reined it in a little for the show.
That “a bit of” is too nice. Much too nice. Really.
I mean, that’s his appeal in Top Gear, isn’t it? Chief arsehole of the three nincompoops.
I’m more of a James May fan but they are all hilarious and Top Gear/Grand Tour is top-tier entertainment.
Was it wrong that he punched his producer for not getting him a hot meal and called him a “lazy Irish cunt”? Possibly, but his series about a farm is doing very well.
Alan Partridge
Alan Partridge is a perfect alter-ego for Clarkson! Well done. It seems so obvious now.
I suppose he only cares about the climate because it now affects his farming business, that’s it.
Having watched Clarkson’s Farm I think he honestly went into the farming business to test and resolve his opinions on the climate. He still loves cars but uses the car persona to look at farming practices.