Rather depressing to read some of the responses here, especially Lucille's. When will people get it into their heads that the climate emergency really is just that? Add in the pollution crisis and we have a situation that cannot continue. We have to reduce our reliance on the car - and before someone bleats that there are some who have, for various reasons, to use their car this is about reducing, not eliminating the car.Sure, some people have heavy loads that may need a car, but many are now realising that big shops produce big waste, when things are bought in case of need and are subsequently thrown away: industry estimates that it amounts to a startling £9.7 billion per year in the UK, and the average household throws away £355.68 worth of food.Increasingly, people are buying food as its needed, not in case.And as for Putney, the fact that the Exchange car park is expensive is a good thing, in that those who use it are, indirectly, paying the price imposed by the pollution and congestion they produce, and Waitrose are unwittingly helping to make this worse by subsidising parking.No doubt our generation is fine, but think for a moment about the kind of world we are leaving for following generations: one in which extreme weather events are increasing (terrible floods in the Phillipines, devastating droughts and fires in Australia), the ice caps are melting at increasing rates leading to increases and flooding of low lying areas (one of the few consolations of this is that Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort may soon end up underwater), drinking water is becoming scarce leading to serious dangers of conflict, and on and on and on. Do I really need to spell this out to a bone-headedly unresponsive audience?
Richard Carter ● 2482d