AS HIS TRUSTY RIDE GIVES UP THE GHOST-RUSS SWAN WONDERS IF ECONOMICS IS STILL STANDING IN THE WAY OF ENVIRONMENT ALISM...

摘要

Driving along the ring road recently,carefully keeping to the limit because a) I'm a responsible citizen and b) those damned average speed cameras never blink,I was overtaken on the inside by a vast Porsche SUV.Not only was it bruising the speed limit,it was using a dedicated bus lane.Ho ho,I thought,you'll be getting a couple of unpleasant letters in the post before long you over-privileged berk(these may not have been my exact words).Soon after I had my own unpleasant letter,in the form of an MoT failure.Not unexpected,as the car had been on its last legs for a while,but unwelcome all the same.Six times around the world,mostly reliable,and still a good driver.The slightly bonkers economics of modern motoring mean that,although it is still functional,repair costs exceed its value and so it is at the end of its economical life.I console myself with the information that the thing is 81.7 percent recyclable and,having driven it into the ground,we've amortised the energy invested in its manufacture by as much as is feasible.Yay! Green brownie points for scrapping a car.