I recently observed the same myself, in my private blog: That the people I knew who made the most noise about being "green", who virtuously declared that they rode their bike everywhere around the inner city, went vegetarian or vegan "to save the planet" ... still thought nothing of taking at least one, sometimes more, overseas trips a year. Or buying the latest, power-guzzling games console.

I can't find a link offhand, but I believe a survey in the UK recently found the same - that those who were most ostentatiously "green" often had the biggest carbon footprint because of their addiction to cheap air travel.

As for Sting and Al Gore ...

“The article went on to explain this great new concept called “eco-driving”, which apparently is all the rage in Europe”.

It is not a great new concept, and it did not come from Europe. Anyone who has ever driven a car knows this, and motoring ‘experts’ are asked to trot it out on current affairs programmes every 6 months. And, yes, we all know that most Australian families have more than one car that they don’t really need.

And, while the car industry might put $5 billion back into the economy, how much has it got out of the taxpayer over the years? Why do we insist on having a car industry when countries with huge populations like the US are in big trouble in the industry, and the UK no longer manufactures cars? Japan is also in trouble.

The Rudd Government might have come “…to power on a strong platform of climate change mitigation”, but that was just another lie to get in. They still intend to bring in another 200,000 unneeded migrants, and allow Victoria to steal another 75 billion litres of water from the Murray Darling Basin.

Remember! This government was the opposition that moaned and groaned about the Howard Government having control of the Senate. Rudd will just over-ride the Senate!

The car manufacturing industry has nothing to contribute to cutting back emissions, nor will it have anything to contribute to the economy as it needs more and more taxpayer’s money to stay in business.

Instead of propping up a dying industry, the plug should be pulled, and the people who lose jobs in the industry can take the place of the ridiculous numbers of immigrants brought into the country

Mr. Right writes:

"This government was the opposition that moaned and groaned about the Howard Government having control of the Senate. Rudd will just over-ride the Senate!"

Er, excuse me, how will it do that without the numbers (Howard's mob at least had the numbers to over-ride the Senate, but Rudd's lot don't).

"Instead of propping up a dying industry, the plug should be pulled, and the people who lose jobs in the industry can take the place of the ridiculous numbers of immigrants brought into the country."

Ah, life is so simple.

While we're at it Mr Right, why don't we deport all the redundant oldies? They tell me Howard's white elephant on Christmas Island has 800 vacant places. That's a start.

A fine article that points out the obvious.

O dear Alanta, you miss the most important point of NPEism; the blithe acceptance of continuous growth.

No matter how committed an environmentalist might be, if they are not up in arms and very actively protesting about the ever-increasing human population, economic turnover and pressure being placed on our planet, then they are squarely in the NPE box!

It is NOT good enough for environmentalists (?pseudoenvironmentalists) to concentrate entirely on reducing per-capita greenhouse gas emissions or increasing the efficient use of fossil fuel energy, while totally ignoring the fact that there are ever-more people consuming energy.

It is crackers to set an example of frugality by riding one’s bike a lot of the time instead of driving, if you are going to have nothing to say about the ever-increasing number of drivers in your town, state, country, or planet!!

““Er, excuse me, how will it do that without the numbers (Howard's mob at least had the numbers to over-ride the Senate, but Rudd's lot don't).”

Er, ask my source, Spikey. Prof. Dean Jaensch, Professor of Politics at Flinders University. He says it would be constitutional; nothing to do with numbers.

“While we're at it Mr Right, why don't we deport all the redundant oldies?”

That sums up your standard of thinking. Kick out Australians who have made the country what it is, and bring in foreigners.

Aren’t you a pensioner, by the way? You could go to Christmas Island with my blessing. But, be quick. There won’t be 800 places for long. The Australian has reported an upsurge in people attempting to get here illegally since the Labor Government cave in on detention and other restrictions. Four loads caught by us and put on the island, and more stopped by Indonesia.