Low Temp: 3C
Shady High: 9C
Sunnyshine High: 9C
Weather: As you will see from the difference between the shady high and the sunny high there has been no sun today. We started off with showers which gradually turned more persistent during the afternoon so much so that by the time I took Tom for his nightly walk it was well and truly persisting it down.
Tonight’s picture is of a couple of pleasure cruisers on Loch Lomond, they weren’t in operation when we were there due to it being out of season. (By the way just in case you don't know the pics should enlarge if you click them.)
I got to thinking today of a post I read by ‘Girl Gone Gardening’ http://girlgonegardening.blogspot.com/2007/11/global-warming-report-is-out.html I think most people accept that global warming exists and even those that can’t see it wouldn’t object to us reducing harmful emissions. It seems to me though that the biggest obstacle to achieving unity in this aim is the actual government and its negative enforcement policy, as far as the UK goes anyway. What with the speed taxes, congestion taxes, fuel taxes, pay as you dump taxes and of course the lies about Iraq a lot of people either resent being forced in to making changes by people they see as cheats or just don’t believe what they are being told anymore. You can only lie and trick people so many times before they catch on and once that happens what you say loses all credibility. They have the ability to read every car number plate as it passes so if a driver drives through an area under the speed limit why don’t they credit them in some way, as it stands all there is, is punishment. If you’re as old as me and grew up in the UK there was a time when you wouldn’t find an empty bottle in the rubbish bins let alone littering the streets and this came about by encouragement unlike today’s proposed pay as you dump tax which is one of discouragement, in other words, positive enforcement rather than negative enforcement. The reason you found no bottles is because you got something out of it if you returned them. I remember when I worked at Chatsworth House the gardeners would be always checking out the bins to see if the visitors had thrown away a bottle, it was quite a thing between some of them to see who could collect the most bottles. So you see there is nothing new about recycling, the difference is that these days it’s the government who is collecting the cash which as I say to a lot of people I talk to at any rate is a source of resentment and they see it as just another get rich quick scheme at our expense.
Bob.
I got to thinking today of a post I read by ‘Girl Gone Gardening’ http://girlgonegardening.blogspot.com/2007/11/global-warming-report-is-out.html I think most people accept that global warming exists and even those that can’t see it wouldn’t object to us reducing harmful emissions. It seems to me though that the biggest obstacle to achieving unity in this aim is the actual government and its negative enforcement policy, as far as the UK goes anyway. What with the speed taxes, congestion taxes, fuel taxes, pay as you dump taxes and of course the lies about Iraq a lot of people either resent being forced in to making changes by people they see as cheats or just don’t believe what they are being told anymore. You can only lie and trick people so many times before they catch on and once that happens what you say loses all credibility. They have the ability to read every car number plate as it passes so if a driver drives through an area under the speed limit why don’t they credit them in some way, as it stands all there is, is punishment. If you’re as old as me and grew up in the UK there was a time when you wouldn’t find an empty bottle in the rubbish bins let alone littering the streets and this came about by encouragement unlike today’s proposed pay as you dump tax which is one of discouragement, in other words, positive enforcement rather than negative enforcement. The reason you found no bottles is because you got something out of it if you returned them. I remember when I worked at Chatsworth House the gardeners would be always checking out the bins to see if the visitors had thrown away a bottle, it was quite a thing between some of them to see who could collect the most bottles. So you see there is nothing new about recycling, the difference is that these days it’s the government who is collecting the cash which as I say to a lot of people I talk to at any rate is a source of resentment and they see it as just another get rich quick scheme at our expense.
Bob.
2 comments:
Gday Bob, Enjoying the pictures of your trip.
I remember when we were kids we used to recycle the bottles by collecting them taking them to the shop and buying an ice cream or something from the small change we recieved from the shopkeeper =. Oh what a treat that was,,,
Yes thats right Jeanette. Now the bottles are plastic and litter the place up or we take them back and the tax man gets the ice cream, where is the treat in that?
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