Global threat of the 4x4 desert drivers (STOP THAT, IT'S SILLY ALERT)

The Times ^ | August 20, 2004 | Gillian Harris

[MadIvan]

I've noticed these environmental scientists have displayed a tendency to become silly...I'm warning them not to get silly again.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[JRandomFreeper]

Or what? The Comfy Chair? The Spanish Inquisition?

/john

[Sender]

With both global Toyotarisation and bovine methane release, it's a wonder life survives at all.

[adam_az]

THE “Toyotarisation” of deserts has contributed to a ten-fold increase in dust storms around the globe and is damaging the environment and human health, a leading academic said yesterday.

There's the problem. Everyone know s that the only proper off-road vehicle is a Jeep Wrangler. Sheesh.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Stupid, STUPID people!!! Makes me want to take MY Ess You Vee to the desert and contribute to this silliness!!!

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

Dust was unheard of in the Middle East before those Toyotas came along.

[JoeSixPack1]

...Toyotarisation...

So they set out to destroy the world one grain of sand at a time! Those dirty rotten so and so's!!! Why aren't they using Fords??? It's an evil plot! I'm moving to france! This is horrible.

Tom Daschole is deeply saddened! Freepers worldwide recognize how hugh and serious a beeberizational influx of airborne nasties we're up against!! Outlaw feather dusters immediately!!

[ken5050]

What about the damage caused by the RPGs, nachine guns, and mortars mounted in the back of all the damn Toyotas?

[samtheman]

What? No Global Warming? Well.. well... I know! Toyotarization! That's the threat! And this time it's really really really real!

[glock rocks]

Aw, sorry Ivan. I'm sending some more death and destruction your way... just filled the tanks on the 4x4, and the hills beckon. Grammie, you got the tanks full on the Mog? I'll meet ya out in the dunes. Bring the family, we've got some dirt bikes and 4-runners.

BTW Ivan, who are these idiots?

[Richard-SIA]

Useful Idgits of the Sierra Club/Earth First! persuasion!

Friends of Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) no doubt.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Be right there!

Loading up the Ess You Vee!!!! Me and Brad and the big ole German Shepherd.

[glock rocks]

Thank you.

When I consider how insane borrin Orrin is, I remember our good neighbors to the west. You gonna run him outta town?

[glock rocks]

German Shepard? Don't you know dawgs cause pollution??

Okay, I'll bring my pack. I'm sure everyone will get along famously.

[PeterFinn]

Ah, I see. Toyotas are a problem. Land Rovers, being proper British vehicles with good manners, know better than stir up the dust. Just a bunch of crap from the Chicken Little wing of the Whacko movements - they have to change their tune now that global warming isn't working out for them.

[KangarooJacqui]

Andrew Goudie, Professor of Geography at Oxford University, said that what he called “Toyotarisation” — damage caused by four-wheel-drive vehicles — has led to a significant increase in dust.

Excuse me, professor, but your anti-Japanese bias is showing. What about Land Rovers, eh? I don't hear a word about Land Rovers... oh yes, of course, because they're British and couldn't possibly be the problem.

[KangarooJacqui]

Dust was unheard of in the Middle East before those Toyotas came along.

You ARE joking, right?

Tell me you're joking...

[KangarooJacqui]

Ah, now the professor's making a bit more sense...

Dust storms pump herbicides and pesticides out of agricultural soil and dried-up lake-beds and send them out into the atmosphere. They carry allergens which affect people’s health.

You mean like this one, that occurred on February 8, 1983 (and which I saw for myself):

At its height, the dust-storm extended across the entire width of Victoria, and was many kilometres across. The dust-cloud was some 320m deep when it struck Melbourne, but in other areas extended thousands of metres into the atmosphere. It was estimated that about 50,000 tonnes of topsoil were stripped from the Mallee (approximately 1,000 tonnes of it being dumped on the city), leaving the ground bare, and exacerbating the effects of the drought. Open water channels in the northwest were clogged with sand and dirt. The combined effect of drought and dust-storm inflicted damage on the land that, according to the then President of the Victorian Farmers and Graziers’ Association, would take up to 10 years and tens of millions of dollars to repair.
Source: Australian Bureau of meteorology website

Except that that one was caused by a combination of overgrazing, overclearing and drought on what is the driest continent on earth, outside of Antarctica.

[Desdemona]

Some people have entirely too much time on their hands.