Clarkson hits trouble on fragile salt flats (possible spoiler)

[TurnerGTX]

Jeremy Clarkson is never going to be elected president of the World Wide Fund for Nature. And he was unlikely to make a celebrity appearance at the Live Earth concert yesterday. The presenter of Top Gear is already infamous for his sceptical take on green politics, but even he may have gone too far this time.

Environmentalists are enraged this weekend as word has emerged from Africa that the macho television presenter and his BBC crew have just been filmed driving around one of the world's few untouched wildernesses for a new series of the show.

In a sequence that will dent the BBC's ecological profile, the Top Gear team is to be shown crossing the protected Makgadikgadi salt pans in Botswana in an assortment of vehicles believed to include 4x4s, quad bikes and pick-up trucks as part of one of the off-road 'challenges' set up for the programme.

While the BBC has a growing international reputation as a force for good among environmentalists and climate change experts because of its heavy investment in research and in shows such as Saving The Planet and Springwatch, it is behaving hypocritically, say conservationists, if it continues to promote careless self-indulgence in a popular show such as Top Gear. Clarkson once famously said: 'There will be no tree, leaf, cloud, lawn, peat bog or environmental precious place that I won't drive over.'

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/tr...121487,00.html

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Awesome, stick it to 'em! If the governments in charge of the protected areas were so concerned about the salt flats, they wouldn't have let them film there.

[epp_b]

^ Ditto.

This is why we love Clarkson! Those hippies can cram it...

[Cobol74]

Er, those hippies have a disproportionate influence in the BBC.

[GraemeH]

The BBC is behaving "hypocritically" by allowing more than one viewpoint to be broadcast?

Right.

[TomCat]

Salt flats? They're worried about salt flats? pfft. hahahaha

Reminds me how most of Arizona is getting shut down against ATV's and other off-road vehicles, just so massive forest fires can destroy thousands of acres that'll take decades to recover. I wonder if they're still pissed that we littered on the moon.

[cdbob]

Interesting how the careless self-indulgent show is the one getting 250 million viewers.

[whoster]

he recently went on vacation there with his family (it was in his column some months ago)

i guess it was good enough to take the whole team down

[HondaF1]

Quick Quick, Someone organise a global concert series to highlight this!!

[American TG Man]

And let's make it HUGE, and ignore all claims that holding a concert to save the world that causes clouds of pollution is hypocritical!

[martineb72]

What the hell do you need to protect a SALT flat for? Its bloody salt crying out loud. The only thing living on it is bacteria. That is insane.

[cdbob]

Originally Posted by martineb72

What the hell do you need to protect a SALT flat for? Its bloody salt crying out loud. The only thing living on it is bacteria. That is insane.

What did the bacteria ever do to you?

[Mopar Man]

Sometimes I think that some people get so bored with their lives they FIND things to complain about. IE salt flats. WHO CARES?

[JCE]

I can't wait to see the film. Screw those eco-fruits. ITS BLOODY SALT FOR F***'S SAKE!

[bartboy9891]

I read a good article about how he loved those particular salt flats (a tangent from a car review). Apparently it's the most desolate place on earth and a real sight to see.

[pepitko]

yes, that is the same salt flat he took his family to and wrote his feature article in the TG magazine a while back..

To Greenish environmentalists --> get a life! --> global warming my ass, this summer is so far the one of coldest I remeber in central europe, mid-june till now there were temperatures of no more than 27-28°C

[kaBOOMn]

.....but but climate change.....

Salt Flats? pfffffffff what lives on them? Hell we've been out on our local (well 6 hours) flats and there isn't bugger all out there. Really.

Why do you think races and world land speed attempts are held on salt pans? Erm what about the salt pans in the US (can some American point out to me what they are called there, I know it but I cant remember what they are called for the life of me)? Do these dumb twins understand what happens when rain falls on these salt pans/flows into them?

[Donington]

Let's have a salt-flat Prius race!

Seriously, if it was the Amazon or the Serengeti, or maybe powerboating in the Great Barrier reef I might care, but who gives a stuff about salt flats apart from hippies.

[Buba]

Yeah, right, its really bad to drive on salt flats. They should have built a road trough there. And make it really smooth so that the Hybrids don't use as much gas...

[vyllu]

OMG! He drove 4x4, quads and pick-ups on the protected salt flats

I can't believe he did that. Thats just so... so... so... cool.

Can't wait for the show