I live on one of these rat-runs, and indeed my quality of life has improved. However, I used to frequently use said rat-run, yet now my journey during rush hour takes half and hour longer. Is there an overall benefit?[/quote][/quote][/quote]Interesting. But did you answer your own question? Your quality of life has improved? What is more important to you? The extra distance of travel or quality of life and this I suppose was the whole point of the Documentary. The extra "distance" we all will go to for our future and the future of our heirs or is rampant greed and destruction part and parcel of life, as in, is there an overall benefit or does the majority just not care?
Unrelated to some posts I have seen here perhaps and I'm not sure what we can do near term about the following but having spent a large part of my earlier and later life traveling around the Caribbean and living in coastal Florida I have witnessed what is happening at such a fast speed from serious sand erosion to actually experiencing two direct Cat 3/4 hurricane hits, unbelievable amount of flooding and damage. Most in the UK might not be following this but we have already had I believe 21 named storms, a near record this year with the season not officially ending until Nov 30th and they are lining up off the African coast. The terrible fires in Australia earlier this year and the recent shocking destruction of lives and land in California, we are warming up far too fast. Two years ago I met up again with a fishing buddy of mine in Anguilla. 35 plus years ago I first met Danny on the Island and every morning at at around 5.30 am after proving I could hack it, he allowed me to come on his hand built wooden boat with two others and for 2-3 exhausting hours(to earn my keep in what they call Anguillan spiny lobster) learnt to read the seas, throw nets in a certain way, dive for lobster, conch and anything else that moved.(Have some stories to tell, perhaps for another day)
Anyway, over the years we became buddies and when I returned for a vacation I always went with him. 10 years ago, he told me how bad his catch was becoming on a daily basis, also getting on now in years and having lost his help he retired from what used to be quite a lucrative few hours work supplying all the local restaurants with fresh fish and lobster directly from the boats, as the owners of these restaurants used to wait at around 9 am for him to arrive. I remember when the seas were so calm, the sand shelving so easy to walk on and also even taking boats right up to the beach and only raising the motor slightly. Now there is an incline of at least 20 degrees. I have old pictures and some video of my dives and what I saw. Now nothing, virtually nothing to see. But the whole point of my babbling on here is that Donny about 10 years ago was asked to cut up his dwindling fish supply to certain restaurants and found plastic in such huge amounts that it dawned on him what was really going on and had been for years. They now call it microplastic and estimate that by 2050 there will be more microplastic in the sea than fish
An even possible greater threat not discussed in general(causes mass cancellations for beach tourist areas, so they keep quite) and least understood is "Red Tide". For those that don't know, look it up, as very destructive in Florida and Brazil.