JAAP... my brake bleed pollution

[graham.hilder@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Graham Hilder)]

Warning..!!!!!!!     Long post, minimal Alfa content, stroppy and defensive
writer, sorry.

In a recent Digest, Jaap gave me a jolly good bollocking over my brake
bleeding procedure.  And yes in principle my hosing of overflow brake
fluid down the drive is a Bad Thing, but in practice some realities have to
be considered......  firstly our drinking water is sourced from high in the
hilltops a couple of miles away on the skyline, so I cause no pollution of
that. Secondly, the few ounces of fluid released at the top of the drive
are thinly dispersed in a film of hose water spreading over the concrete
drive slope, and are not in the form of even a tiny pool or puddle which a
child or animal could drink (apart from a deepsea sponge perhaps).       

And no I'm not the type who chucks old oil in the drains and old tyres in
the river; I generally do take a bit of trouble over my rubbish and the
environment. But facts have to be faced..... any of us who drive old
inefficient Alfas (especially if we have more than one, and especially if
we ever drive them for enjoyment rather than only for strict necessity),
must be considered as environmentally unfriendly and as polluters.  
Another fact is that here in New Zealand, pollution is effectively
government-sanctioned, by many regulatory processes. For example,
processes which have eliminated refundable and recycled glass bottles
for milk, alcohol & soft drinks, replacing them with throw-away
cardboard, plastic and metal containers, which now heavily litter our
countryside and ciites. The government's removal of import restrictions
has reduced car prices so much that cars are almost throw-away items
here now, and the rate of discarding cars, and creating masses of junk,
is now huge.  The deliberate policy of providing very cheap new or
near-new cars has also meant a huge explosion in multiple car
ownership, and in the number of cars now commuting to work whereas
previously, much more public transport was used.......the pollution
consequences of this change are obvious. Additionally, government
deregulation of the freight industry means that NZ roads are now jammed
with huge fuel-drinking and air-polluting haulage trucks, whereas
previously a small number of freight trains did the job cleanly and
efficiently. 

I could go on with more examples, but I won't....... this list is not a political
soapbox. But I have had a gutsful of NZ's official policies which have
knowingly introduced huge and un-necessary national pollution
problems, and in the face of this massive OFFICIAL onslaught, me
personally taking special care over my few ounces of brake fluid
wouldn't make a scrap of difference, I'm sad to say. I'd be doing a lot
more good for the environment by selling my Alfas altogether, or by not
drinking any more milk, or by campaigning against deregulation in NZ. 

Nomex on !
Graham H,
New Zealand  (nice country, but thanks to official policies, no longer the
clean geen paradise the ads would have you believe).
   

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