4WDs 'choking globe in dust'

From this mornings Couriermail..........

4WDs 'choking globe in dust'
From correspondents in London
20aug04

THE increasing popularity of off-road four-wheel drive cars is threatening to envelop the globe in a cloud of dust, with potentially severe effects on the environment, a British scientist said today.

The process - dubbed "Toyotarisation", after the Japanese vehicle maker Toyota - could have severe consequences for human health, coral reefs and climate change, said Andrew Goudie, a professor of geography at Oxford University.

"The number of four-wheel drives now in the southwest USA and the Middle East is staggering," said Professor Goudie, warning that the vehicles had a major impact on desert environments.

"They destabilise the desert surface. You can still see tracks from Second World War vehicles in the Libyan desert," he told the International Geographical Congress in Glasgow, Scotland.

The rapid annual increase in dust production - parts of North Africa have seen a 10-fold rise in the past 50 years - coupled with the growing frequency of dust storms, brought a "magnitude" of environmental consequences, he said.

"Dust is one of the least understood components of the earth's atmosphere but one which may have a greater importance than has been realised up until now for climate change," Prof Goudie said.

Around 2000 to 3000 million tonnes of dust were now emitted per year. Huge amounts of dust were dispersed through dust storms that sent it around the globe, meaning the environmental effects could be felt anywhere, he said.

What next?????

John