Top Gear in trouble over salt flat stunt
Top Gear has earned the ire of environmentalists yet again, this time for driving cars over the Makgadikgadi salt plains in Botswana. All three presenters of the British car show drove across the plains while filming a segment, leaving trails that could remain there for decades. Usually, you are only allowed to go over if you're on a quad bike and must still remain in single file. The region is home to the largest salt pan in the world (take that, Bonneville!) and covers an area of 16,000sq km. Though there was some concern about the damage they caused directly to the salt plains, environmentalists are more worried about the example their drive will set for other visitors.
A BBC spokesperson said the ecology of the area was taken in to account when filming and no conservation areas were touched.
Jeremy Clarkson and his team have always disliked environmentalists and this latest run-in isn't expected to change anything.
[Source: Metro UK]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
paul34 12:34PM (7/09/2007)
Oh I get it. So now that TG did this, temperatures will rise by 100 degrees tomorrow, all the baby seals are floating (dead) in the ocean right now, all trees have died, and people are walking around in toxic waste up to their knees, right?
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expat 2:30PM (7/09/2007)
Yo, us New Yoikers resemble you remarks about our big Apple.
I worked on a mining project in Botswana many moons ago , filtering soda-ash from Sua (or Sowa) panystem for industrial use (and profit). These track marks diminish somewhat if anybody actually cared enough to visit the place (somewhat stunning), and see how corporate greed has already been there.
Don 3:04PM (7/09/2007)
No, just another example of Clarkson's boorish behaviour.
AMGoff 5:35PM (7/09/2007)
Ha! These damn tree-huggers... salt-lickers... whatever they're going by these days!
Although there have been many times when I have disagreed with Clarkson over different cars, my God do I like that man.
Oh wait... it hit 100 in the mid-atlantic today, damn you Clarkson!
Noidor 12:35PM (7/09/2007)
Yes many other visitors will now rush in flocks to Botswana and drive their sports cars in a ruthless fashion. As a consequence, local environment will never be the same. I was being sarcastic...
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bmoredlj 12:38PM (7/09/2007)
I really wish this show was on American TV (I can't find it on Directv, anyway;) it really is the most entertaining auto-themed show I've ever seen, and since it's auto-themed, that makes it the most entertaining show, period.
Those trails will buff right out...just get a steamroller or something.
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geo.stewart 12:44PM (7/09/2007)
home to the near-extinct salt lizard and its ecological predator, the white vulture. Without these two to purify the salt flats, McDonalds will run out of salt for its fries in the next two hundred years.
And w/o the salt to sell, how well Botswana support its gun habit?
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The Doctor 12:48PM (7/09/2007)
It's just like when Clarkson drove a Land Rover up a mountain in Scotland and envirotwats claimed that the tyre-tracks of one car had destroyed the heather and all the wildlife on the mountain.
On a related note, nice to see that Top Gear WILL be coming back!
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Ian 12:49PM (7/09/2007)
It is unfortunate when environmentalists get a bug up theri ass about trivialities like this when there are more pressing environmental issues to address. It's a salt flat. And it's in Botswana. Not exactly gonna draw the huge crowds.
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Arnie 12:58PM (7/09/2007)
The environmentalists don't give a shit about Botswana. They hate TG and Jeremy Clarcson in particular and use everything they can find to try and get them off the air. We can't have some guys on TV (let alone the NeocoM BBC!) who disregard political correctness and may actually trick people into committing thought crimes! Horrible!
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PauloBecker 1:06PM (7/09/2007)
It's this kind of pointless environmentalist blabber that makes me so skeptical towards global warming and its potential consequences. If only they'd focus more on things that really matter, I'd be willing to give them a lot more credit.
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Sean Flanagan 1:17PM (7/09/2007)
My sentiments exactly. If they focused on things like nuclear energy and sustainable manufacturing (like paper companies are starting to do), I would take them seriously. Instead, they focus on making marks on uninhabitable salt flats in 3rd-world countries and putting on concerts to make people "aware" of global warming.
blackcat77 1:18PM (7/09/2007)
They used to call places like that a "wasteland."
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felipe 1:17PM (7/09/2007)
i will only be pissed if i do go to McDonalds next month and my fries taste like a tire store.
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Dinger 1:46PM (7/09/2007)
Why? It would be an improvement.
DriftPunch 1:47PM (7/09/2007)
Won't you people PLEASE think of the Salt!!!
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why not the LS2/LS7? 1:47PM (7/09/2007)
It's a freakin' salt flats. A few tire tracks won't hurt it.
I do agree with the "what precedent does this set" though. If everyone went out there and drove around it would cause problems.
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northstar 2:09PM (7/09/2007)
The point is that is it is LAME to crush near permanent tracks into an otherwise unmarred landscape. It is that simple, and it doesn't take a some kind of "environmentalist" to realize this.
I love TG, but crap like that gets under my skin. Maybe if the show didn't suck so much ass these days, I would feel differently...
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rv 2:49PM (7/09/2007)
+1
The TG guys should get no special treatment. There's rules for these flats - I'm sure they respect rules at the track they're at - why should this be any different?
Gotta say, interesting to see those with disdain towards the planet they live on. Actually, kind of repulsive...
kballs 6:14PM (7/09/2007)
And why, other than aesthetics (only important to humans, not important to the environment) would it be a problem to have tire tracks there for a dozen years?
Oh wait! Those ruts could make it dangerous for the next racers that come along! Maybe they should go over them with a road grader afterward?