Rivaling the story that if we all just used one sheet of toilet paper to…you know…this one attacks those who love sports cars.
Chief scientist in sports cars warning to women
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:55am GMT 17/12/2007
Women must stop admiring men who drive sports cars if they want to join the fight against global warming, the Government's chief scientist has urged.
Professor Sir David King said governments could only do so much to control greenhouse gas emissions and it was time for a cultural change among the British public.
And he singled out women who find supercar drivers "sexy", adding that they should divert their affections to men who live more environmentally-friendly lives.
His comments were greeted with anger by sports car drivers who insisted that their vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions were tiny compared with those from four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Sir David, who is due to retire as the UK's Chief Scientific Adviser at the end of the year, said individuals needed to change their behaviour.
"I was asked at a lecture by a young woman about what she could do and I told her to stop admiring young men in Ferraris," he said.
"What I was saying is that you have got to admire people who are conserving energy and not those wilfully using it."
Sir David, who persuaded the Government to start using the Toyota Prius, a hybrid car that claims to have lower emissions than most conventional cars, added: "Government has so many levers that it can pull - when it comes to the business sector it is quite effective.
"As soon as you come to the individual, however, they will buy a Ferrari, not because it is cheap to run or has low carbon dioxide emissions, but because young women think it is sexy to see men driving Ferraris. That is the area where a culture change is needed."
A Ferrari F430 produces 420g/km of carbon dioxide - more than four times as much as the hybrid petrol-electric Prius.
Car enthusiasts criticised Sir David for attempting to lay the blame for climate change on a small number of drivers who own sports cars.
