Normally I try to ensure that everything I write about environmental matters is reasonably well-informed and balanced, though there is a consistent message that we must find a way of living our lives without producing CO2.

Occasionally, however, I enjoy a good rant, and a recent event has provided me with just the opportunity. I refer to the recent Formula 1 car race in Abu Dhabi. This provided abundant evidence to back up some of my prejudices, and when I heard that the next, and 18th, race of the season was in Brazil, my opinion that there are too many very short-sighted and greedy members of the human race was confirmed.

I understand one of the reasons for car racing is that the industry argues it provides them with all the testing they need to make sure that the normal family saloon car works properly. However, there is also something about the male psyche that responds to competition, danger and speed, particularly if it’s associated with making very large amounts of money.

All the above could be achieved with much simpler challenges, such as rally driving, and using normal roads. There can be no reason at all for constructing large, purpose-built racetracks that are used a couple of times a year, particularly when the race, sponsored by an airline, is held in the evening, as in Abu Dhabi and Singapore, with excessive floodlighting using gas-generated electricity gushing out CO2.

It’s not surprising that globally the United Arab Emirates has the third-highest-per-capita CO2 emissions. As well as building unnecessary numbers of skyscrapers, three above 1,000ft high, they have also built a new racetrack, three-and-a-half miles long, with all the subsidiary buildings, and every tonne of cement used produced one tonne of unnecessary CO2.

Formula 1 then airlifts all the cars, equipment, tyres, spares, engineers and celebrity hangers-on to the last venue of the year, Brazil, where it repeats the indulgence, while inland and to the north, the CO2-absorbing rain forest is being cut down, for timber, soya and cattle rearing.

There is an indulgent streak in modern society that is Jeremy Clarkson-like in its irresponsibility with the emphasis on material possessions, transient thrills and constant media exposure. He could redeem himself by revamping Formula 1.

One new version would involve electric cars, with the car companies competing to provide better batteries charged from local renewable generation, but my preference would be petrol-driven cars, with the winner being the one that drove the furthest on a single tank of petrol.

High fuel efficiency is a message that I can live with.