Author name: Steven Edwards

Marina BolotnikovaMar 11, 2020
As a kid, I was furious about SUVs with a passion that now seems embarrassing, telling all the suburban adults I knew that their ugly, gas-guzzling tanks were going to end life on Earth. I didn’t come up with this idea myself: Anti-SUV discourse was everywhere. Mainstream organizations like the Sierra Club — which famously renamed the huge Ford Excursion “Ford Valdez” after the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill — helped create a cultural backlash against these hulking cars. A TV ad campaign run by the Evangelical Environmental Network — “What Would Jesus Drive?” — urged Midwesterners to rethink their addiction to big cars. New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher’s 2002 polemic High and Mighty sneered at the rise of “behemoths that guzzle gas, spew pollution, and endanger their occupants and other motorists.”

“Keen cyclist” Lord Cruddas, controversially appointed by Boris Johnson, appears not to share PM’s enthusiasm for bike lanes

by SIMON_MACMICHAEL THU, NOV 04, 2021

An open letter co-signed by 80 global cycling associations has called on COP26 delegates not to gloss past cycling’s role as a transport form and one that stands to offer far greater emissions reductions than a widely lobbied for switch to electric cars.

COP26 has underwhelmed those in the cycling world with journalists on the inside of the Glasgow event highlighting that, in transport terms, the conference’s focus is squarely pitched at keeping the status quo of private car ownership; albeit with the combustion engine removed.

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of activity, in the run-up to the COP26 international climate summit which the UK Government is hosting in Glasgow. Cycling UK and our allies have put a huge effort into securing increased funding and policy backing for action to halt and reverse the growth of road traffic, and to invest in healthy and sustainable transport alternatives.

The Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan, its ‘Net Zero’ Strategy and its Budget and Spending Review have come and gone in quick succession. There have been plenty of fine words, not just on cycling and walking, but also on many other aspects of sustainability.

A secretive investor court system poses a real threat to the Paris climate agreement, activists have said, as governments taking action to phase out fossil fuels face a slew of multimillion-dollar lawsuits for lost profits.
New data seen by the Guardian shows a surge in cases under the energy charter treaty (ECT), an obscure international agreement that allows energy corporations to sue governments over policies that could hurt their profits.
Coal and oil investors are already suing governments for several billions in compensation for lost profits over energy policy changes. For example, the German energy company RWE is suing the Netherlands for €1.4bn (£1.2bn) over its plans to phase out coal, while Rockhopper Exploration, based in the UK, is suing the Italian government after it banned new drilling near the coast.

Twitter user asks whether “this furious councillor is the same furious councillor who threatened to paint out the cycle lanes?”

by Simon MacMichael
Nov 05, 2021

Anjani Trivedi 3 November 2021
As the world focuses on the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow, the dawn of the electric vehicle era is sure to be touted as a major solution to a severe emissions problem. What few policy makers and business leaders seem to acknowledge, though, is just how dirty a process making these cars has become.
The transport sector is responsible for almost a quarter of direct carbon-dioxide emissions from burning fuel. Of that, passenger cars account for 45%. The challenge goes beyond what comes out of the tailpipe: Every step of making a vehicle’s 20,000 to 30,000 parts, which involves several thousands tons of aluminum, steel and other materials, produces emissions.