@ClimateHuman
My colleagues at @ScientistRebel1 are currently glued to a famous Porsche showroom in Germany. They called me to ask if I would formally be the “responsible person” for the action. I said yes in solidarity. I will support scientist riskers anywhere in the world as much as I can
Oct 19, 2022
Transport for London (TfL) is to re-start funding for schemes designed to improve streets for cycling and walking. A range of active travel projects across the capital were paused after TfL’s finances were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In August TfL agreed a £1.2bn funding settlement with DfT up to March 2024 (LTT 2 Sep). This follows a series of short-term emergency deals which, said TfL, curtailed its ability to support active travel projects.
Under the new settlement, TfL must allocate £80m every year to active travel schemes.
Funding will go to safer junction schemes at Holloway Road/Drayton Park and Battersea Bridge (subject to consultation), and pedestrian and cycling improvements at Streatham High Road and Manor Circus.
TfL will also continue lowering speed limits across London to reduce road danger, with plans to introduce a 20mph speed limit on a further 28km of roads in the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Haringey by March 2023.
Edmund King insists dedicated infrastructure for bike riders helps ease motor traffic congestion, and urges government to protect funding
The president of the UK’s biggest motoring organisation, the AA, says that drivers should welcome cycle lanes because by encouraging people to get out of their cars and onto bikes for everyday journeys, they help improve motor traffic flow and reduce congestion.
Edmund King has also called on the government to protect active travel funding from falling victim to widely expected spending cuts in the Budget, which is due at the end of this month, reports the Daily Telegraph.
“Even though we’re a motoring organisation, that doesn’t mean you need to use your motor all the time,” explained King.
“Journeys under a mile and a half are in many ways the most expensive way to use a car,” he said, “because your car’s not warmed up, you’re only going a short distance, and you’ve got to pay to park.”
System change is – and has always been – our only realistic means of defending the living planet.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 19th July 2022
Can we talk about it now? I mean the subject most of the media and most of the political class has been avoiding for so long. You know, the only subject that ultimately counts – the survival of life on Earth. Everyone knows, however carefully they avoid the topic, that, beside it, all the topics filling the front pages and obsessing the pundits are dust. Even the Times editors still publishing columns denying climate science know it. Even the candidates for the Tory leadership, ignoring or downplaying the issue, know it. Never has a silence been so loud or so resonant.
@fietsprofessor
You know you have a mainstream cycling culture when this is how helmets and hi-viz are used around young children. Meet the worlds happiest traffic controller: Johan Zandvliet from Zwolle.
Steve Knattress – Oct 12, 2022
Camden Cycling Campaign and Cycle Islington campaigners form human barrier to traffic for people cycling on Old Street to highlight 8 years of inaction on one of most dangerous cycling corridors in London
East Antarctic glacier melting at 70.8bn tonnes a year due to warm sea water
Denman glacier in remote part of the continent could become unstable, possibly contributing to more sea level rise than predicted
Lisa Cox
The Denman ice shelf in east Antarctica is melting at a rate of 70.8bn tonnes a year, according to researchers from Australia’s national science agency, thanks to the ingress of warm sea water.
The CSIRO researchers, led by senior scientist Esmee van Wijk, said their observations suggested the Denman glacier was potentially at risk of unstable retreat.
The glacier, in remote east Antarctica, sits atop the deepest land canyon on Earth. It holds a volume of ice equivalent to 1.5m of sea level rise.
Until relatively recently, it was thought east Antarctica would not experience the same rapid ice loss that is occurring in the west. But some recent studies have shown warm water is reaching that part of the continent too.
Isabella Kaminski
A legal challenge has been launched against a road scheme that opponents say clashes with climate goals.
Changes aimed at improving car journeys between Milton Keynes and Cambridge by upgrading junctions and building a 10-mile dual carriageway on the A428 between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet were approved in the summer. The scheme, estimated to cost £810m-£950m, is listed in the government’s growth plan for accelerated delivery.
But Transport Action Network (TAN) filed for judicial review at the end of September, arguing the Department for Transport (DfT) was wrong to only assess emissions from the scheme against the national carbon budget.
Instead, the climate campaign group points to professional guidance from the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, which recommends using sectoral, regional and local carbon budgets to contextualise a project’s greenhouse gas emissions.
@HarryHamishGray
