Author name: Steven Edwards

Damien Gayle
The activists who took “climate action” against sports utility vehicles by flattening their tyres in the last two weeks have been receiving solidarity and calls for information from around the world.
Tyre Extinguishers provides instructions on how to deflate SUV tyres, offers guidance on who to target and collates reports of actions across the country. They have gauged the campaign’s reach by angry emails from SUV owners.

Energy watchdog says measures could help cut oil usage by 2.7m barrels a day within four months
Rob Davies
Driving more slowly, turning down the air-conditioning, car free Sundays and working from home should be adopted as emergency measures to reduce the global demand for oil, according to a 10-point plan from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Such measures and changes to consumer behaviour would allow the world to cut its oil usage by 2.7m barrels per day (bpd) within four months – equivalent to more than half of Russia’s exports – the global energy watchdog said.

22 September 2020
The 1970s in Assen. The city was then full of cars. Cars are
now restricted in the city centre, but it would be incorrect to
assume that they’ve gone away. In fact, car numbers have
tripled since this photo was taken.
A myth has grown up about the Dutch being enthusiastic cyclists who live in green cities and rarely drive. In reality, the majority of journeys are made by motorized vehicles and people who live car-free are in a small and shrinking minority.
A life without motorized vehicles
Over the last year I’ve travelled about 7000 km. 6200 km was covered by bike and the rest I walked (I walk our dog 2 km a day on a normal day, sometimes much more). 6000 km is nothing to boast about. It’s by no means an extreme distance to cycle in a year – it’s barely more than enough to provide the minimum amount of exercise required for health.

Research prepared by #BikeIsBest and the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy shows the general attitude in the UK towards e-bikes as well as a huge variety of their benefits, including the reduction of carbon emissions in comparison to electric vehicles (EVs). 
The full report is available to download by clicking here.A poll of adults conducted by YouGov, suggests a broad support for e-bikes as a means of reducing carbon, even amongst those who are not currently considering purchasing an e-bike. According to the YouGov poll, one fifth of adults who did not currently or previously own an e-bike were considering purchasing an e-bike in the future, while 67% of participants stated cost was the biggest obstacle preventing them from making a purchase. 
With simple policy improvements to address the cost factor as well as improved infrastructure, e-bikes have the ability to  transform the way we live. As part of a rapid evidence assessment, the #BikeIsBest and Active Travel Academy report highlighted the benefits of e-bikes:

Toby Porter
Climate crisis campaigners disrupted a government minister’s speech as he launched a Tory election campaign amid cars costing up to £1.98million.
Wandsworth Conservatives held their Gala Campaign Launch at a luxury car showroom, Joe Macari Performance Cars in Merton, where a McLaren P1 GTR could set you back the price of 20 black cabs or 200,000 boxes of washing powder.
It does on average about 20 miles to the gallon.
Education secretary Nadhim Sahawi was shocked to have the start of his speech there yesterday disrupted by “suprise guests” Extinction Rebellion Wandsworth, who dropped a banner bearing the words “No Planet B” from a balcony.
The two peaceful protesters were removed with what XR dubbed “totally unnecessary and unwarranted violence”.

Damien Gayle
A fourth London council has voted to oppose a new £2bn road tunnel under the Thames in east London, putting the capital’s mayor at loggerheads with local authorities over his biggest infrastructure project.
Sadiq Khan accused councils of “want[ing] to put off tough decisions”, after Greenwich councillors voted overwhelmingly to call for all work on the Silvertown tunnel to be paused immediately.
The vote means that both of the boroughs that would be primarily served by the tunnel now oppose it. Silvertown would link Greenwich peninsula with Royal Dock in Newham, where councillors two weeks ago voted for the tunnel to be cancelled. Lewisham and Hackney councils voted to oppose the tunnel in 2015.

Sep 14, 2019  Sebastian Blanco
• Environmental protest groups have been actively opposing the auto industry in Germany this summer, blocking a train carrying new Volkswagen vehicles earlier this month with their bodies.

UPDATE 9/14/19: Anti-SUV protestors entered the Frankfurt auto show when it opened to the public on Thursday, according to the Associated Press and as seen in the photo above. These protestors climbed on top of certain SUV models at the show and showed posters labeled “Klimakiller,” or “Climate Killer.”
UPDATE 9/9/19: Greenpeace and a German climate-change activist group, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, issued a statement demanding a ban on sport-utility vehicles. The Greenpeace International website declared: “What we are witnessing is a ‘SUVization’ of the model ranges being offered” and called today’s auto industry “truly grotesque.” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess will meet with the activists on Monday night for a debate about these issues, the New York Times reported today.

Zoe Williams

Rosanna Xia Oct. 2, 2019
Driving is not just an air pollution and climate change problem — turns out, it just might be the largest contributor of microplastics in California coastal waters.
That is one of many new findings, released Wednesday, from the most comprehensive study to date on microplastics in California. Rainfall washes more than 7 trillion pieces of microplastics, much of it tire particles left behind on streets, into San Francisco Bay each year — an amount 300 times greater than what comes from microfibers washing off polyester clothes, microbeads from beauty products and the many other plastics washing down our sinks and sewers.

Transport prediction models are not sophisticated enough to “balance all the ways in which we travel around nor agile enough to adapt to changing technology and human behaviour”, argues a report by urban design group Create Streets.