Climate Crisis: Are we doing enough?

[Rusty Nails]

Anyone with children is a disgusting climate hating polluter.

I'm doubly damned then. Need a holiday to get over it.

 

[PurplePenguin]

From where? It is pretty much overnight from Plymouth and about 5 times the price of a shït flight.

Plymouth, Poole or somewhere in Brian's direction.

 

[Psamathe]

Not trying to guilt trip you at all, but taking the mick about the general level of hypocricy in the climate debate. There is always a reason that people use to explain why their level of travel isn't as bad as it may seem.

Not suggesting it isn't as bad as it seems, just that I do everything and more to minimise and offset (eg vegetarian eg central heating system drained 8 years ago, etc).

Never actually flown to Myanmar, went there by bus.

But I do long haul flights but it's all a sliding scale eg 6 times as far but for over 8 times as long ie maximise use of the carbon pollution I cause.

To me addressing climate pollution is about everybody doing what they can and not that everybody has to follow everybody else's rules. I'm vegetarian, no central heating, drive hardly any distance, etc. because I can achieve those aspects - for others it will be different reductions.

 

[briantrumpet]

Plymouth, Poole or somewhere in Brian's direction.

Plymouth is easy enough to get to, but doing 20mph and taking six hours to get to Roscoff, then having to hack all the way to Paris by coach and train to go south rules it out, sadly. I've also done a crossing in Force 9 winds when we weren't allowed entry into Plymouth, anchored in Cawsand Bay overnight, dragged the anchor at 4am, and got in 12 hours late the next morning.

It's also not very cheap now. When I did the crossing by foot in the mid 1990s, a return was about £20. But still not worth the hassle if you want to go south, as all transport routes from Brittany are based on going to Paris first, partly because of the topography of France.

Lille -Valence TGV is brilliant.

 

[First Aspect]

Plymouth is easy enough to get to, but doing 20mph and taking six hours to get to Roscoff, then having to hack all the way to Paris by coach and train to go south rules it out, sadly. I've also done a crossing in Force 9 winds when we weren't allowed entry into Plymouth, anchored in Cawsand Bay overnight, dragged the anchor at 4am, and got in 12 hours late the next morning.

It's also not very cheap now. When I did the crossing by foot in the mid 1990s, a return was about £20. But still not worth the hassle if you want to go south, as all transport routes from Brittany are based on going to Paris first, partly because of the topography of France.

Lille -Valence TGV is brilliant.

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Has the Nissan finally gone to the spirit in the sky?

 

[briantrumpet]

Has the Nissan finally gone to the spirit in the sky?

Well, it's parked up outside some posh person's house, and has been since mid-December, so I'm just assuming it will still work when I reconnect the battery, whenever.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Plymouth is easy enough to get to, but doing 20mph and taking six hours to get to Roscoff, then having to hack all the way to Paris by coach and train to go south rules it out, sadly. I've also done a crossing in Force 9 winds when we weren't allowed entry into Plymouth, anchored in Cawsand Bay overnight, dragged the anchor at 4am, and got in 12 hours late the next morning.

It's also not very cheap now. When I did the crossing by foot in the mid 1990s, a return was about £20. But still not worth the hassle if you want to go south, as all transport routes from Brittany are based on going to Paris first, partly because of the topography of France.

Lille -Valence TGV is brilliant.

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Isn't Cherbourg Paris easier?

 

[First Aspect]

Isn't Cherbourg Paris easier?

Exeter to Southampton is hard.

 

[briantrumpet]

Isn't Cherbourg Paris easier?

Probably, but given that I need to go quite a long way east, and then a looong way south, actually trying to chop of a corner doesn't make that much difference, and avoiding Paris is A Good Idea. The nice thing about CdG is that the airport sits on the TGV line south, so you don't touch the city itself.

 

[briantrumpet]

Exeter to Southampton is hard.

It took me 4 hours to Portsmouth once (before various bypasses), but even now it's two hours to Southampton at best by car, and by train up to Salisbury (only one train every two hours now) and change to head SE. Over two hours, by which time I could almost be in London by train.

We really are quite stuffed in the SW peninsula for travel options. I suspect that @PurplePenguin is looking at transport options with his London hat on, where there are multiple fast options, and not realising quite how pitiful it is elsewhere. I mean, looking at the rationale for the Gunnislake line, it's like something from the 1930s still, and a close-run thing between terrible roads and a railway line that often is restricted to 15mph and literally has to stop at unmanned, un-barriered level crossings, in case a car is coming. It's hilarious, as long as you don't really want to go anywhere.

 

[briantrumpet]

The other thing is that I am trying to do it without driving. Which makes it harder, obviously. But it's do-able, either in a very long day, or an easier day-and-a-half. In the days of Flybe Exeter-Paris, I could do it for about £120 in 9 hours by bike, plane, train, train, walk, for what would be an 850-mile very expensive and extremely tedious drive of 20 hours, with French road tolls alone of £70 each way.

 

[First Aspect]

It took me 4 hours to Portsmouth once (before various bypasses), but even now it's two hours to Southampton at best by car, and by train up to Salisbury (only one train every two hours now) and change to head SE. Over two hours, by which time I could almost be in London by train.

We really are quite stuffed in the SW peninsula for travel options. I suspect that @PurplePenguin is looking at transport options with his London hat on, where there are multiple fast options, and not realising quite how pitiful it is elsewhere. I mean, looking at the rationale for the Gunnislake line, it's like something from the 1930s still, and a close-run thing between terrible roads and a railway line that often is restricted to 15mph and literally has to stop at unmanned, un-barriered level crossings, in case a car is coming. It's hilarious, as long as you don't really want to go anywhere.

They've put lights on those now, so the train can go past at 5mph without stopping, and you can wave at the passenger.

Happy I rarely go anywhere other than over Dartmoor at the moment, because I can work 10-12 hours a day at home.

 

[PurplePenguin]

It took me 4 hours to Portsmouth once (before various bypasses), but even now it's two hours to Southampton at best by car, and by train up to Salisbury (only one train every two hours now) and change to head SE. Over two hours, by which time I could almost be in London by train.

We really are quite stuffed in the SW peninsula for travel options. I suspect that @PurplePenguin is looking at transport options with his London hat on, where there are multiple fast options, and not realising quite how pitiful it is elsewhere. I mean, looking at the rationale for the Gunnislake line, it's like something from the 1930s still, and a close-run thing between terrible roads and a railway line that often is restricted to 15mph and literally has to stop at unmanned, un-barriered level crossings, in case a car is coming. It's hilarious, as long as you don't really want to go anywhere.

I was thinking Poole to Cherbourg, but clearly if the journey to Poole is that arduous then it doesn't work. That said, I'd always look to travel in different ways and stop in different places, because I like seeing new things.

 

[PurplePenguin]

Also, on the random date I selected, it's only £18 from Poole to Cherbourg.

 

[briantrumpet]

I was thinking Poole to Cherbourg, but clearly if the journey to Poole is that arduous then it doesn't work. That said, I'd always look to travel in different ways and stop in different places, because I like seeing new things.

Yes, Poole is also a PITA from the SW, 5h19 by train. I could be in Lille in the same time.

England suffers a similar problem to France in that so many transport options radiate from London, so if you're used to starting in London, you have little idea of the PITAness of starting elsewhere. But the SW is particularly badly served, partly because of the nature of being stuck out in the Atlantic, but also because of historic lack of investment in alternatives (e.g in the A303, and the Waterloo line).