Climate Crisis: Are we doing enough?

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Pross

Über Member
On bike radar, there was a thread with an excellent title. It encouraged people to sell their cars and take public transport instead. Unfortunately, despite being a bike forum, the content was less excellent.

On my local FB group (which I usually avoid due to it being populated mainly by morons) there was someone complaining about people parking all over the village green / common to drop off or pick up their kids from school. The responses were mainly along the lines of 'what are we supposed to do when there isn't enough parking' and when it was suggested their kids could walk to school there was a horrified response at the idea of 4 year olds having to walk 'that far' (the catchment for the primary school is a maximum of around a mile). It was embarassing to read.
 

laurentian

Regular
Proud to say this is my mate:

https://thebicyclebus.co.uk/
 

PurplePenguin

Well-Known Member
On my local FB group (which I usually avoid due to it being populated mainly by morons) there was someone complaining about people parking all over the village green / common to drop off or pick up their kids from school. The responses were mainly along the lines of 'what are we supposed to do when there isn't enough parking' and when it was suggested their kids could walk to school there was a horrified response at the idea of 4 year olds having to walk 'that far' (the catchment for the primary school is a maximum of around a mile). It was embarassing to read.

The usual excuse is that people need to drop their kids off on the way to work.

The road in front of my kids' school is no entry during pick-up and drop times and enforced by cameras; however, some parents have convinced the council to exempt them from the fines on the basis their child has some sort of special needs and they need the easier drop off. I'm not completely heartless, but I feel like this need has been stretched quite a lot.
 

PurplePenguin

Well-Known Member
Indeed.

This is something I find increasingly difficult as time goes by; how the heck do I talk to cyclists who have some green awareness, but just don't want to make the big sacrifices. The number of Brits flying their bikes to Majorca every spring/winter - and those people will almost all do a summer fly-away trip too - just depresses me! Many of them are people I know, and are otherwise "reasonable" people.

In contrast, I don't worry about the actions of individuals. Everyone has their weaknesses. Decarbonising is something that the government should, and to some extent, is leading. The recent CFD award was for a pretty chunky amount of offshore wind and the onshore stuff is to follow. Sustainable aviation fuel is being pushed. Electric cars are being adopted.
 

matticus

Legendary Member
In contrast, I don't worry about the actions of individuals. Everyone has their weaknesses. Decarbonising is something that the government should, and to some extent, is leading. The recent CFD award was for a pretty chunky amount of offshore wind and the onshore stuff is to follow. Sustainable aviation fuel is being pushed. Electric cars are being adopted.

Yes, that's a very sensible attitude.

[But on t'other hand, 60 million people flying a few 1000km each DOES make some difference. Sigh ... ]
 

monkers

Shaman
My wife and I like to travel the world with the kids when we go on holiday. It's very hard to get to places like Malaysia, Florida, Dubai, St Lucia, Mauritius, Canada etc for a two week holiday without using a plane.
There's no justification there for making the journey. I'd quite like to visit those places too - except Florida now of course - but wanting to go is not a justification - it's (to quote myself) ''a whim''.
 

icowden

Shaman
There's no justification there for making the journey.
That's a bit strong. We all have justifications - some better than others. Malaysia originally was our honeymoon. Justification for going back with the kids is that it's an amazing country and it needs tourists as it has a tourism economy. Tourists help offset the destruction of rainforest for Palm Oil.

Mauritius and St Lucia again have a tourism economies. Dubai I could have lived without. We went to Iceland because my daughter was studying A-Level geography and has a particular interest in volcanoes.

Obviously more minor justifications is that our family like to go to interesting places, see the wildlife and the history and learn about our planet to a degree. Plus a lot of them like to go somewhere warm, and the UK tends to be quite expensive compared to a holiday abroad.
 

matticus

Legendary Member
Mauritius and St Lucia again have a tourism economies. Dubai I could have lived without.

OMG - I missed that one in your list!!! But hey "like to go somewhere warm" is a perfectly good justification, I guess?
 

matticus

Legendary Member
How on earth did we get through the Dark Ages before cheap air travel? How did anyone know about foreign cultures? Did anyone survive the long dark north european winters??

I feel so lucky!
 

icowden

Shaman
How on earth did we get through the Dark Ages before cheap air travel? How did anyone know about foreign cultures? Did anyone survive the long dark north european winters??
Well my grandma went on a month long cruise to Africa. She was considered quite adventurous.

People took a boat. Most people also knew far less about foreign cultures.
 

monkers

Shaman
Well my grandma went on a month long cruise to Africa. She was considered quite adventurous.

People took a boat. Most people also knew far less about foreign cultures.

But don't you see the political flaw in the argument? These kinds of arguments start to sound uncomfortably close to the old logic of colonialism — where wealthy countries justify taking what they want by saying it ‘helps’ the places they visit. For example, Malaysia’s economy is shaped by global power dynamics too; it literally trades palm oil for UK military jets. Tourism there doesn’t exist outside that context.
 

monkers

Shaman
When I was a young child, the family lived in a house with a long rear drive servicing the garages. The drive was non-maintained by the council, therefore private and a collective responsibility for residents with no agreement in place. When it became almost impassable, due to drainage issues, one resident lobbied other residents to pay a share to fix the problems. The resident nearest the entrance decided he'd contribute towards repairs from the entrance to his garage. So the next chap along decided he wouldn't contribute to this but only from the end of that repair to his garage. This attitude spread all along the way, right to the endmost house who wanted to pay precisely nothing because if ''everybody else would only do their bit'' he could get to his garage no problem. He also happened to be the one who had a couple of exotic holidays each year and was not shy to say that was why he couldn't afford to pay - not prepared to give up his holidays.

This is the exact model of opting out of climate emergency control measures - a self-justification for either denying the problem, or otherwise justifying why they shouldn't be the one to pay. On the other hand, the 'polluter must pay' principle should hold, but in the UK the polluter is subsidised personally by the subsidy on aviation fuel, and even rewarded by frequent flyer discounts. People who do not fly are often disadvantaged by airport expansion with the accompanying air, noise, and light pollution.

We live in an age where 'want' is barely discriminated from 'need'. The model is unsustainable. We are all aware of the consequences, including those pretending the science says otherwise.
 
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The Crofted Crest

Well-Known Member
All the boys and girl's in my son's primary school went by bike (we live in Holland). Apart from one boy who got dropped off and picked up by car evdry day. Oscar. He was the only fat kid in the class. Make of that what you wil.
 
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