Cynics of course might guess it's a bit of Extinction Rebellion/Greta Thunberg band-wagon jumping.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Climate Crisis
(1297 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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It’s good that there’s a sudden rush of political will around climate change (though I would definitely count myself among the cynics, Rosie...)
Terms like “carbon neutral” and “net-zero” seem like they cloud the issue though. They sound like a big improvement, so politicians are crowing about seemingly bold goals of getting to those states by 2045, 2050, or whenever.
It sounds a lot less bold if you say “we’ll try to stop making things worse by 2050.”
Posted 5 years ago # -
“
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) urged that Scotland set the target five years ahead of the UK as a whole.
The panel says Scotland has more potential sites for carbon capture and a greater landmass for tree planting
“
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48123960
Yes well but will the right sort of trees be planted in the right places?
Will the carbon ‘captured’ remain as timber products, burnt for fuel or left to decay where they are planted?
Will the incentives/tax breaks lead to some problems as previously?
Etc.
Posted 5 years ago # -
'Time to upgrade your car to a bike' themed article from Lesley Riddoch.
Well known Spokes member featured in shot. Don't know if she's a National reader (!)Article covers wider issues of tree planting and power generation.
Posted 5 years ago # -
An online comment -
“
Jennifer Andres1 hr ago
5I would love to see a feasability and holistic costing study done whereby we explore free public transport for all, say within x miles of city centres. If you imagine people being able to take a bus from their suburb into town for work etc, for free, it would be transformative. I think a huge number of people would leave their cars at home, easing congestion and improving air quality. It would be progressive, because people with the least money would benefit most, especially those with jobs who pay a disproportionate amount of their wages to get to town. It would change the assumptions of the suburban house builders, who build for everyone driving, with these long curved roads and roundabouts instead of short walkable paths to the nearest bus stop. It would be expensive, but then so is treating asthma etc caused by pollution, fixing the potholes, dealing with the mental health implications of isolation and loneliness. The buses are slow and mostly late at the moment, but that is also because they sit in the same soup of traffic jams as the car drivers - if the roads were quieter, buses could become much more reliable. The bus companies are already subsidised but I don't know by how much. It might prove impossible, but I would love the Common Weal or someone else to do a study of what it would mean and what the real costs would be.“
Posted 5 years ago # -
It sounds a lot less bold if you say “we’ll try to stop making things worse by 2050.”
Same as when government talk about reducing the deficit, not the actual overall debt.
To reduce overall government borrowing, there needs to be a surplus (not a deficit, albeit a smaller one).
Posted 5 years ago # -
Politicians simply cannot deliver the "wartime footing" required by a climate emergency. It would entail stopping all domestic and short haul flights. Massive restrictions on car use. Huge overhaul of agriculture. Serious restrictions on the activity of most private businesses. Possible restrictions on food available etc.
In effect a serious hit to most people's quality of life - almost no-one is going to vote for any politician proposing such changes. Unless people see climate change as posing a direct threat to their lives then they will not accept the required changes, which they would accept during a war.
I just don't think our political systems are up to the task.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“
Ride a bike, don’t drive, eat less or no meat, take fewer flights, avoid single-use plastic and disposable nappies; in no time at all, the business of saving the planet became indelibly linked in the public mind with a litany of self-denial that reflected one of the traditional battle-lines of British politics, between puritanical and moralistic Roundheads on one side, and laughing, reckless Cavaliers – the Jeremy Clarkson tendency, if you like – on the other.
“
Posted 5 years ago # -
Someone I know is flying to NI and back with their kids for one day to see an exhibition - because the airline tickets were so amazingly cheap.
Because we don't tax air travel properly.
They admitted they wouldn't have thought of doing it if the price was higher (c. £20 RETURN for each of the kids).
If we can't grasp the nettle of tax & flying were so very stuffed.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@unhurt, On a similar not are organised one day trips to Finland to visit Santa Claus, or sightseeing flights to view the Northern Lights.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@unhurt to my shame, I took a one day return trip from Edinburgh to Dublin around 2002 due to a stupidly cheap ticket offer. The airport buses at either end were more expensive than the cost of the flights including tax. I haven't flown in around three years now and don't have any plans to do so.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Gasper Noe's recent film "Climax" is prescient
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359848/
Life is a Collective Impossibility
Posted 5 years ago # -
“
The world's most comprehensive, and damning, report on the state of nature will be released on Monday in Paris.
The UN's Global Assessment will highlight the distressing impact that humanity is having on the natural world.
“
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Heatwaves could be made more severe by measures to reduce air pollution"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48174218
Posted 5 years ago # -
Saw that @baldycyclist
The guy who has modelled the atmosphere after reduction in pollution must have made some assumptions there. Sure he is top prof etc. Would like to know more as deny-ers will
Latch onPosted 5 years ago # -
Not sure there is anything there for the deniers to latch on to.
Seems that we've screwed with everything to the point that whatever we do, fixing it is going to be nigh on impossible. Just another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Warning sign this morn when Tories were on RS saying how the APD will hurt families etc.
Was always going to be tricky for SNP / Green alliance.
It's correct decision but no doubt will be spun as wrong by the UK press Scottish titles.
Edinburgh Airport growth rate will slow but city will still get visitors.
Tories will be against room tax in Edin too?Northern Ireland has 0% APD on flights to band B (over 2000 miles from London)?
Posted 5 years ago # -
“Edinburgh Airport growth rate will slow but city will still get visitors”
“Schiphol airport’s capacity is to be capped”
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=17015&page=10#post-306124
Posted 5 years ago # -
Edinburgh airport - 14 million passengers per year
Schipol - 71 million passengers per year
Heathrow - 80 million passengers per yearLooks like Schipol does need to set limits.....but then so does Heathrow. Yet they are apparently building a third runway.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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Reading over a report at work and having a mild panic attack:
"The UK Met Office climate projections (UKCP18) for Orkney show that under a high emissions scenario (RCP8.5) using a 1981-2000 baseline, that [...] by end of this century both summer and winter temperatures will be 5 to 6°C higher."
Posted 5 years ago # -
413.32ppm today, 393.00pm in the first May of CCE - 2010. 5% increase in the lifetime of the forum.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@chdot thsy BBC article is alarming.
"Now they are looking in desperation at an ecosystem that will be gone at the end of the century and now all options are on the table" including options that are likely to damage the environment, albeit in ways that *may* help to alleviate climate breakdown...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Sunday Mail backs Scottish Greens (offer ends 24th May?)
This is desperate stuff from Mirror group (in my jaundiced view).
Never mind the climate emergency this is an electoral emergency and any way of diluting the lack lustre performance of other parties is worth a shot?
I will of course accept I'm wrong if this Go Green initiative is part of a long running campaign they have launched. Reminds me more of 'the vo w' though.
On front page and page 8.
https://twitter.com/Sunday_Mail/status/1127438250405031936?s=20
In other news Rangers beat Celtic today so Green headline may not go down well with 50% of the fitba' readership.
Posted 5 years ago # -
You’re not alone
Posted 5 years ago # -
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1127681719216353280?s=09
"This is the first time in human history our planet's atmosphere has had more than 415ppm CO2.
Not just in recorded history, not just since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Since before modern humans existed millions of years ago.
We don't know a planet like this. https://t.co/azVukskDWr "
Posted 5 years ago #
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