“Everything I've heard/read says that Active travel has been totally ignored at COP26.”
Not totally, but swamped by the overwhelming ‘the future is electric (cars)’.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
COP26
(219 posts)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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Obama criticises China and Russia for ‘dangerous absence of urgency’ – day eight live
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Posted 2 years ago # -
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What do scientists want from COP26 this week?
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Posted 2 years ago # -
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Sir Patrick Vallance said behaviour change was starting to happen but needed to go further and said he cycled to work, ate less meat and had taken the train to the climate summit in Glasgow. He also said the climate crisis was a far bigger problem than coronavirus and would kill more people if immediate changes were not made.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
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Tom Heap analyses the promises made so far at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
I hate the term "behaviour change" - it places the onus on the individual rather than the government. It implies that there is "good behaviour" and "bad behaviour" and that "bad behaviour" is in some way a moral failing, rather than a reasonable reaction to your environment.
I think anyone unfamiliar with policy speak would hear calls to "change their behaviour" as "Why are you doing this wrong/being so stupid? Stop it at once and do what I say instead." Any parent will be able to tell you how successful that is as a strategy.
Governments don't need to talk about behaviour, they simply need to take action and explain what they are doing and why - "We are making it safer and easier for you to cycle short trips. Cycling is good exercise, good for the environment and good for your wallet."
Posted 2 years ago # -
Morningsider for PM :-)
Posted 2 years ago # -
@neddie - imagine what the going rate for Tory PM is, if it's £3m for a seat in the Lords?
Posted 2 years ago # -
@morningsider that's a whole academic discipline out of work :)
Language is clearly a problem as you say.
Behaviour change is something that can be observed, and it certainly is desirable that behaviour change is needed to deal with the climate crisis. Given the previous referenced survey, there is clear concern that too few are willing to make the changes needed.
I have been disappointed at the lack of messaging for individuals at this COP26. I'd like to hope that some have been inspired, but I expect not many. Certainly not Johnson and other local VIPs. Buy-in and action by the many should be key.
Posted 2 years ago # -
“I have been disappointed at the lack of messaging for individuals at this COP26“
But isn’t that one of the issues - emphasising/expecting ’the work’ to be done by individuals?
Plenty things individuals could/can do - less meat, less flying, ‘buy an electric car’.
The last one has questionable benefits, the others likely to be marginal unless done by MANY more people.
I think there is case for suggesting that the best thing individuals can do is more activism.
Actual campaigning or going on marches and emailing politicians and companies etc.
Campaigns FOR better food (not animals fed predominantly on soya for instance),
Campaigns FOR better housing (not least insulation and heating systems).
Campaigns FOR better transport (well you know…).
Campaigns FOR better education (one thing is sure, anyone at school now is going to have to deal with a different world - good and bad).
Etc.
Join a group, don’t join a group.
Challenge the complacency.
Challenge the greenwash
Challenge the ‘everyone drives, so everything that impacts driving is undemocratic’.
Challenge poor regulations.
Challenge poor enforcement.
Challenge poor sanctions.
Things like -
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And he warned the public “should not pay a penny” towards fixing sewage networks which were “a private company’s asset”.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
I do agree, but latch onto this "unless done by MANY more people." This is exactly what has to happen.
Posted 2 years ago # -
“This is exactly what has to happen.“
Yes.
I have small degree of optimism.
Greta may have gone back to school, but she’s not going away.
Not just about one person, but maybe a lot of individuals.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Expectations can be confounded. Remember how reluctant the gov was to impose rules at the start of the pandemic because of concerns that people wouldn't comply.
Our government needs to clearly say how important it is.
Posted 2 years ago # -
One individual (well known to CCE) is full-on-form campaigning (perhaps obsessing) about a small local thing that is SO IMPORTANT that large numbers of “us” went along to demonstrate support (photos) -
https://mobile.twitter.com/david_mccraw/status/1457748566508703745
Posted 2 years ago # -
Not obsessing
The man is a legend
I saw him the other day
His mini-mes on back of bike both sporting umbrellas
Posted 2 years ago # -
Wasn’t suggesting obsessing in a medical sense.
Posted 2 years ago # -
That thread is magic. Well done Dave.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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6m ago
11:29
Here’s some footage of a protest this morning by cycling advocates who are angry that the Cop26 day dedicated to transport focuses almost exclusively on fossil fuel-powered means such as motor vehicles and aviation, with almost no attention paid to sustainable methods of transport such as cycling and walking, which already exist.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
@Morningsider I've grown to dislike phrases like:
- get a bike
- take the bus
- you're not stuck in traffic, you are trafficIn response to anyone complaining about driving. People don't sit in traffic for the fun of it, there are fundamental issues making those other options unattractive. It is up to councils/governments to make those options attractive enough that you don't have to tell people to use them.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"People don't sit in traffic for the fun of it, there are fundamental issues making those other options unattractive. "
The fundamental issues are mostly societal. It is regarded as normal to drive, it has been normalised by a combination of industry marketing and social pressure to conform. Any transport choice that is not driving is regarded as abnormal, eccentric or (supposedly) inconvenient. People hold these beliefs (or perhaps more fittingly, prejudices) in spite of any evidence to the contrary.
We only need to go back in time about sixty years or so to see a society where driving was not the norm, but the exception. However it was seen as something high status, an activity to aspire to, a dream of modernity and symbol of success. Much as it was regarded in North America in the prior decades. People literally bought into a version of the American Dream, but in a small, overcrowded island. This vision of the open road of Freedom and capitalist excess, is still the way private motor vehicles are marketed today. This is despite the fact that the Cold War is long over, and the "enemy" vision of good cheap public transport and communal values can no longer be seen as a threat to Western liberal democracy.
In other words, it's pure ideology that drove the inhabitants of this island to rip up extensive tram networks and replace with buses; to cut railways back to an inner core and build motorways on old track beds. Somehow this island has clung to the American Dream, even when equivalent countries in continental Europe have invested heavily in public transport and active travel networks.
Unless people's belief in this ideology is challenged then nothing will change here on this island. The cars will have electric motors, drivers will continue to park on footways and cycle lanes, and footways will also be littered with charging points for electric vehicles. Making public transport "more attractive" or building cycle lanes will only convert a minority, the majority will in fact see these moves as a threat to their lifestyle, a "waste of taxpayer's money", etc. even as they demand subsidies for more charging points and cheaper electricity to enable their driving habits.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Plus make the driving option unattractive/expensive/uncool. More so than it is already. At the moment driving is both far too convenient and normalised. Those dislikeable phrases are part of the process of denormalisation. Some more leadership from government would be welcome for sure (like drink-driving). But they are finding it quite hard to wean themselves from the teat of motoring tax revenues and are subject to heavy lobbying.
I quite regular encounter "normies" who, quite aside from any other barriers they may face to shifting mode, simply cannot comprehend that one can live without a car.
On making driving uncool, in the MediumDave dystopia, all cars would be painted elastoplast pink with a green stripe. When driven in urban areas a smell of overboiled cabbage or -- for the connoisseur -- dog flatus will be periodically released inside the cabin. Failure to keep the dispensing system in good order will, of course, be punishable by death at the beaks of the ravens.
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Posted 2 years ago #
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Let's recall for a moment the hard won freedoms of drivers in China, which they decided to celebrate in some style in 2010.
Posted 2 years ago # -
excellent coverage on 6pm STV news https://twitter.com/GoBikeGlasgow/status/1458501887355985920?s=20
Posted 2 years ago #
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