Sign my cycling petition

My petition on the Number 10 site-

Introduce a Cycling Proficiency style test for children and adults to make them more confident and competent on the road. This will be voluntary except for- bus and taxi drivers, officials with responsibilities for transport, those guilty of certain driving offences and motoring journalists. Include a section on cycle craft into the driving test which will be waived for any learner who has passed Cycling Proficiency in the last five years. This will make motorists more aware of other road users, improve the safety of cyclists on our roads and hopefully increase the number of people using bikes.

Please pop over and sign it. It's far more reasonably worded than most of the transport related petitions on there and I think it's a realistic proposal. The bit about motoring journalists is a joke.

They should have their licences revoked automatically.

Technorati tag: Cycling, Petition

Catching up with Green links

I've been neglecting How to Save the World for Free, and not cross-posting Green links from Spinneyhead. So here are as many as I could find, just to catch up.

Some days I just want to go and live in a tent somewhere.

The fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we can look forward to a rise in the average global temperature of between 2.5 and 5 Celsius by the end of the century. The IPCC is considered conservative when assessing global warming, so for them to come out with such a serious assessment means the evidence is now overwhelming.

Watch our leaders say it's a terrible thing and something major needs to be done- then do nothing.

Action for Sustainable Living. I've been meaning to post this link since someone gave me their business card before Christmas.

Nuclear power plant sites, usually close to the sea, could be at risk from the effects of global warming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6289367.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6288957.stm
American industry groups are calling on George Bush to introduce mandatory emission standards in his State of the Union address.  He's not going to, but the sentiment is appreciated.

Australians take to their bikes.

2012 Olympics to be the "greenest ever".
Tony Blair takes the credit.

Does anyone really believe the supermarkets talk of going Green? Much like George Monbiot, I'm convinced it's all PR and the very nature of their business makes them unsustainable.

How Green is your supermarket? Following Tescos and Marks & Spencers' announcements, the Telegraph tests the big four to see how they're doing at present.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/19/ndress19.xml
Dissolving dresses as a metaphor for throwaway culture.

Tesco is the latest supermarket chain to insist it is going Green. The problem is, the Greenest thing many Tesco stores could do would be to close, because the emissions from all the cars driving to them is greater than any direct or indirect CO2 production getting the products on the shelves.

Scientists have developed a "health check" that can predict how farming methods will affect an area's biodiversity.

Green cleaning put to the test.

Britain is to have the world's first official carbon offsetting standards.

Asian states sign key energy deal.

European Commission rules will require new cars to produce less than 120 grams of CO2 per mile

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Climate links

A few links I've not had the time to post this week.

The Independent looks at companies that will help you offset the carbon cost of your flights and other activities.

Big businesses get together and have a climate change meeting.

Ming Campbell reassures us that airline taxes will not affect the poor.

David Cameron calls for a "culture change" to tackle global warming.

The EU announces new energy plans.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Politics

Floating on air and cutting emmissions at sea

A Danish helicopter pilot with a passion for sailing has developed a system that could cut the fuel consumption of cargo ships by 15%. It works by pumping air into a cavity under the ship, thus reducing drag. The extra cost of installing such a system on a brand new vessel would likely be paid for withing four years.

Technorati tag: Shipping

Charging for waste

The Local Government Association are proposing schemes to cut the amount of domestic waste. One possibility is to charge households more if they throw more stuff out. This will only work if there's a baseline amount of rubbish removal covered by Council Tax with rebates for those who produce less and charges for tose who produce more. And it wouldn't be the easiest thing to police.

A better idea, also hinted at, is to cut the amount of unnecessary material entering the house in the first place- fining manufacturers and shops whose products are over-packaged.

Technorati tag: Waste

Drivel in the Daily Telegraph

Janet Daley believes that Green policies are just a middle class plot to keep the 'umble workin' man down. Just in case they, like the Daily Mail, won't publish comments that are too sensible to fit their world view, here's my reply-

We have these things called feet, and there's a wonderful invention known as the bicycle. Intelligent use of these allows far more efficient access to the "metropolitan existence" than a car ever could, whilst saving enough money to more than cover any increased cost of longer journeys.

The call is for people to consume less. This, some fail to recognise, saves money. The poorer members of society will benefit more from it as energy costs are a greater proportion of their expenses. If Janet Daley really cares about the welfare of ordinary working people she should be calling for carbon trading and more energy saving measures to give them the boost they deserve.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Snowmen against global warming

Students in Oslo created a small army of plywood snowmen demonstrating against global warming, and placed them outside the Parliament buildings.

via BoingBoing

Technorati tag: Snowman, Norway

Meet the Green party's male principal speaker"

Derek Wall is the leader of the English Green party, or would be if they went in for such titles, and the only party head to be banned from every Tesco store in the country.

There's an interesting statistic in the profile.

Asked to name one or more other parties that they might support, Conservatives polled were much more likely to choose the Liberal Democrats or the Greens than parties such as UKIP.

Some 32% of Tories say they might vote Lib Dem and 19% say Green.

Technorati tag: Green Party, Green Party

Big, dumb and fading away

The sales of urban 4 wheel drives, and hopefully other oversized thirsty cars, look set to continue dropping as fuel economy becomes an important factor in purchases.

It's refreshing news, especially as, on top of all their other sins, they encourage bad driving in their owners.

Technorati tag: SUV, Road Safety

The Guardian's list of the top ten Greenest councils

Sadly, Manchester is nowhere on this list of the top ten Greenest councils and the twenty next best.

Technorati tag: Council, Green

Fighting Climate Change down on the farm

A collection of environment and agriculture related items from the BBC today-

David Cameron wants Britain's food labelling laws changed so UK farmers can benefit from "food Patriotism".

A project has launched to highlight the potential opportunities, as well as the dangers, of climate chenge for farmers.

The next generation of biofuels, one of the opportunities the above project will no doubt be looking into.

A conference on boosting the recycling of farm waste in East Anglia.

Technorati tag: Agriculture, Biofuel, Food Miles

Taking on the climate sceptics

No matter that the mass of evidence points to climate change being real and influenced by mankind, there are still some who won't accept it. The few dissenters get funding and far more airtime than their minority views deserve, without really saying anything of any substance. So Britain's leading climate scientist is calling on them to put up or shut up and present their arguments against global warming for consideration by their peers.

You can follow the debate, and even participate, at www.nerc.ac.uk.

Technorati tag: Global Warming

Interactive greenery

The Guardian has an interactive guide to cutting your house's energy consumption and waste production.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Flash