Climate Change

The road closure brigade believe that barricading us into our roads is somehow saving the planet. They believe it reduces car use. They see cars as having the major responsibility for climate change

Actually the 70 road closures imposed on residents by Cllr Clyde Loakes have had NO impact on car reduction in the borough. Waltham Forest has actually seen LESS car reduction than other boroughs which have not closed off roads.

Vehicles are brilliant. Even the most hardened car-phobic relies on vehicles for deliveries of almost everything they consume including bicycles! Cars have enabled massive increases in opportunities and experiences and have opened up all kinds of possibilities never dreamed of by our ancestors.

Yes there is a problem with pollution. But technology is already solving this. There will be electric cars. We can make all the electricity needed by using renewables. Improvements are being made all the time to battery technology. Hydrogen fuel cells are another option. Systems are being developed that remove all brake and tyre particulates.

When this is explained to the road-closure brigade they change tack. Apparently roads are meant for children to play hopscotch on; using them to travel on interferes with this. They complain about publicly owned space being used for "car storage"; weasel words that mean "parking". Evidently only wealthy home owners with their own drives and garages should be allowed to own vehicles. Bike storage is OK of course, even if it reduces pavement widths to below Disability Access standard. A favourite complaint is "unnecessary journeys"; do they want us all to apply to the local Lycra police for a pass before we go anywhere?

We do not believe this is about caring for the planet at all really. Many of the road-closure brigade show no care nor empathy for their fellow human beings and the suffering and inconvenience they report from Mini Holland initiatives. But more importantly, should transport really be the major, and in some cases, the only target?

There is a very interesting article in today's Guardian Weekend about Bill Gates who is passionate about dealing with climate change and is putting millions towards research into tackling it. He claims the "green new deal" is peddling fantasies. He says the most important thing is to develop carbon neutral sources to power the electricity grid. His new book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" goes into much more detail, but interesting points from the article include:-

Transport (including air travel) accounts for only 16% of global emissions
If you make a ton of cement you also make a ton of carbon dioxide. This generates massively more carbon emissions than transport across the world. Cement is used in ALL our buildings and infrastructure. Gates is ploughing money into research on this
The pandemic has meant we released the equivalent of 49bn tons of carbon instead of 51bn - ie a 5% reduction. But this was at the cost of 10s of millions of people losing their employment. This is proof he says that flying and driving less is not the thing to concentrate on.
We need to find zero-carbon ways to produce electricity, make things, grow food, keep our buildings cool or warm and move people and goods around the world.

Maybe the road-closure brigade could divert their passion to this more productive way of proceeding?