Tag Archives: climatechange

Environmental Backlash

Dear Paris:

Did you get the memo from the United Nations? – Global warming is a fact. A fact. Furthermore… a fact.

I mention this because it has come to my attention that you are turning on your environmentally conscious mayor. You dislike him because he’s making special bus and bike lanes and he’s closing some roads to traffic on weekends in favor of people walking, biking, and anything else. You hate him, and you’ll likely vote him out as soon as possible. He is a threat to you and the car that you love to drive everywhere.

But dear Parisien(ne), didn’t you read the report? Didn’t you hear the news? Did you notice the flowers blooming in February and the fact that you could have worn shorts today? This is no longer a test. This is not an optional thing. This is not about when it is conventient for YOU. This is happenning now, and it demands action.

Or maybe you’ll just drive in cricles. Till the river rises up and floods you out of house in home. Or extreme storms and mysterious tornadoes tear through your neighborhood. Maybe you drive around trying to outrun the record heat this summer. Ignore the arctic ice and Al Gore, drive that your new HumVee over to the overpriced café for a drink. Then drive around some more. Vote out that dam mayor and take a pic-axe to those bike lanes and buses. Pee on the metro and spit on the new tram line. After all.. you are a driver… it is your world.

Dear Parisien(ne)…. say it ain’t so?

your friend on two wheels,
bicyclemark

Fragile Continent

The following were my biggest concerns while trying to get across town during what turned out to be the worst storm of the decade in the Netherlands:

    Don’t get blown off your bike.

    Don’t get blown into a canal.

    Don’t be pushed onto oncoming traffic.

It may seem odd or stupid, but journey to and from the otherside of town featured some very scary moments where I nearly got into some terrible messes, and was indeed knocked clear off my bike. (read my story on trippist)

While the European Union recently announced some fairly lofty goals for reducing greenhouse emissions by 2020, it is very clear that whatever happens, this continent is going to suffer some very crazy weather. Some very dangerous weather.

Scanning the headlines last night, and all day today, I couldn’t believe the damage. People crushed, people blown into the ocean, into car accidents, into trees. Sure its no Tsunami or earthquake, but for a Europe that normally feels so ontop of things and ready for danger and prepared for whatever disasters, you really get a sense of how fragile everything is after a storm like this one.

No trains ran in Germany. The beautiful Hauftbahnhoft station closed down, as a huge chunk of it broke. Same here in the Netherlands. Container ships abandoned and sinking in the English channel, an oil spill in Rotterdam harbor. The list goes on and on.

We’re already paying the price for the reckless development of our ancestors, not to mention our current generation of working people. Considering all the havoc, any government that does not have a serious plan for cutting emissions and developing in a more sustainable and less polluting way, is not only stupid and dangerous… they are criminals. (no matter what continent we’re talking about)