You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...

I'm in central(-ish) London for a couple of days in the midst of a Tube strike. Chaos - gridlock, buses packed and going slower than pedestrians, taxis all full and stuck in the traffic too, people jumping reds way after they've changed. Horrible.

It just goes to show how much we depend on public transport...

I'm steeling myself for another day of it.

50 cars = 1 bus

From the creative review blog.

Eco-Living Myth No 2: Small things matter

Despite what you might read in the press and many books, you will not save the planet simply by reusing your plastic bags, switching off your TV at the plug or putting your recycling out. You should do them, of course, but that's not eco-living. In fact these things are pretty much mainstream now.

In the West our ecological footprint is huge and small stuff won't make much of a dent. You will only cut that footprint significantly by hitting the big ticket items:

1. Food: buy local and organic, less meat, avoid processed foods, use leftovers and plan your purchase of fresh food to avoid waste.

2. Transport: walk, buy a bike, use public transport, work close to home (or at home), holiday locally (cycle touring is a top option).

3. Heating your home: insulate, insulate, insulate. Set your heating controls to what is comfortable wearing suitable clothes.

4. Consumerism: buy second hand, buy quality over quantity, spend your money on services (haircuts, pampering, sports, renting DVDs etc) rather than stuff, don't buy anything at all if you can help it.

So, yes, do the small stuff, but you're not eco-living unless you're doing much more than that.

The Road to ???

Interesting report from Her Majesty's Government today claiming that "the road, rail and air networks of Britain can all be greatly expanded without undermining Britain's commitment to reducing climate change emissions". Transport secretary, Ruth Kelly is launching a "pro-green, pro-growth" discussion paper today which will demonstrate how all this can be done.

So more travel, less carbon. Hmmm - Looks like another call for business as usual with a light green wash applied sloppily on its front cover to me. If this climate change business was that easy, why the heck hasn't it been sorted already?

The worst way to travel?

I broke my 15 months no-flying run this week (longest period since I was knee high to a greenfly). Love miles, I'm afraid - we only had a short window to see my brother in Belfast so flying it had to be.

I had forgotten what a bloody awful experience a modern airport is. You have to be there several days before take off to join a queue that wouldn't have been out of place in Soviet era Moscow, except with the added delight of luggage trains squeezing past with their annoying beeps. Then at security you have to take most of your clothes off and get your laptop out to go through the machine (and the bloody metal detector still bleeps - must be the alien implant). Once you've got dressed again, you go and sit in the noisiest shopping mall in the world before being summoned to a distant gate and you can actually get on board.

I had a bit of turbulence too on the way over resulting in some good squealing - I don't think any of it was mine. At Belfast airport, the baggage handlers were obviously on their lunch break as it took 30minutes to move the bags the 30 yards from the plane to the carousel.

On the way back we made a complete horlicks of the liquids/plastic bag thing (what is it actually meant to achieve?) and got sent to the back of the queue in disgrace.

I couldn't help wondering at the fact that people choose this method of torture over trains for domestic journeys - at least I had some sea to cross.

Why?

To get to London by train, I walk to the station, grab a coffee, walk onto the train, stow my luggage, sit down, open laptop, log on to wi-fi and pretend to do very important work when I'm actually on Facebook. At King's Cross I get up and walk off in the centre of the city. The choice is an easy one...

Who ate all the pies?*

Given that the game was rubbish, there's been a lot of interest in the ecological footprint of the FA Cup Final - 3000 times the size of the Wembley pitch. The big contributions came, not from Motty, but from transport to/from the stadium and the colossal amount of processed food that the fans ate to take their mind of the tedium acted out by the overpaid numpties on the pitch.

If you want to know more about ecological footprinting, I did two posts on it when I first started this blog:

1. Part 1: What is an ecological footprint?

2. Part 2: What is your ecological footprint?

* I apologise to non-UK readers for the number of obscure soccer references in this post. If you don't know who Motty is then I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Fancy a day at home? Tell your boss it's good for the planet

I've been doing a little bit of research on the environmental implications of telecommuting (as part of a bigger study). It looks as if working from home not only leads to a big cut in car use, but your house probably takes less energy to heat (and, more importantly, cool), and you start using local amenities more. So, provided daytime TV is not too much of temptation (quite the opposite in my case), why not bully your boss into giving you a day or two a week working in your PJs?

If you want a bit more detail on this, I've had an article published on Management Issues that summarises the findings.

Train, Train, Train...

I love train trips, I really do, and I hate flying. Travelling by train is a true journey, an experience in itself, but flying is an ordeal - crap food, no sleep, cramped conditions - ending in disorientation as you stumble out of a tin can into a whole new country. I've published several accounts of train journeys, including the biggie of them all - the Trans-Siberian Railway, but I've never had anything good to write about a flight.

Flying has just got political. On the eve of the Scottish, Welsh and English local elections, you may have seen spoof ads in the papers today for 'Spurt Aviation', attacking Labour for being too close to the airlines. It takes a bit of digging into Spurt's website to find it is funded by Greenpeace, airportwatch and enoughsenough.com. The Tories suggested whacking a bigger tax on every flight after one tax-free flight a year, which would only have hit the rich (the average number of flights by UK citizens is 0.75 per year), but retreated swiftly as the right wing press harrumphed that it would hit 'the ordinary traveller'.

Both George Monbiot and Chris Goodall both ruled out flying altogether in their recent books. But what struck me in their analysis was that distance is the main factor rather than mode of transport. Flying long distance results in similar emissions to driving and only twice that of taking the train. I've mentioned Bab Haddrill's overland trip to Australia before. While I'm sure it was fun, it apparently resulted in half the carbon emissions of flying directly. You could argue that in climate change terms, her journey was worse than someone flying to Goa to lie on the beach for a fortnight before flying back.

So, having done my long distance trips in my youth and now having small sprog in tow, we're doing our holidays in the UK this year, plus a train trip to Cologne for business. I'm really looking forward to that.

Back in the saddle

Unfortunately my attempts at bike repair following my little accident came to nowt, so last week I bought a new bike. A bike is a major component of my eco-living as it slashes my transport footprint, but it also provides my main form of exercise, some of my favourite holidays and, frankly, I'm rarely happier than when I'm cruising along a country lane in the sunshine.

I use a bike for commuting, 5 day touring holidays and day long leisure rides, so I left all the £1000+ mountain bikes and road bikes to the lycra clad obsessives and stuck to an all-rounder - the hybrid. My shopping list was:

- 700c wheels with smooth-ish tyres for fast road pedalling, but a bit of grip in the mud
- no suspension - I prefer a firm ride for the type of cycling I do
- lugs for a decent rack (the type that fix to the seat post can only take 10kg - no good for touring)
- flat handle bars
- a decent range of gears (you'll appreciate a granny gear if you're hauling full panniers up a 1:4 hill)
- something that looks good

If I had any sense, I'd add mudguards to that list, but I'm afraid I like a rugged looking bike. Unfortunately bike ranges now tend to divide into practical and dull, or, macho but without rack lugs etc. Eventually I settled on a Cannondale Adventure 3 which I think looks good, suits my riding position and, importantly, took a decent rack. Yesterday I took it into the hills to the west of Gateshead and thrashed it over some bridleways and backroads. I came back happy, muddy and knackered.