On climate change, that is.I know, I'm becoming a climate change bore, but mark Saturday 8th December in your Diary. There's a public PARADE FOR THE PLANET for action on climate change from the amphitheatre at Dublin’s Civic Offices to the Custom House at 1pm. It's great to see all the Development Aid NGOs as well as Environmental NGOs involved.
December 8th marks the GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE. As the Bali talks on climate change proceed, ordinary people around the world will be finding different ways of sounding the alarm on climate change so their politicians wake up and do much more about it.
Stop Climate Chaos is hosting a PARADE FOR THE PLANET which will see supporters making their own carbon-neutral way along the route, by foot, bike, skateboard and buggy, ringing bells and blowing whistles to SOUND THE ALARM FOR ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE!
No, I'm not heading to Bali, I figure I've a fair understanding of the science, and the politics of it all at this stage, and I haven't figured out a quick low-carbon route. I'll leave it to John Gormley, and his delegation to beat the drum for Ireland.
I was lucky enough to get along to the Al Gore gig at the RCSI on Saturday. The great man seemed a tad jowly, and not having seen him live before, I wouldn't have an opinion on whether he's running next year. I'll leave that to others. It was an interesting event, Eamon Ryan was as evangelical as always, and even Willie Walsh from British Airways agreed that we need to include global aviation emissions in the post-Kyoto climate agreement.
Al quoted an old African proverb that loosely stated that if you want go quickly, go alone, but if you want to go far, go with others. That's not a bad analogy for the Greens in Government, come to think of it. He said the problem of climate change is that we need to go far, quickly. That's the challenge.
He was an inspirational speaker, talking without notes or even a single power-pointed polar bear. He also sounded the alarm bells, mentioning recent research which suggests that the polar ice caps could melt fully in around 22 years time, or as little as 7 years.
The questioners afterwards were to polite to ask him about his rather large home, back in Tennessee. He ended by urging us to live our lives in a way that reflects well on the source of all life, and suggesting that more of the 'peace-force' or 'Satyagraha' is required. I'm not quite sure what the employees of Merrion Capital who hosted the event made of that.
Let's mobilise the peace forces. Bring along your whistles to Dublin's Civic Offices next Saturday 8th December 2008 at 1 pm.
4 comments:
Nothing to do with this particular blog. But about the cycle lane in O'Connell Street. Please warn people how dangerous it is. Cycling north south it appears, disappears and then is bordered off with plastic bollards. It is also very dangerous as buses pull in to park. Why did they not build a reversible running cycle lane down the middle of the street?
Cycling is a bit of a contact sport in the middle of Dublin, and you have to have more than a second sense for opening car doors to survive.
At least the buses have professional drivers, but I would have preferred the original plans for bike lanes beside the central median, particularly as we now have lower speed limits on the street.
I have a trail of correspondence with the City Council about O'Connell Street, and I just don't feel enough of their staff have cycled the streets of Dublin to understand the problems sufficiently.
Thank you for your reply. But are you not being far too mild? The O'Connell Street cycle path is simply too dangerous and should not be there in its present design. A garda on a motorbike fully agreed with me this morning. May I invite readers to read my blog. michaelcommane.blogspot.com
DART train sizes are shrinking.
My regular train used to have 8 coaches until a month ago, now it has only 6 and on one day last week just 4.
How can you persuade people to use public transport with this osrt of carry on?
Deane McElree
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