Friday 11 June 2021

Popular HS2, Metro, Sprint extensions all worsen climate emergency and hasten disaster

Dear friends - photos to bring a smile at the very bottom of this email for light relief!


ALL WE HAVE IS WRITING, SPEAKING AND MAKING POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS!

Chris wants us to read, comment and promote the excellent FoE document on green jobs that says:
"There are over 500,000 young people aged 16-24 out of work, and numbers are expected to grow substantially with the end of the furlough scheme. This is a youth unemployment emergency."

TfWM/WMCA WANTS IT TOO
The FoE report is 94 pages long and I can only skim read parts.  It is wanting green apprenticeships.  This is exactly what Andy Street wants.  However, he sees building back better as building HS2 for £106 BILLION, Metro "bus on rails" trams over 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops for £15 BILLION to 2040 and a two class bus provision with Sprint as 1st Class for half a billion pounds and, if necessary, 2nd class regular buses after trams and Sprint.  For Andy, all this means green jobs for young and middle aged people.  I think he is wrong!

WHAT THEY WANT HAS MADE THINGS WORSE!
We have seen that for west Brum, Metro at £75 m/Km in 2020 (Scotland's new railway was £7 m/Km in 2015), has made public transport worse with a much slower and longer journey because of the permanent closure of the Five Ways underpass and "bus on rails" tram priority in Broad St.

This is ecocidal behaviour by us humans that is killing the planet and its life support systems that enable all life on earth as we know it, as of the year 2000.  Simply using finite fossil fuels is killing us all!  David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and scientists from around the world in the major IPCC reports from its foundation in 1988 has been tellng us this ever since 1988.  In fact, Eunice Foote and John Tyndall since the 1850s!

YET, FOE, GREENPEACE, GREEN PARTY, CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER TRANSPORT, Transport for Quality of Life, Greener Transport Solutions - ALL WANT HS2,TRAMS, SPRINT TOO!
We have seen that for the Black Country, the 40 year old obsession with Metro "bus on rails" trams has led to the destruction or, part destruction, of five commuter railway lines and, one and a quarter mainline stations!  This is scandalous!  Yet, national green/environmental organisations - supposedly promoting more sustainable, less ecocidal behaviour by us humans - have tacitly agreed and often actively promoted HS2, light rail rapid transit ("bus on rails" trams) and Sprint two class bus provision.

Therefore, not surprisingly, in 25 years of writing in opposition to the destruction of our railway network for Metro "bus on rails" trams and for built development, I have had very, very little support even from the green movement!

Every £1 spent = fossil fuels burnt = greenhouse gases emitted = runaway greenhouse effect = same uninhabitable conditions as planet venus (look venus up on Wikipedia).  THIS IS DEADLY SERIOUS.

All we can do, now is limit our expenditure to projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions in the medium to long term with the green jobs that we all know are more sustainable than the jobs at any price idiocy that leads to HS2, road building, Metro and Sprint.

I began my adult life as a full-time volunteer in 1967, for 13 months, on £1 per week plus board and lodging.  I am ending my adult life on a perfectly adequate pension doing voluntary practical work on restoring Nature in my local green belt and in writing, texting, phoning - as here - to try and discourage the all pervasive concrete, brick and tarmac from destroying nature completely and, thus, ourselves and all life along with it.

Universal Basic Income is similar to the Furlough scheme.  Both are better than the jobs at any price ecocide.  I think, we want true green, right jobs built on a basic income for all to ensure sufficient, decent food, clothing and shelter paid for by the greedy wealthy (the top lot help out the bottom lot).  That discourages the HS2/Metro/Sprint type of jobs.  My basic income from 1967 to 1968 was £1 a week (by the end, raised to £1.50/week) plus board and lodging.  I used a bike, some parental help with transport getting to and from distant destinations on three occasions and, I had no savings but I survived!

A few email addresses to write to are here - never ever give up!:

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