Transport and climate essentials

TRANSPORT

Stop destroying or, not fully using, urban railway lines.  It only adds to road traffic congestion and all our woes!

You must have the courage to say 'No' to yet more conversions of vital railway lines and roads to tramlines.

Be content with trams from Dudley town centre to Sandwell and Brum.

If you must do WBHE Phase 2, then keep the trams on the railway line to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.  Freight trains at night.

DO NOT destroy nature (we are also part of nature!) by wiping out Dudley Canal No 1, 400 metre canal embankment and housing land at Merry Hill.

Positive, practical, helpful action to release staff and money for insulation/retro/solar

Hi Chris and Bob - thanks for the Chat sent.

Please could this go to everyone on our mailing list?

In my opinion, we each have a responsibility to stand up against what is clearly wrong and to stand up for how our money should be spent.

The WMCA, and all of their constituent authorities, are spending, literally BILLIONS of money and tonnes of GHG emitted on destroying railway lines and burying Nature under concrete, brick and tarmac.

The Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" 

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

is still being destroyed with the WMCA intent on also destroying a brownfield housing site in part, trees/shrubs and my guerrilla garden on the 400 m long public open space at Merry Hill Shopping Centre.  A £100 m, GHG intensive, 400 m concrete and steel Metro tram viaduct is planned for the steep canal embankment that carries Dudley No 1 Canal with great views to the Clent Hills, Egghill/Frankley Beeches and Netherton Hill.  The tram must, now be kept to the mainline railway to Stourbridge Jct.

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

Up to 1,000 trees/shrubs must be felled for the Westside Metro extension to Bearwood on the westbound side of Hagley Road.

This is all part of the 2020 WMCA/TfWM plan to build 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops to extend Metro tram extensions for £15 BILLION to 2040.

The money must be diverted and the staff redeployed, after training, to work on ending fuel poverty by insulating and solar powering the homes of the poorest.  Called retrofitting that is our FIRST Action Point, as here:

 Nine Action Points from W Mids Climate Coalitio...

PLEASE WRITE OR, FORWARD THIS EMAIL.   THANKS!   Tim Weller

Dudley's emails and customer services

Dudley's address is dudleycouncilplus@dudley.gov.uk and their leaders' addresses: Cllr.Patrick.Harley@dudleymbc.org.uk   Kevin.OKeefe@dudley.gov.uk     Cllr.Qadar.Zada@dudleymbc.org.uk (leader of the Opposition)

And the three Customer Services, here:

customerservices@westmidlandsmetro.com;

customerservices@tfwm.org.uk; 

customerservices@wmca.org.uk

to Michael Anderson of TfWM

Dear Michael Anderson

STOP THIS DESTRUCTION OF YOUR RAILWAY AND NATURE AT MERRY HILL

 6 glorious white trees.jpg

While pariah Putin and ruthless Russia enter their second week of death and destruction on Ukraine, we enter our fourth decade of destroying the 120 Kms Black Country (Bypass Brum) Mainline Railway.

• This Derby to Devon via Dudley principal mainline railway gets destroyed in Dudley and Sandwell.
• For over half a billion pounds, Nature, plus trees and my landscape enhancement scheme get destroyed at Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
• Destroyed by the tramline that could still be put on stilts above the canal, instead of on stilts above the grass embankment alongside the towpath for 230 metres.
• Three different kinds of trams are put on the railway "of national strategic significance"

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

but that still leaves 49 Kms out of the 56 Kms that is wasted but still available for commuter and regional TRAINS.

• Next month, my £50/mth energy bill gets doubled.  This should make it obvious that destroying Nature and the UK's last but wasted mainline railway will also rocket in price.

Stand up for nature!

Stand up for nature against the concrete, brick, tarmac, plastic grass, philistine brigade - like our 'new' neighbour!

My neighbour who hates trees (she makes no bones about it, too!), has completely plastered her front garden and drive with tarmac that must be well over 5 sq metres in area - and no drainage or grass/soil for the water runoff.  And, cut down another tree, a lovely young cherry tree, that the previous owner planted!  I remain aghast/horrified!  Look at Google maps for mine at 28 Hunnington Cres, Halesowen and hers at 30.  In angry, outrageous, offset revenge, I've planted a second rowan on our pocket-handkerchief lawn!

Follow my good example out of enlightened self interest!

CUT YOUR EARTHLY CAR MILEAGE TO JOIN THE BILLIONAIRES EXPLORING SPACE - they only travel the distance from Perth to Glasgow, after all (60 miles)!

I am very concerned about the Covid, climate, ecological, nature emergency and am doing this:-

At 73 yrs, I've had a fantastic lifetime of hillwalking all the big hills in the UK and Ireland.  It is well time for me to make a concession, a small prize lost to help win the much grander prize of leaving the state of the planet in a slightly better state, perhaps.

Since 2020 I have resolved to lead by example and to cut my total car mileage by 50% on my 2019 figure of 14,000 miles when I drove to Scotland six times to climb their hills.  In 2020, I travelled only once and drove 6,000 miles.  This year, I have done two trips, car camped on nearly all the nights and, so far have driven only 5,000 miles in my attempt to climb, in my lifetime, every single summit listed in the SMC's 'Munro's Tables'.

Last week, I came back from a fantastic 14 nights, with only two of them in a hotel and visited nine summits.  With my diesel car, driving at 60 to 65 mph on the motorways and dual carriageways, I achieved 85 mpg according to the car computer.  Therefore, my deadly greenhouse gas emissions were really low!

I went on fewer occasions but stayed longer and cut my carbon footprint.  I was cycling from my car base camp to the start of the hill on each of the nine days to take in a 'Graham' hill.  I had a great time in mixed weather and showed to the new generations of walkers what can be done.

In losing car mileage and cutting greenhouse gases, I have explored local/regional countryside and found some most wonderful walks in exploring areas I had never before dreamt of going to.  Again, parking up, cycling, then walking before returning to the bike to get to the car.  All this gained, instead of bombing off into Wales from Halesowen or to some far-flung corner of England to use up our precious finite fossil fuels with their deadly greenhouse gas emissions.

Will others follow my example?  Especially, those of my age in order to leave a planet in a better shape for the youngsters?  BE A GOOD ANCESTOR!

We are screwed, snookered but we must continue the fight and be frugal finite fossil fuel users

We are screwed, snookered but we must continue the fight and be frugal finite fossil fuel users.

Andy N, at last night's COP 26 mtg wrote, over the success of the Montreal Protocol, "fossil fuels is a massive chunk of the world economy. much harder to get movement."

He's right but it's worse than that!  Every time we turn the COLD tap on we are dependant on finite fossil fuels (fff) that in their use, every time, is yet another tiny screw in rising global av surface temps to bring the climate catastrophe we're seeing.  Fff pump water to our homes.

Although we are very slowly expanding renewable sources of energy that are much less dependant on fff, every £ we spend uses fff a lot along the line. That is why we have to spend ONLY on projects that will cut fff and their attendant greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) urgently.  Not HS2, Metro, Sprint, armaments, WMD, new yacht Britannia, investments in fff exploitation, Nature turned into concrete, brick and tarmac ...

2 tweets of mine

 Just read on Wikipedia: "Andrew Yang has been credited with popularizing the idea of universal basic income through his candidacy and activism." He gets my vote for that! JOBS THAT WILL POSTPONE ECOCIDE! Not jobs for economic growth, ecological loss, worse climate disaster.

We are living infinitely on a finite planet and unnaturally on a natural planet. Using concrete, brick and tarmac to literally cover, indeed bury nature and all her works, forgetting that we are part of nature. Dangerous stuff!

13.6.21: Lacks detail because the leaders cannot bear to go without their precious economic growth on the back of finite fossil fuels that bring the runaway greenhouse effect. Economic activity is more important than a healthy planet. Pathetic! Foolish! Ecocidal!

13.6.21: There is no sense of urgency, of crisis, or any concern over climate despite them declaring a climate emergency. They are on the road to nothing changing apart from a worsening climate for us all.

14.6.21: They should have stuck to the commuter trains between Wolverhampton and Snow Hill Station with buses taking passengers to and from. The same mistake is being made with an even more important railway line: Derby to Devon via Dudley, aka Burton on Trent to Bristol via Brierley Hill.

National FoE's Climate Action Plan

 What can the mayor do for the planet?

We’re facing a climate emergency, the biggest threat we’ve ever seen to humanity’s existence. With extreme weather raging around the world, including flooding and extreme heat in the UK, acting on solutions in all our communities is essential.

How we build and manage our towns and cities is a crucial part of this, not only in actively reducing the climate impact of our transport and energy, but in showing national government where our priorities are, what can be done, and how we expect them to echo those nationally and internationally.

The Mayor of West Midlands has important powers they can use in ensuring the region is as climate and nature friendly as possible. The good news is, we have a plan for how they can achieve that.

We need the mayor to commit to:

1. Ensuring all infrastructure plans, programmes and investment decisions – including COVID-19 recovery plans – are in line with what’s needed to address the climate and ecological emergency, and in line with the region’s carbon budget and carbon reduction pathway.
2. Ensuring those impacted most by climate breakdown and nature loss are heard and centre-stage in decision-making.
3. Protecting workers and communities through a just transition from a fossil fuel-dependent economy to a low-carbon, nature-rich, circular economy, including delivering over 28,000 new jobs.
4. Introducing policies and measures that ensure new development is net zero carbon and existing homes are brought up to high energy-standards, and addressing fuel poverty.
5. At least doubling public transport use, cycling and walking within the next 10 years, to cut emissions and ensure everyone can breathe clean air.
6. Powering the region with clean, renewable energy, reaping the economic and job opportunities that this brings.
7. Greening the region by increasing tree cover, protecting nature, and eliminating green-space deprivation.
8. Becoming a zero-waste region by 2030 without relying on landfill or incineration, to reduce pressures on nature from resource extraction and pollution.
9. Calling on the local government pension scheme to divest from fossil fuels, to stop profiting from environmental harm.
10. Making the very best of the infrastructure we have, enact the Climate Emergency declarations, defend nature and introduce more inclusive governance.

Ask your mayor to build a fairer, greener future.

BEN GOLDSMITH says:

 “Man worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature; unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.” Hubert Reeves

Change, nature, waste

 CHANGE - change in the light of changing times.  Not just climate change but change in resources.

NATURE - we are part of nature; live in tune with nature and her life support systems.

WASTE - refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle.  Cut back on waste of energy, resources and railway lines still not destroyed but available but still not reinstated for their original purpose.

METRO IMMORALITY - the flaunting of wealth and over-indulgence to excess; because it is more expensive to construct per Km than HS2 and almost every maglev train project in China, Japan and South Korea.

Prince Charles on learning from Covid-19

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Thanks very much, Heather.  I think Prince Charles has the right idea.

I'm all for putting the health of the planet before ripping out its wealth with economic growth and growth of everything and everyone.

Ecology before economics.

Nature and protecting life support systems and the planet's biodiversity.

Spirituality and morality before expediency.

Politics must be about morality and non-violence, with constraint over coercion.

Nature/God at the centre of our societies.

During most of my adult life, I've moved away from evangelical Christianity with its emphasis on salvation.  But towards living as a disciple of the Lord Jesus as shown in His life and teaching in the Gospels.  That means all the left-wing things - others first, equality, justice and fair shares for all and sustaining life on earth for many more centuries.

Tim

Sleep walking into a nightmare scenario

I think we are heading for an almighty big crash.  Because Nature/planet earth/life support systems have never before seen such rapid and comprehensive changes on the surface of the planet as us humans have wrought in the last 250 years.  I am thinking of how, in 350 years, we are burning up the earth's fossil fuels that took 350 million years to form.  That is bound to make an unfortunate difference for life on earth.

We have nothing to make us change our behaviours.  The scientists and technologists will be able to come up with something as equally comprehensive and versatile as oil, gas and coal.  Therefore, hoorah!  We can carry on with over-consumption, over-population and living it up for today.  Fantastic.  We can carry on wasting the earth's resources.  We don't have to bother about anything because the government will always ensure that the lights will never go out.  We don't need to worry our little heads when necessity is the mother of invention and our intelligence and reasoning will see us through whatever is thrown at us.

Actually, a shrug of the shoulders response is no longer adequate.

The oh, so righteous of the Lord

The righteous of the Lord have a blind spot or, they slide over the little matter of declining to participate in armed conflicts around the world.  In other words, our aggression on, and domination of, other weak countries that won't hit back never figures in their list of unrighteous deeds.  The righteous of the Lord shun the sex industry but not the arms industry and the armed forces - and all this warfare has been on the other nations' holy soil who simply wanted to be left well alone!  The righteous of the Lord taking part in such unrighteous activities is hypocritical and sinful.

Bible believing believers are reluctant to endorse peace talks between Israel and Palestine.  They say that peace can only come when Jesus returns - and we have all been waiting for that to happen for 2,000 years.  Or, if everyone were to believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved.  A reluctance to enter into peace talks to get a just resolution after 65 years of intermittent killing is boosted by their interpretation of Scripture and simply means continuing injustice and periodic violence.  It invites the charge of complacency and an attitude of care-lessness.

Exactly, as does the oft repeated refrain, from those made right by God and who are now on God's side, that He is in control and we have nothing to fear and nothing to do.  Some of the rest of poor humanity, on the devil's side, insist that Nature is in control and, if we don't get our numbers and our activities in harmony with the powers of the earth to support life, then collapsing life support systems will do the job for us - as we get our inevitable and, rightful, come uppance.  I know which side I charge with being complacent, dangerous and very foolish!

Over-bearing, over-here and everywhere - and nature nowhere!

Margaret Thatcher, when she was Prime Minister, in one of her three environment speeches said that we had begun a massive experiment with the very life support systems of the planet itself. She never spoke a truer word!

Yet, she did nothing to modify our behaviours that are threatening those ecosystems. Indeed, the problem is we are living unnaturally in a natural world and, we are part of nature. We are living infinitely in a finite world, convinced that money and energy grows on trees! We are living as God when the result is so far from God - so far from paradise.

We think we can increase our numbers infinitely and exponentially and that there will be no repercussions. Quite extraordinary!

A Green Party publication had: "Either, we get our numbers and our activities into harmony with the powers of the earth to support life or, collapsing ecosystems will do the job for us."