To celebrate World Environment Day 2009, the Swedish commuter organisation Planka.nu hosted a “Climate Crash” together with Friends of the Earth Sweden and Klimax, a network of groups that uses direct action to raise awareness of the threat that climate change poses. Over 150 people took to the streets of Stockholm on this chilly June evening and closed down Hornsgatan, one of the most polluted roads in Sweden (and in the EU).
When we take a moment to look at our traffic-saturated cities, with cars parked everywhere, roads and freeways spreading like the arms of an octopus, and the government’s blind support for the car industry, we are justified in asking how long can this situation last. It is high time to realise that we are closer and closer to radical changes in the car system. Kingsley Dennis and John Urry explore in their book what changes may occur, and develop potential paths for future transportation. According to them, the days of spontaneous “car get away” are counted.
In Czech, the word Automat means a machine, maybe even an automobile.
If, however, you split it in two halves, and write it like “Auto*Mat”, it actually means “Check-mate for automobiles”.
Kim Nguyen took to the road on his bicycle on August 10, 2008 aiming to reach Copenhagen in time for the UNFCCC conference in December. From Brisbane, Australia to Copenhagen, Denmark his journey will cover around 25,000km …
In towns and cities all over the world, Critical Mass (CM) rides are marked on the calendars of many. Typically taking place once a month, cyclists and people on many forms of non-motorised wheels gather to tour the streets – drawing attention to how unfriendly the streets are and taking direct action against the dominance of cars. Chris Carlsson is credited as one of the founders of CM and is the editor of the book “Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration” released in 2002. In an interview with Carbusters, he explains how it all began, the movement’s aims and evolution, and the importance of two wheels taking over from four.
Models of high-density, largely carfree urban development are being achieved without fanfare in Guangzhou, China.
This is an updated and edited version of the article Sustainable China by Karl Fjellstrom. He takes us on a tour through a place which is setting the standard for sustainable transportation and liveability in towns and cities across this rapidly developing nation. Here we see that elements of globalisation – industrialisation, consumption, population growth, and mass-movement of people – can be successfully balanced to create places with sustainability, liveability, sociability and profitability.
Last week-end, I spent in Berlin at the Conference “Science and Ethics” which was a joint event of the German Physics Society (http://www.dpg-physik.de) and the German Scientists Association (http://www.vdw-ev.de/). http://vdw.dpg-tagungen.de/
Its topics were nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, energy and teaching of natural sciences.
My impression was that all other problems are solvable, except for the energy problem. [...]
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