Transport professionals faith in climate change agenda takes big hit as top UK Journal describes ‘major blow’ to public trust

Although the title and content of Local Transport Today (LTT) might suggest that its greatest role might be as the featured anorak mag on Have I Got News for you, it is a twice monthly bible and font of wisdom for the top, and most influential transport professionals in Britain.

And, as such, it is likely that the following LTT article may well have more potential to trigger significant change in attitudes among transport policy and implementation professionals than most single news items...

There have, of course, been many reports of concern over the scientific legitimacy of the basis for constraining use of motorised transport to save the planet. These appear with increasing frequency in a vast range of news sources from mainstream print and TV media to Twitter. But, IMHO, very few have the potential to trigger such an eventually significant shift in attitudes among transport policy as the piece below. With thanks to Landor Publishing for permission to reproduce here.

illustration chosen by TC.com while LTT says…

Transport-climate agenda at risk as ‘consensus science’ crumbles

Public trust in the transport climate change policy agenda may have been dealt a major blow by the unauthorised release of emails and computer code from one of the world’s leading climate science centres, the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU). (TC adds that the email leak from CRU is now under investigation)
The material shows that a small group of the climate scientists have worked to block publication of academic papers by skeptics, refused to release data following Freedom of Information Act requests, and even appear to have manipulated data to strengthen the argument that man’s CO2 emissions are warming the planet.
‘Climategate‘ – as the incident has been dubbed – has swept across the intern et with Google this week recording over 12 million pages using the term. Mainstream media coverage has been patchier but here too the ‘consensus’ view that the science is “settled” is breaking down. A page article in The Sunday Times discussed the ‘The great climate science scandal‘ and Wednesday’s front page headline of The Daily Express went further, reporting ‘The big climate change fraud‘.
The re-opening of the scientific debate could be significant for transport, given the almost universal acceptance of the man-made warming paradigm within the sector.
The Association of British Drivers, which has been the only transport campaign group to refuse to accept the “settled science” policy framework, said the emails “vindicated” its stance. “UEA is at the centre of research on current and past temperatures, which claims that the modem warm period has been unprecedented due mainly to man-made CO2 emissions,” said its environment spokesman Paul Biggs. “But what if the scientific process has been manipulated, by an influential group of scientists who also dominate the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], in order to make a stronger case for man-made global warming and create and protect a consensus? Some unambiguous emails suggest that this is exactly what has happened.” There are signs of a growing backlash against the climatechange agenda within the Conservative Party. “Today, the economic climate makes people question whether we can afford the expense of these policies,” said prominent MP David Davis in The Independent this week. He said the “fixation” of the green movement with setting ever tougher targets was a policy “destined to collapse”. Read More »

Permalink | Comments (2) Posted in About, What’s happening | Labels: ABD, climate change, Climate Research Unit, climate science scandal, climategate, CO2, CRU, George Monbiot, Have I got News for You, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, leaked email, Local Transport Today, LTT, man-made global warming, National Climate Data Center, Prof Phil Jones, sceptics, settled science, skeptics, Transport professionals, University of East Anglia
6th December 2009 by Leon Mannings

Climategate: Leaked emails scandal, What scandal? Inquiry looms for climate change science but will it knock wheels off the global warmers wagon – or be just another brick in the wall to divide believers and sceptics?

Whatever you think about man-made climate change and worldwide plans to cut personal mobility and spend trillions on addressing the global warming ‘problem’, there is no doubt that we are reaching a critical and potentially dangerous turning point. The point is this. After some resistance an inquiry is now looming to investigate a momentous leak of emails that cast doubt on the motives of climate change scientists. These communications are between key people at the vanguard of the ‘science’ on which world leaders and their publics base many passionately held beliefs that man-made global warming is real is set to create insurmountable catastrophe and doom for us all.

And in case you didn’t know, this latest development follows a big leak of emails that throws new light on the validity & reliability of ‘evidence’ from pro global warming scientists. But that has prompted more news carrying worms to crawl out of the woodwork of various skeleton cupboards. It now transpires that a BBC bod with a blog ‘decided’ not to bother reporting the leak as soon as he knew about this undeniably momentous and newsworthy event.

So, it is now clearly crucial that we have an inquiry into this ‘theft’ of private email correspondence between key figures whose ‘scientific’ research and government advisory work is paid for with public funds. But there is far bigger and potentially more dangerous issue at stake here for us all in our age of mega spun ‘news’ and politicised science.

The future direction of government thinking about climate change thought the developed world could be changed in the aftermath of this inquiry – or not. And what happens next may depend on one thing above all. Is it possible or likely that this investigation will o be a truly independent examination that will reveal as much truth as there is to be found between the lines of these communications? The Economist shares my concerns and view that ‘political orthodoxy must not silence scientific argument‘.

At this point I would love to say that the answer to that question is the same as it is on TV talent shows, namely, you the public decided. But sadly we can’t always get what you want you know, but maybe if we try hard some times we just might find that we what get what we need…

Permalink | Comments (0) Posted in About, What’s happening | Labels: climate change, climate change science, climategate, global warming
29th November 2009 by Leon Mannings

Does the return of rising traffic congestion in Britain herald the end of recession or highlight regressive trends in pricing and performance for privately owned ‘public’ transport?

What do you give the beleaguered British traveller or mover of goods who is attempting to do so by rail? How about the UK’s first rail fare to break the £1,000 barrier? As noted by the Guardian.
Then juxtapose this ‘public transport’ pricing landmark with news that road congestion is on the rise again after it fell for a while in credit crunched 2009.
The latest figures out today on road traffic congestion from Traffic Master & analysis by the AA show that it is rising again.

Edmund King, AA president, said: “Although we don’t welcome an increase in congestion, we do welcome the fact that it indicates that the economy is picking up. Our nation is dependent on road travel and congestion acts as a barometer of economic activity.
But is the rise in car congestion a good indicator that people are feeling less pinched? Frankly, I think it is it more to do with the increasing pressure people are under to use cars and vans in the face of escalating public transport fares and cuts in services.

Permalink | Comments (1) Posted in About, What’s happening | Labels: AA, credit crunch, Edmund King, rail fare, recession, road traffic, traffic congestion
16th November 2009 by Leon Mannings

Scepticism over climate change makes it harder for UK government to impose ‘carbon-reducing’ rises in energy bills – but opinions divide over £6m Ad to scare UK kids with Carbon Monster story

Plans to increase tax on fuel and energy supplies in the name of tackling climate change are being greeted with increasing scepticism and hostility as the ongoing financial crisis sharpens views on what people are prepared to do to ‘save the planet’ from climate change. Now, the BBC says that the UK government has is to be investigated by the Advertising Standards Agency for spending £6million of tax payer’s money on a TV ‘Carbon Monster’ ad to scare children into telling their parents that we’re all going to die in heatwaves while the world is flooded as a result of man-made climate change.The Times transport correspondent, Ben Webster reports on this with the reverence one can expect from a man-made global warming/climate change believer. Conversely, man-made global warming doubter, James Delingpole of the Mail online, expresses a rather more sceptical view of the merits of the £6million government campaign to scare UK kids into believing that we’re all going to die unless we pay more carbon tax. News of all this has even raised eyebrows down under in The Australian. Frankly, all I will say about all this for now is that you couldn’t make it up.

Permalink | Comments (3) Posted in About, What’s happening | Labels: Ben Webster, carbon, Carbon Monster, carbon tax, climate change, global warming, James Delingpole, The Australian
2nd November 2009 by Leon Mannings

Climate summit crisis countdown 42 days to go! Can the world be saved by Transport of delight?

As the late great Douglas Adams revealed in one of the finest books about transport, travel and everything ever, namely; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, the answer to the question; what is the meaning of life? Is 42. (As the BBC explain here) And, lest you have forgotten the stern warning that our Prime Minister, Mr Brown, issued last week, let me remind you now that we now have only 42 DAYS(!) to save the world from frying – and the UK from being awash with floods and heatwaves – and associated unseemly climatic catastrophes. There has been a mixture of reactions to this news and of course my highlighting it here last week. Of these, some seem to be giving the situation the sort of earnest attention that our PM will like – amongst whom is a rather concerned sausage called Anna of chemistryworldblog. Then again, in my trawl through the blogosphere I came across a slightly more cynical sausage called Mrs Rigby – who seems to have links with all sorts of folk with a rather more sceptical view of our PM’s latest decree than he might care to see. However, closer to home, I have been focused on tackling a more immediate and, for me at least, pressing transport related problem – and of course it’s potential impact on speeding up or slowing down the end of life on Earth as we know it. This has arisen with the arrival last night of my best mate’s son – who is staying saying with me here at TC Towers while doing a week of work experience in a very prestigious department of Mr Brown’s UK government. (This, I hasten to add, was not arranged by me but the lad’s well connected Economics teacher in Wales)

Anyway, this contribution to the education of my mate’s son presented the challenge of a daily commute between Sarf London and the heart of Westminster. – And, of course, a specific concern as to what would be the best balance between a desire to save the planet that many well educated teenagers seem to have these days – and my duty in loco parentis to get the lad back and forth between his temporary place of residence and work without adding too much stress for all concerned – and to do so within the bounds of real world transport right now as distinct from vogue theories about it. Perhaps sadly for the future of the planet and all who who wail on her about the need to shun motorised transport, Walking and bicycling the six and half miles were ruled out for various reasons. These included the lad’s blissful ignorance about the streets of London that has resulted from a life in the shelter of Welsh Wales. Finally we settled on a combination of one or two buses and a dive into the dark deeps of the Northern Line branch of London’s underground rail system, colloquially known as the Tube. And this reminded me that the strength of public and political enthusiasm for combustion engined buses – including the much revered London Routemaster has ebbed and flowed since they first plied for trade in the capital in the early 20th Century. In fact a quick skip through the web reveals that many still regard these large people carriers as a Transport of Delight. Two of them even performed a song about them back in days when political correctitude was yet to be invented and spread to save our minds from pollution of an ideological kind. As to whether we have made the best transport decision for this week of teenage commuting, I guess we all have to wait and see. But in the meantime the wonders of the world wide web enable you to hear what Flanders and Swann sang about the Transport of Delight when the end of the world was expected to come from us running out of oil and the world cooling towards a new Ice Age. Oh how transport times change, as well as our climate…

Permalink | Comments (2) Posted in About, What’s happening | Labels: banker, bus, catastrophe, climate change, Copenhagen, financial crisis, floods, frequent droughts, global warming, Gordon Brown, hockey stick, London Routemaster, New Labour, political career, Routemaster, save the world, stark warning, taxpayer, Transport of Delight, UN summit
26th October 2009 by Leon Mannings