Tuesday 28 May 2019

Heads in the clouds


Yates fights back…plus

First village to be taken by the sea 

And they’re off! The GC race in the Giro came alive in the Alps on Sunday when Britain’s Yates quickly followed by the home favourite  Nibali attacked on the last climb of the closing kilometres of the stage, tracked by race leader, Ecuador’s Carapaz, leaving second overall Roglic of Slovenia unable to respond. 
But the leading pair out front for 200 kilometres held them off, and it was Italy’s  Cataldo who won his first Giro stage after 10 years of trying, leading out and holding off breakaway partner Cattaneo to the line.
Desperate stuff.
Well, not really. This is what you call desperate.
This is the story of the North Wales village destined to be the first in Britain to vanish below rising sea levels.  It was in a magazine article, following an interview with a Hollywood star! Opposite the story of the doomed village was an advert for a cream for dry skin.
This is the village of Fairbourne on Barmouth Bay, home to 850 residents, protected by a sea wall but barely above sea level. Gwynedd council reckon they cannot afford to defend the village indefinitely, from storms and the gradual sea rise.
Residents are to be moved out in 26 years or so, to become Britain’s first climate refugees. They are not expected to receive any compensation for the loss of their homes and resettlement plans are unclear.
What I find bizarre is why this terrible story isn't making eadlines on every national newspaper and on TV news.
It’s as if climate change has become just another story, pitching for attention alongside all the usual news stuff…like crime and politics, film stars, and cake baking competitions and sport.
The article said there are 104,000 properties at risk of coastal flooding in Wales.
And along the English coast nearly 530,000 properties are at risk,  according to report for the government Committee on Climate Change last year. Yet the public are being kept in the dark.
They don’t want anyone to panic.  They don’t want anyone to know they haven’t a clue what to do.
Well, we should be fearful. These stories should be the one and only story in the papers and on the television. Blank pages either side.  TV Programmes suspended before and after the announcement of the next place near you to be destined to be flooded for ever, and asking, will you take in these wretched people who have lost their homes?

We need to be fearful. Fearful enough not to use the car for unnecessary trips, such as a few 100 yards to the supermarket.  Or the new breed of overweight “cyclist” who puts his mountain bike on the car to drive seven fucking miles to ride it on some trails and then loads it back on the roof rack to drive seven fucking miles back home again!
Or those twee types who before they set off leave the car engine running on cold mornings, adding to the excess carbon in the atmosphere and down our lungs.  
And yet still there is no indication from government – lost in their political fog of Brexshit - as to what might be done to avert the worst of this.
Oh, and get this.  They say they aim to cut greenhouse emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, conveniently leaving that task to others because they will be long dead and by which time Fairbourne has been given up to the sea! 

Meanwhile, life must go on.

Here's  some cycling news about the much anticipated World Road Championships
in Yorkshire in September.
Nice feature in Cycling Weekly (May 23 issue) entitled “Fans guide to the Yorkshire World’s.
It describes several rides of various lengths which Otley CC members regularly do, each one a route which takes you to vantage points to see the various world championship road races (Saturday 21st to Sunday 29th September).

Take the train not the plane.

“There’s nowhere I can’t get to by bike, train or boat”
That was the heading on a double page feature in The Guardian telling how growing numbers of travellers are giving up flying and choosing more sustainable transport. Admittedly, not everyone can do this, but the point was being made that many can. Marginal gains, as a well-known cycling team boss would say.
One person went by train from Kiev to Moscow – it took our days.
There are some 15,000 Swedes who have signed a pledge not to fly and instead go by train.  Some 1000 Britons have signed up to a British  section of the same campaign.

Climate Strike Day

September 20 is World Climate Strike Day, when young people will again walk out of school to demand action on the climate crisis.  But this time, adults are wanted, too, says Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl who inspired this movement and who has told politicians around the world they have failed to do anything worthwhile to stave off the worst of climate change. 
“Humanity is at a cross roads," she says.   "We need to decide which path to take.”

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