Monbiot is, as often, spot on in his critique, but lacking in concrete suggestions for an alternative way forward. I thought much the same when I saw an article in a weekend broadsheet championing the new ENV fuel cell motorbike as 'the world's first green motorcycle.' It is powered by a 1 KW hydrogen fuel cell and a 5 KW battery, which is, erm, recharged from mains power. Ouch.
Well, he says we must consume less. In this case he has some ideas that could work. Eg the government should ban internal UK flights immediately. Drastic, but reasonable I think, given that it's nearly as easy to get a train from (say) London to Glasgow/Edinburgh. Coach lanes on all motorways within (say) 6 months to a year could also provide an alternative means of medium-distance transport in light of the horrible state of the train system. And coach companies are already operating services around the country for quite low prices (a good bit lower than trains). Coach lanes means they can go nearly as fast as the trains, which would also ease the problem of congestion on the trains etc. One can object that these moves are politically unfeasible, but if the challenge is to find a solution to climate change which is comfortable for everyone - well, Monbiot's point here is that this is just an impossibility.
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Monbiot is, as often, spot on in his critique, but lacking in concrete suggestions for an alternative way forward. I thought much the same when I saw an article in a weekend broadsheet championing the new ENV fuel cell motorbike as 'the world's first green motorcycle.' It is powered by a 1 KW hydrogen fuel cell and a 5 KW battery, which is, erm, recharged from mains power. Ouch.
Well, he says we must consume less. In this case he has some ideas that could work. Eg the government should ban internal UK flights immediately. Drastic, but reasonable I think, given that it's nearly as easy to get a train from (say) London to Glasgow/Edinburgh. Coach lanes on all motorways within (say) 6 months to a year could also provide an alternative means of medium-distance transport in light of the horrible state of the train system. And coach companies are already operating services around the country for quite low prices (a good bit lower than trains). Coach lanes means they can go nearly as fast as the trains, which would also ease the problem of congestion on the trains etc.
One can object that these moves are politically unfeasible, but if the challenge is to find a solution to climate change which is comfortable for everyone - well, Monbiot's point here is that this is just an impossibility.
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