Cyclists from the UK and beyond are converging on Glasgow as the crucial COP26 climate change conference gets under way in Scotland’s largest city to urge politicians to take action on the environmental crisis facing the planet.
During the conference, which lasts until 12 November, the charity Cycling UK will also be co-ordinating a mass bike ride next Saturday 6 November called Pedal on COP, as part of a global day of action, and will be highlighting the role that cycling and active travel can play in reducing emissions and encouraging sustainability.
The charity campaigns and policy manager in Scotland, Jim Densham, said: “On 6 November we have a unique opportunity to loudly and clearly tell the gathered global leaders how important it is to reach a historic deal in Glasgow.”
Cycling UK has highlighted on its website how people can take part, including joining the Cycling Bloc at the mass march in Glasgow next Saturday, with feeder rides from other cities in Scotland, joining a COP26 rally or action at towns and cities across the UK, or undertaking a virtual ride on Strava.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
The bicycle has been around for over 200 years. It has the power to fight the climate crisis – but investment is urgently needed.
Ahead of #COP26 we lit up locations in Glasgow to take the message to world leaders: https://t.co/TrdsuXCbO4 pic.twitter.com/0Nke35sQpD
— Cycling UK (@WeAreCyclingUK) October 21, 2021
Among those who have headed to Scotland by bike are a team of paediatric health practitioners who have ridden from London accompanied by award-winning art installation Pollution Pods, their journey taking place under the banner Ride for their Lives.
They arrived in Glasgow today, where they are due to deliver a letter to politicians signed by millions of health practitioners across the globe.
The #RideForTheirLives crosses the finishing line!!!!!#PollutionDrift pic.twitter.com/XDbfPOEDT0
— Climate Acceptance Studios (@ClimateAccept) October 31, 2021
A cycling campaigner and Extinction Rebellion supporter from Ceridigion in Wales, meanwhile, is making the journey solo, and is carrying a message in Welsh and English from the Mayor of Cardigan addressed to delegates at the conference.
Speaking at an event last Saturday as the letter was handed to him by Mayor Debra Griffiths, Peter Weldon said: “In a year plagued by severe floods, wildfires, and heatwaves, the need act on climate change has never been more urgent.
“The time for decisive action is overdue. Governments have a duty to protect the lives and wellbeing of their citizens.”
The Dutch ambassador to the UK, Karel van Oosterom, took inspiration from the Hague-based BBC News foreign correspondent Anna Holligan’s Dutch News from the Cycle Path as he rode a cargo bike by St Pancras International.
That’s amazing. Those bike models from the photos fit in every luggage space when folded. Not allowing them is an open fight against cyclists. I use the same bike brand and often have to make it pass as just another travel suitcase so I don’t encounter problems on trains or buses
— Alina Banta (@alinabiik) October 30, 2021
The ambassador said that “sustainable transport in London is getting more and more accepted, and on these cargo bikes we will be bringing the Dutch delegation to the global climate change summit in Glasgow from the one station to the next,” he said, referring to the short trip between St Pancras International to Euston.
Hopefully they will have arrived safely, given today’s disruption to rail services on the West Coast Main Line due to a fallen tree.
Best taxi ever, thank you so much, @KvanOosterom pic.twitter.com/d95jYfFQVt
— Maud de Vries (@BicycleFuturist) October 31, 2021
Not everyone has managed to take their bikes to Glasgow with them, however.
Henk Swarttouw, president of the EU Cyclists Federation, tweeting yesterday that several pasengers hoping to travel to Scotland by train had been unable to board with their Brompton folding bikes.
That’s amazing. Those bike models from the photos fit in every luggage space when folded. Not allowing them is an open fight against cyclists. I use the same bike brand and often have to make it pass as just another travel suitcase so I don’t encounter problems on trains or buses
— Alina Banta (@alinabiik) October 30, 2021
Instead, they had to leave their bikes in left luggage lockers at Rotterdam station and continue their journey without them.
30 thoughts on “Cyclists converge on Glasgow as COP26 conference begins”
To be completely ignored by
To be completely ignored by the media, especially the BBC, which will maintain its forty years at least boycott of mentioning the benefits of cycling.
Even this article on things
Even this article on things to do is headed by a photo making cycling look difficult and only grudgingly mentions cycling to local shops…https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58171814
They also managed to miss off
They also managed to miss off cycling and walking as forms of transport
hawkinspeter wrote:
Missing it from a chart on transport would indeed be odd, bujt missing it off a chart on emissions seems sensible.
Would be good to see ebikes there though at (presumably) something less than 5g. Also good to know that when travelling as a family or group there is no need for guilt at driving because it is in line with the train.
wycombewheeler wrote:
Seems misleading to me as a quick glance tells you that Eurostar, followed by coaches are the “greenest” ways to travel. Including walking, cycling, e-scooters and e-bikes would make the contrast much more visible.
Whilst that is true I’m not
Whilst that is true on paper I’m not sure it’s as simple as that.
If you leave your car at home it essentially produces zero admissions that day.
If you don’t catch the train it still produces emissions and the difference that 4 extra people actually make to those emissions is likely negligible.
The train figures per km are an average, I don’t believe they’re directly applicable to any single journey.
Unfortunately, that car sat
Unfortunately, that car sat at home still has a carbon footprint from it’s manufacturing.
The average family hatchback here in the UK has about 8 tons of embedded carbon in it.
Go green and buy an EV and that figure rises to around 12-14 tons. That’s a lot of “emissions free” motoring to do before carbon payback is made.
Me, I ride a bicycle as often as I can, while hiring a car when it’s the only sensible solution.
It’s far, far easier than you think, but it’s always good to obfuscate the situation.
I’m not sure why you think I
I’m not sure why you think I’m trying to obfuscate.
I’m arguing against car use and in favour of public transport.
I’m simply pointing out that the figures quoted shouldn’t be taken as gospel, the reality is likely to be more complex.
Once the car has been manufactured that carbon cost is sunk. The only way to reduce the overall impact of that particular car is to use it less.
ChasP wrote:
Absolutely typical of BBC coverage; cycling mentioned but only in passing, and damned with the faintest of praise at the same time.
Just been listening to Woman’s Hour, which was asking about why we didn’t trust politicians on climate change, so I bunged them an email about why I don’t trust the BBC either.
On behalf of us all, ‘Thank
On behalf of us all, ‘Thank you’ for being angry and against ……. well, just about everything it seems!
And thanks for giving me a good chuckle on a cold and wet Monday morning.
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Cyclists taking all kinds of
Cyclists taking all kinds of polluting transport from round the world descend on Glasgow. When they arrive they shine a big, energy guzzling light on a building proclaiming “This machine fights climate change”.
Now I know we’re living in a post-truth world, but even the most hysterically dogmatic climate activist must be able to identify that statement as a lie. Bikes do not fight climate change. They cause climate change.
Bicycles consume energy to make, from slavery-infested bauxite mining (other materials are of course available), to shipping, to maintenance, to clothing, to dealerships, the list goes on and on. As the population gets fatter and lazier they become too bone idle and out of share to ride a normal bike, so e-bikes boom along with lithium mining, electricity consumption and toxic waste.
This is the whole reason why people are skeptical of the entire green movement, with their anti-social behaviour, hysterical predictions, and downright lies and fabrications in their bid to drive humanity back to the dark ages.
Yeah whatever. That is not
Yeah whatever. That is not worth a reply.
Nigel really does not like bikes or cyclists at all.
I agree this was a really
I agree this was a really poor attempt at trolling. A higher effort response would have been to at least deny the reality of climate change in addition to the other guff.
You’re here, 1 level up from
You’re here, 1 level up from Rendel:
Estimates for total CO2
Estimates for total CO2 output of the process of making a bicycle, from materials extraction to transport to end consumer, range between 350-500 kgs. The average new passenger motor car emits 120gms CO2/km, and thus 500kgs every 4166 kms. Thus once a new bicycle has been used to replace 4166kms of car journeys – say a daily commute of 20kms for a year – it has paid off its carbon debt and every km done subsequently (minus the carbon output of peripherals like tyres) as a replacement for a car journey is, indeed, fighting climate change.
I’m sure we’d all be interested [sic] to hear, incidentally, why someone riding an electric-assist bicycle is bone idle, but you, sitting on your arse in your hybrid motor car (what are the batteries for that made from, incidentally, mushroom compost?), aren’t.
Shouldn’t really be using a
Shouldn’t really be using a new passenger car for comparison, though, because producing that new car will, in itself, have a carbon cost of at least several tonnes, meaning the bicycle’s already well ahead by the time they both roll off the production line. If you’re only going to take into account the car journeys it’s replacing, you’d have to assume a car that’s already on the road – i.e. an older, more polluting car.
Thanks for that Rendel, and I
Thanks for that Rendel, and I’m pleased that we’re both (rarely) in agreement: bikes do not fight climate change. They cause climate change.
You’ve stated (without citation) a new bicycle causes 350-500kgs of CO2 emissions from conception to consumer, and I’m not going to argue with that bceause 350 is more than zero. 500 is more than zero.
You can’t state that – because bicycles could be substituted for car journeys – they “save carbon” or “fight climate change”, any more than you can claim that gas-fired electricity generation is “fighting climate change” because it’s less dirty than coal-fired electricity generation. You can’t state that you’re “fighting climate change” because you bought 20 unsustainably sourced t-shirts this year rather than the 25 you bought last year.
Pollution is pollution. By equating the filthy mass-manufacture of bicycles with greenhouse gas-negative activities (which are the only things that fight climate change), these people are perpetrating untruths.
Nigel Garage wrote:
The problem with this analysis is that you get nowhere. “Do not breathe whilst planting a tree” would be the logical extension, or perhaps “bury yourself in compost immediately prior to taking your life”. Such ideas are usually posited in order to say “Ha! Impossible! I shall carry on as normal.”
People and things need to be transported even in a subsistence farming society. So movement is here to stay, even if we all stop flying to Mauritius for the weekend. Bicycles are the best thing we have for that. Use a bike instead of a car whenever you can, and the outcome will be less pollution than if you’d carried on as normal.
It’s essential to focus on what can be done. There’s a large number of people ready to say that nothing can be done unless we are all prepared to live short unhappy lives of sackcloth, and so let’s do nothing. They are more dangerous than your favourite Mr Trump who says there’s no crisis to fix.
It’s not true – we have to live slightly different lives, that will be good in other ways. Even Arnie says that, though I disagree that we can all have electric Hummers.
As you know Nigel is a
As you know Nigel is a practitioner of some of the Creationist argumentation techniques: essentially it’s not his job to defend, prove or evidence anything it’s yours. When challenged on any point of fact or logic this is dismissed as “just a joke”, “well this is what most people consider…” or “of course what I mean is…”. In return you’re expected to provide evidence for each point (which he generally ignores) and he’s happy to make a fight on the logic of some ancilliary point (moving the goalposts). You’ll also see a lot of whataboutery too.
I do like his use of bold just to “add weight” to a statement though although I’m surprised he didn’t got for “Fact.”
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EDIT – of course was somehow assuming a “he” however although I have mostly seen this from men (because powerful) I’m sure this is practiced by all sexes / genders …
Didn’t someone get banned for
Didn’t someone get banned for abusive behaviour towards another poster with regard to ebikes?
Not sure if they still post here…
Someone got fully banned and
Someone got fully banned and all posts removed for racist abuse as well. Boo somebody or other. They didn’t like groups of more then six, used to argue that TT bars are the most dangerous things ever, used to worship the ground of the Orange Seditionist and would bring up articles from 2015 to have a dig at people posting on here. I’m glad that arsehole is not around anymore.
No idea who you’re talking
No idea who you’re talking about.
I did once have a chat with a chap with a similar username to the person you refer to, however, and he told me a completely different story about how he got bored of having his threads trashed and simply asked for his account to be deleted.
Ah I remember that feller!
Ah, I remember that feller! Funny thing was, the abuse for which he was banned came after he said he was leaving the site (albeit under another name) because “You lot deserve each other.” Goodness me, can you imagine what it’d be like to have someone that sad and obsessed still knocking around the place?
What do you expect from a
What do you expect from a person whose dad cared for him enough to give him a bike and told to “get on with it” without supplying the normal protective gear and whose mum, knowing her son is a cyclist, sends him anti-cycle news from the Heil. As his deletion happened around the time he was posting his “jokes” about other people and cultures, I’m sure it had nothing to do with that at all. But if it was, shame when he decided to call us all names and got angry that he didn’t ask for another deletion. However I suppose he would have just signed up with a Dick a L’orange name like “Orange Manbaby” or “Drumpf can be my Commander-in-Chief anyday”.
Let’s be fair to his dad, the
Let’s be fair to his dad, the claims he makes are frequently transparent lies (for example his claim on the instructors story that he taught his three-year-old to ride a bike from scratch in under 30 minutes) so the story is probably not true.
I make a point of not reading
I make a point of not reading or responding to anything by or referring to The Idiot, but I have noticed two different spellings of The Idiot’s name coming up. I recall seeing statements that The Idiot is just a reincarnation of a previous Idiot who disappeared. Does anyone know, or think he knows, whether this is the same Idiot under 2 very similar names?
Also, I too resent the misrepresentation of the greenness of cycling commented upon below. I proudly and smugly represented the GreenAsGreenCanBe lobby on completing most of the Pennine Bridleway 3 weeks ago
There have been various
There have been various usernames as the same person
Nigel Garrage
youareallcyberbullies
TT danger
Nigel Garage
Nige Garage
99% sure they are also PBU booboojmooj
They came up with some pathetic lie that they had to change their username due to server issues. Funny how you have to be logged in to be able to amend your username.
Youareallcyberbullies was
Youareallcyberbullies was when he threw his toys out of the pram and stated he was leaving the site. Of course he is never angry and calls people anything so two lies in one post there. Unfortunately around the time he “left” was when GBNews viewers were boycotting it so he had nowhere to go and came back. Then TT danger was when two days after “leaving” he decided to post after a lady cyclist lost her life in a TT race. I believe you (Hirsute) reported his abhorrent post and it was removed so I don’t know exactly what he put but I expect he put forward a view on why it was totally her fault anyway.
His latest changes are because some of the people here removed his posts using a Chrome or Firefox filter.
Edit: But scrolling down, I see he has finally admitted he is Boo although that was quite obvious from his first post showing his hatred of seeing people cycling together communally.
I’d forgotten about that.
I’d forgotten about that.
Here’s the thread https://road.cc/content/news/tt-rider-seriously-injured-a11-284881#block-node-comment-block-node-comments