London

Cycling team is first carbon-neutral pro sports team in U.S.

Congratulations to the Kodak Gallery Pro Cycling Team presented by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. for having a ridiculously corporatastic name becoming the first carbon-neutral U.S. professional sports team. The KGPCTpbSNBC will offset 100 percent of team-produced carbon emissions in 2007, including travel, support crew, and team members' home electricity use. Team marketing director Rob O'Dea has the sound bite:

This program allows our team to take a leadership position in raising the bar of personal responsibility, and in creating awareness of the new tools that exist for individuals and organizations to take tangible steps to improve the air we breathe. We're glad to have a chance to offset the pollution we create by supporting the development of clean, renewable wind power.

Thanks for that, Rob.

Direct-action protesters in the U.K. are focusing on climate change

A protester at England’s Didcot power station contemplates the changing landscape. Photo: Kate Davison/Greenpeace It’s half an hour or so after the end of Britain’s biggest-ever protest against climate change, and I’m still hanging out in Trafalgar Square. A few groups of kids are milling around, and a couple of anarchists have set up a […]

The Ghost Map

Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, has a blog post up about the new book he's just finishing, The Ghost Map. It's about the Broad Street cholera outbreak in London in 1854, and it sounds goood.

In many ways, the story of Broad Street is all about the triumph of a certain kind of urbanism in the face of great adversity, the power of dense cities to create solutions to problems that they themselves have brought about. So many of the issues that define the modern world today -- the runaway growth of megacities, environmental crises, fears of apocalyptic epidemics, digital mapping, the need for clean water, urban terror, the rise of amateur expertise -- are there, in embryo, in the Broad Street outbreak.

Stockholm syndrome II

A while back I mentioned that Stockholm, Sweden was starting a short-term trial of congestion pricing -- essentially, making drivers pay to enter downtown. London instituted a similar system in 2003, which has proven unexpectedly popular: It's reduced traffic levels by 15 percent, while boosting downtown driving speeds considerably. Stockholm's experiment seemed like it was off to a rockier start -- the city was far less congested than London, and the charges were, if anything, even less popular with commuters.

So it may come as something of a surprise that Stockholm's trial has been greeted with less opposition than predicted:

Once the global capital of bad food, London shows the way forward.

Since I started writing for Gristmill, I've tried to make the point that our food system amounts to an ongoing environmental disaster, and deserves much more attention from greens.

Over in London, Mayor Ken Livingstone is putting that idea into action. As the Guardian reports, Livingstone recently declared that "The energy and emissions involved in producing food account for 22% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions."

Ponder that number for a minute. Rather than obsess about hybrids and switchgrass and CAFE standards -- worthy topics, to be sure -- it might make sense to push for policies that make food production more eco-friendly. And Livingstone is doing just that.

"I want London to set a standard for other cities around the world to follow in reducing its own contribution to climate change. How we deal with food will play an important role in this," he told the Guardian.

(Thanks to the Organic Consumers Association for bringing this story, which came out way back on Jan. 7, to my attention.)

How the Olympics are becoming a sustainable business

This month, as the Olympic flame makes its torch-uous journey to Turin, Italy, most people’s eyes are fixed on the upcoming games. But our eyes are focused a little farther down the track. In our role as sustainability consultants, we’ve joined the field of those helping the London 2012 Olympics committee work out how to […]

Danny’s Contentment: Following the experience of an electric car owner in London

Now this is what I'm talking about.

Take one innovative Brit, one video recorder, one blog, one electric car and ... voi la, you have one cool video blog.

Danny Fleet is chronicling his purchase of, and driving experience with, his REVA on his video blog, Danny's Contentment. Watch clips of the delivery, a HOWTO on watering (!) the REVA, Danny's first time in the driver's seat, his first ticket ... you get the picture.

Any Gristmillers have a video blog of their own that they would like to share?

(Via TH)

Politicians are charging commuters to use the roads, and paying no price for it.

Via Planetizen News, evidence that the impossible is finally catching on: According to Governing magazine, more and more jurisdictions in the US and Europe are making drivers pay to use roads when they're congested. And remarkably, the politicians responsible for instituting the tolls don't seem to be paying much of a political price.