Good. Imagine trying to score political points from attempts to clean up the air in your local neighbourhood. Just because you literally cannot see the benefit.

Sadiq Khan expands £2,000 Ulez grant to all Londoners with non-compliant vehicles

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/03/sadiq-khan-expands-london-ulez-grant-and-scrappage-scheme?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The Prime Minister’s LBC interview was filled with enough bull**** to fertilize an entire field. If like me you think the public deserve the actual FACTS RT this widely.

If UK media can’t get the job done let’s do it ourselves
https://youtu.be/WbiSmWhK-mc

Electric cars are better, on balance, than ICE cars. But...

Well, take a look at this first. Then we can talk more about my But down below.
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The urgency of climate change requires electrifying the 278 million personal vehicles plying American roadways as quickly as we can. After all, EVs are far more climate-friendly than equivalent gas-powered models because they eliminate the tailpipe emissions that warm the planet and pollute the air. Better yet, EVs are simply fun to drive: Most models are quicker and quieter than your average gas car.

However, that is not the full story.

EVs also produce emissions beyond what spews from their tailpipe. Like all cars, their tires are constantly rubbing against pavement, releasing particulates that float through the air and leach into waterways, damaging human health and wildlife. New EV models tend to be heavier and quicker — generating more particulates and deepening the danger.

In other words, EVs have a tire-pollution problem, and one that is poised to get worse as America begins to adopt electric cars en masse. None of this is inevitable. EVs don’t need to be so massive and lightning-fast — these are choices that the auto industry has made. All of us will pay the price.

As a form of microplastics, tire pollution hits wildlife hard: Compounds that settle on the ground gradually leach toxic chemicals into the soil and water. One study concluded that tires could be responsible for as much as 28% of the microplastics in global oceans.

The smallest tire particles, measured in mere nanometers, can enter our lungs and spread to our organs. Various tire components have been linked to chronic conditions including respiratory problems, kidney damage, neurological damage, and birth defects — a particular concern in neighborhoods adjacent to highways, whose residents skew low-income and minority.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.li/jrMWK

Anyway, so we agree, EVs basically are better than ICE cars.

BUT — as you've seen, they have their own problems. And do we really need to still have 300+ million cars clogging our roads, posing a threat to cyclists and pedestrians and basic sanity?

For me, the answer is No.

I say public transit is better. Bicycles are better. Walking is better.

Because the very BEST car is no car at all!

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Pollution #WarOnCars #BanCars

Keir Starmer joined secretive CIA-linked group while serving in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet

https://declassifieduk.org/keir-starmer-joined-secretive-cia-linked-group-while-serving-in-corbyns-shadow-cabinet/

#UKPolitics #Starmer #Labour #Secrecy #DeclassifiedUK

The UK is paying the worst polluters to keep polluting. Here’s why...

Step forward, the ‘Emissions Trading Scheme’ – which says we can’t possibly tax Air France in case it moves to Armenia

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/explainer-emissions-trading-scheme-volga-dnepr/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=newsie_social

#climatechange #environment #UK #UKnews #carbontrading #pollution

The #UK government rejected calls from its own nature experts for a legally binding target to halt England’s catastrophic decline in wildlife, openDemocracy can reveal.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/natural-england-advice-sssis-decline-defra/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=newsie_social

#environment #conservation #UKnews #UKpol #wildlife

Uruguay’s missing women may have been trafficked. Why doesn’t the state care?

Exclusive: Our 12-month investigation into cases of nine women reveals years of failure by police and prosecutors.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/uruguay-missing-women-sexual-trafficking-police-failure/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=newsie_social

#Uruguay #Trafficking #Women #News #Investigation