gwd

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7308400.stm

What is worse in my mind than running a red light or two or going wrong way up a one way street- thats what bikes are for isn't it? -is this thing from a few years ago:

"The Tory leader, who has been keen to establish his green credentials, cycles to work once a week - usually on Wednesday.

He found himself accused of hypocrisy in 2006 for cycling while being followed by a car carrying his briefcase. "

Brits, can't the Tory leader get a luggage rack on his bike?

LetterRider

Haha! Oh, how politicians never cease to amuse me!
Seriously, having a car follow you on your bike to carry shoes and a briefcase?? Yeah, I would think that would set a bad example, along with the breaking of the traffic laws.
Kind of like Al Gore flying around in his private jet to tell everyone what they can do to slow global warming...
Thanks for cheering up my dreary morning!

Bad Human

Another crazy fact is how uneco Al Gore's house is. I like that more people are taking small steps because I think that will lead to bigger steps but some of this stuff is just crazy.

N.

https://badhuman.wordpress.com

Kimmitt 

Um, Al Gore just finished a large series of retrofits to give his house much improved efficiency.

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22248699/

Six jours

Um, that's because he got called on it.

Doug5150

Yea, but the point is that he had to do it at all. If nobody would have REVEALED how much energy his house used would he have bothered to change it? (if you recall, he didn't volunteer that information willingly)

And I believe it was John Travolta who was somewhere giving a speech about how important it was to help prevent global warming, when somebody pointed out that he flies around in his own jumbo jet for fun.
~

Artkansas 

Seems like the car might serve at least two other functions. It protects him from passing traffic, and quite possibly bodyguards might be riding in the car as well. You never know.

Artkansas 

Well, people who are car/plane free have a harder time going all around warning about global warming.

bragi

I think I agree with this guy's POV:

"Cycling enthusiast and Tory candidate for London mayor, Boris Johnson, called for "zero tolerance" of cyclists who break the rules.

Speaking to ITV1, he said: 'I am a militant cyclist myself and I love cycling and I want more people to cycle in London, but part of the deal has got to be that if we are going to expand cycling in London ... we cyclists have got to obey the laws of the road.'"

The bit about the briefcase following along in a car reminds me of a student I had last year. I did a unit on climate & weather, part of which dealt with global warming (I used only IPCC data, BTW, nothing extreme, and threw in Bjorn Lomborg for balance, don't get me started), and the boy got a liitle concerned and decided to ride his bike to school rather than have his parents drive him. However, he didn't want to bring his heavy backback with him on the bike, so he had his mother drop it off at school later in her SUV. You'd think a member of parliament would be able to reason things out a bit better than a 6th grader, though.

Platy

Maybe the student was experimenting with bike commuting. When I start to do something new & challenging, I first focus what I call the "fundamental confidence building step". That is the key scary thing you have to accomplish. Once you've done that, no matter how ineptly, everything else is simply a matter of refinement. People often avoid the terror of confronting the fundamental confidence building step by getting distracted with side issues such as optimal equipment, preparation or ever expanding analysis.

I'd give the student points for going right to the heart of the matter and actually accomplishing a couple of bike rides to school and back. He's stored away that success in his mind. Next time he thinks about bike commuting, he'll approach it with confidence. And more than likely he'll be larger and stronger, easily able to haul a back pack. So my opinion is the young man succeeded, he did not fail in any way.

gerv 

There's a lot of hypocrisy out there, but I would advise most folks on this forum to be careful about throwing the first stone. For myself, I run around on my bike all year, cut down on my household CO2 emissions, then take a plane trip to Mexico... which negates all the preceding. And before you rant on my case, please remember that there are a lot of ways for a North American to be hypocritical. So there!

gosmsgo

Your god, Al Gore, is going to rain hell down upon you.

bragi

It is, in fact, true that your plane trip possibly negates most if not all of your other efforts, but at least you're doing something. And let's not forget the cooling effects of jet contrails: according to a friend of mine who works for NASA, jet contrails may help create more clouds, which could be a help in preventing some warming from happening. So, in a sense, your jaunts to Mexico are helping to save the earth. Go ahead, fly with reckless abandon! Just be sure to guzzle organic margharitas (sp) while you're down there.

Of course, we could do even more for the environment by staying home in cold, totally dark rooms, eating locally-grown turnips without any spices, not even riding bikes, because, after all, they use resources, too, but at some point you have to be reasonable and enjoy the fruits of the industrial revolution.

LetterRider

In no way is it realistic to expect people to completely eliminate all harmful actions from their lives. I certainly can't. But as previously mentioned, at least we are doing something.
A little light-hearted stone throwing does no harm and I'd venture to say that not much would be accomplished without someone willing to toss a few stones. Which is why these situations are so paradoxical. Gore, Travolta, Cameron, etc are, without a doubt making people stop and think about their actions and motivating them to change their lifestyles, even if in the slightest ways. But then these, seemingly, double-standards come to light and makes people think, "well, if he doesn't do blahblahblah...". But regardless, people are aware of the possibility of a personal action-reaction.
But you must see the hilarity in the situation. The man is riding a bike to set a good example and show that it can be done easily enough, but completely negates the message with the trailing driver. Hilarious! He probably has his reasons, but I'm thinking that it might have been a better idea to keep the car a bit less obvious by not forcing it the wrong way down a one way street. Right? And, by all means, stone away if I'm caught doing something that silly.

Roody

His brief case probably has all kinds of state secrets in it. Think of the controversy if the briefcase fell off his rack and Top Secret papers were scattered all over town!

Besides, a lot of my own green actions have more symbolic than actual value. I'm not going to throw stones at somebody else.

gerv 

Bragi, please stop. I am fueled by guilt.

Dr.PooLittle

I cycle 7.5 miles to work each way, and am always followed by a Hummer H1 carrying my u-lock, in addition to a Winnebago to carry my support crew in case I get a flat.