Climate Change - We Can Change

Campers at Marble Arch - unusual to see this multi-lane road traffic-free.
ULEZ has literally gone ultra.

It is odd to see a line of buses standing at Edgware Road Station outside Paddington Green Police Station, but it became apparent that something beyond the norm was causing the queues when I saw yet another Metroline-operated bus appear alongside the A40 - southbound buses curtailed to Edgware Road use the A40 to turn around at Little Venice back down towards the left turn onto Edgware Road northbound.

This was my initial observation - the queue got longer!

I saw a Metroline rep communicating with some drivers so thought he would be the guy to ask what was going on. The man read off, quite obliviously, the leaflet to inform me that there were demonstrations going on in central London that was diverting all traffic. I took a train to St. John's Station to do some additional filming for this project before catching bus back to New Cross to do some shopping.

Since nothing was going further than Edgware Road Station, I wondered where my 36 home would curtail or how it would divert to get to Queen's Park. The answer was all buses on the 36 were curtailed to Victoria. I also noticed a 172 curtailed to Elephant & Castle. I took a 36 - a slightly older type, albeit still hybrid which should satisfy the eco-friendly advocates causing such disruption - and at Victoria, asked a driver for a ticket in order to validate a free journey that the Metroline guy from earlier told me TfL were allowing - well, to the extent that train fares cost the same as bus fares, I assume, within Zone 1 - to accommodate journeys within central.

I almost let the disruptions and the adventurousness of this travel distract from the fact that I had to go shopping, so I got off at Marble Arch Station to understand the dynamics of the protest.

Extinction Rebellion protests at Marble Arch Station.

'Business as usual costs the Earth.'
'Climate Change We Can Change.'

Climate change protests are currently taking place in 80 cities from over 33 countries and, while I am generally indifferent to protests particularly in the Western world as I feel they are more publicity stunts than politically mobile - i.e. the political is the topic to justify publicity for the protesters, rather than the focus of the publicity -  as captioned in one of the photos above they have actually asserted the Ultra Low Emission Zone by camping on its roads!

However, when they start to disrupt the train network, the stringency to protester aims becomes dubious. I immediately questioned how sub-surface travel is significant for the climate change protest since our trains, as far as I know, are powered by electricity, compared to the many diesel-powered vehicles polluting our streets although hybrid and electric alternatives are on the rise. An article by CityLab then better informed my queries, describing poor ventilation as causing pollution on the London Underground. The S Stock trains on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines address this as our first air-conditioned trains.

Nevertheless, I digress from the argument I wanted to highlight - which is the problem with ecological and environmental debates. While they address issues that need to be addressed, everyone seems to get sidetracked by the short-term disruptions these protests cause instead of realising the long-term priority that these disruptions should have for the quality of the world we live in. If protesters can maintain their drive, maintain the mentality of the aims influencing their protest instead of getting lost in the means - i.e. the publicity, as protests too often do - and the public can realise the significance of the climate change protests beyond the disruptions they are currently causing, these protests may just work. They have reinforced the ULEZ, but they also require support from the public for more people to be consciously aware about the climate and more importantly the government to communicate with the protesters in order to progress from the piecemeal philosophy I often feel formulates policy.

It is difficult to change how we live, but the more collective thought goes into improving what and how we consume for improving the climate, I feel boosted becomes the potential for change for the better.

Share: