New MySpace Page - It's My Choice mp3

Have you ever wondered what we do with all of the negative, pro-4x4 emails we receive? Well, we recycle them. Late last year we picked 10 winners and put them to spoken word in regional dialects. Andy produced them with some hip swaying beats to dance to. You can now listen to 4x4 drivers defending their freedom of choice on our new MySpace page. Feel free to play it at parties. We'll even be happy to send you the file if you want it for your phone.
If you want to produce another mp3 for us please reach out to us as they say in the USA. We want to get as many people involved and spread the message.

Why we should support emissions-led parking rates

As a co-founder of the campaigning group Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, and a Camden resident, I welcome the news that Camden Council is making plans to charge highly polluting cars more (Come in 4x4s, your time is up, Camden New Journal, 11 Jan). There has been so much news coverage about climate change and how urgently we need to tackle it sooner rather than later. And yet it seems like everyone is either waiting to be told what to do, or once told, we are quick to point our finger at someone else, or we’re decidedly not bothered one way or the other. This is therefore a heroic decision on the Council’s part, and we should support them.

It’s interesting to see the similarities between America and the UK in their response to dealing with climate change. In America, over 358 cities have signed up to the US Mayor’s Climate Change Initiative, agreeing to meet the Kyoto goal by cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by 7% by 2012. Meanwhile, the Bush Government has poured money into research and believes technology will solve the problem (while at the same time arguing that taking action now would lead to higher energy prices and the loss of 5 million jobs).

Similarly, in the UK it is the Councils who are beginning to show real leadership. For example, Woking Council reduced their CO2 emissions by 77% by switching to locally produced distributed energy systems. The engineer in charge, Alan Jones, was so successful that Mayor Livingstone pinched him from Woking to work on reducing the CO2 emissions in London. Similarly, Richmond Council passed a resolution Monday night to change their parking permits so that now they will charge residents on a sliding scale according to the level of CO2 emissions their car produces. Residents will also be charged more for parking a second car. This emissions-led parking initiative puts the responsibility for climate change squarely in the residents’ hands. If they decide to drive a larger, less efficient vehicle, then they must also accept responsibility for the CO2 that their vehicle choice produces. If they choose to drive a smaller, more efficient vehicle, then they will pay less. There are real rewards for those brave enough to drive an electric car. As more residents decide to drive smaller cars, the Council’s CO2 emissions will decrease. Besides Camden, this plan is also being discussed in Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Islington, and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, following my USA-UK analogy, there has been a real absence of any significant action by the Blair government to tackle transport, which accounts for 25% of our UK CO2 emissions. Transport is the only sector where CO2 levels are on the rise. And yet the government wants to build more roads and expand the airports. The Prime Minister and Gordon Brown say that they want to protect the economy. But I find this approach worrying. Even the Stern Report, commissioned by the UK Treasury last year, found an economic case for acting now, even if it was costly, because the costs of doing nothing will be far greater in the future.

This brings me to business and the auto manufacturers. There is a real push in the EU now to put binding regulations on the auto industry so that they design and build more efficient cars which produce less CO2. The manufacturers often counter by saying there isn’t a demand for efficient vehicles. The demand is for heavier and more powerful cars, such as 4x4s. Of course, we don’t see much advertising being splashed around making small efficient cars sexy, rugged and cool, but maybe we should if we want to save the planet. Maybe car manufacturers need to take more risks, be more creative, and think outside the ‘internal-combustion’ box.

With Richmond’s lead, and the Mayor’s proposed Congestion Zone charges based on CO2, we may well see people changing their lifestyle choices. And while we may not feel that Camden Council’s decision to charge more for gas-guzzlers is fair, I think it’s important to remember that there is a bigger picture called climate change which needs all of us to do all that we can.

Thanks for the top 10 reasons...

Hello, I am a schoolchild in the East Midlands, in year 9.
Because of our SATS, we have been practising different types of writing. This week we were set an assignment to find an issue and write persuasively about it. I chose to write about 4x4s and why people shouldn’t buy them. I came across your campaign and thought it would be great to research this issue via your website.
I love your top 10 reasons, and I agree with them all. It’s nice to know that there are people trying to save the planet and ARE paying attention to climate change.
Yours Truly, Jack S.

Can Landrover Go Beyond?

Right. Landrover is at it again, this time using Ewan McGregor's gloopy voiceover to equate it's 4x4s with phrases like 'dirty is better than clean', 'dare is better than daren't', and 'just pack some courage and some spirit'...
Go Beyond - check out their video. It's important to recognise who they are appealing to and what their messaging is.
Oddly enough, did you notice than none of the shots are of 4x4s stuck in traffic in the city, or dropping their kids off at school? They're all in wild, exotic places, or with some hamburger bar in the background (boy gets girl).
And, how many Landrovers do you see with mud on them?
OK - 4x4s have their place in Africa game preserves, or used in search and rescue missions. But why use those legitimate situations to encourage middle aged overweight males to buy a £60K Rangerover Sport?
We actually like to think that Landrover needs to go beyond and start making cars that don't cost the earth.
Instead of asking Freelander buyers to pay £160 a month for 6 months to offset the carbon released in manufacturing their 4x4 (what do we do for the rest of the life of the vehicle?), do they have the courage to build cars that are cleaner, lighter and more fuel efficient? Can they capture the spirit to become leaders in the industry instead of holding the UK back from meeting it's CO2 reductions by aggressively selling heavy and fuel-hungry vehicles?
Can Landrover Go Beyond Themselves? Now is better than never...

Newest Alliance branch starts with a bang!

The Edinburgh branch of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s succesfully launched in Edinburgh. Nearly a thousand spoof 'parking tickets' were issued to campaigners, who covered the whole of New Town and Stockbridge.

'The days when people could drive tank-sized cars about the city without encountering public opinion are over,' said Alliance spokesperson, Gregory Norminton. '18 of the 4x4 models in our streets fall within the highest band for CO2 emissions. This makes 4x4s the single most polluting group of cars on the market.'

'At a time of worsening global warming, and with the Stern Report making it clear that the world will face economic meltdown if it fails to reduce its carbon emissions, buying a large off-road vehicle for use in towns and cities is morally irresponsible.'

'The Alliance is fighting to reverse the effects of the automobile industry's massive advertising campaigns for these large and dangerous vehicles. We believe that government should ban advertisements for the most polluting vehicles or place visible health warnings over them, similar to those printed on cigarette packets. The largest 4x4s exceed by more than 200% the EU vehicle emissions target of 140 g CO2/km. They are also extremely dangerous to other road users, and can be fatal even at low speeds in collisions with pedestrians, especially children and the elderly.'

'The Alliance is a grassroots pressure group. Wherever people live in Edinburgh, they can help us get out our message.’

The coverage of the Edinburgh Alliance has been remarkable. They have been on Radio Forth, BBC Radio Scotland and, last Friday evening, on BBC 1's 'Reporting Scotland'. See also the following articles in The Edinburgh Evening News and The Herald:

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1658862006

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/75245.html