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ecochris.bsky.social
Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
@ecochris.bsky.social
240 followers 270 following 30 posts
Helped get South Downs National Park & Living Coast Biosphere Reserve. Director of Transport Action Network supporting transport & planning campaigners. Hates wood burning poisoning our air and the great biomass con
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
In his message to the mass climate lobby Keir Starmer forgot transport (the biggest sector for emissions) and how his government has just funded 33 roads, increasing CO2 emissions by millions of tonnes

How is that "unwavering commitment to climate action"?

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Thousands meet their MPs to show huge demand for climate action
Mass lobby in Westminster kicked off with giant image on white cliffs of Dover stating ‘89% of people want climate action’
www.theguardian.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
"Labour committed in its manifesto to increase rail freight to reduce congestion, improve road safety and journey reliability. Yet it now appears to be actively undermining these outcomes and transport decarbonisation." - @ecochris.bsky.social transportactionnetwork.org.uk/labour-splur...
Labour splurges taxpayers’ cash on poor value road schemes
Transport Action Network is dismayed at today’s announcement by the UK Government to fund a raft of poor value and expensive road schemes. Most of these are legacy schemes from the Conservative govern...
transportactionnetwork.org.uk
July 8, 2025 at 12:59 PM
ecochris.bsky.social
Really important issue that is being ignored as ministers seem once again to be listening to vested interests
mumsforlungs.bsky.social Mums for Lungs @mumsforlungs.bsky.social · Apr 25
Our letter to @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social @emmahardymp.bsky.social & others, asking them to rethink allowing #WoodBurning stoves in new builds.

Thanks to the many others who co-signed, and to @ellarobertafdn.bsky.social, Prof Jill Belch & Prof Sir Stephen Holgate for adding their voices.
A letter to government reacting to the news that wood burning stoves will be allowed as secondary heating in new build homes. We explain that wood burning is not carbon neutral and has no place in the Future Homes and Buildings Standards. A letter to government reacting to the news that wood burning stoves will be allowed as secondary heating in new build homes. We explain that wood burning is not carbon neutral and has no place in the Future Homes and Buildings Standards.
April 25, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
We won't be legally challenging the Lower Thames 'smart' motorway Crossing planning consent so National Highways will have no one to blame when its costs escalate as they surely will

Economics are likely to thwart the construction of this white elephant
transportactionnetwork.org.uk/tan-will-not...
TAN will not legally challenge LTC planning consent
Transport Action Network will not legally challenge Lower Thames Crossing planning consent: Exposure of true costs will thwart new motorway. Transport Action Network (TAN) [1] is announcing today that...
transportactionnetwork.org.uk
April 17, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
dougparr.bsky.social
Policy of new UK govt on decarbonising aviation is... the same as previous govt

And that tech can rapidly make aviation climate-friendly through new aircraft & "sustainable aviation fuel"

But some enviro groups say it's hogwash, and are making legal challenge

www.businessgreen.com/news/4411650...
Government faces High Court challenge over 'highly dangerous' Jet Zero Strategy
Environmental groups claim government's aviation decarbonisation plan rely too heavily on 'speculative, risky' technologies
www.businessgreen.com
April 1, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
zero-hour.bsky.social
🌍 Steve Reed wanted the Climate & Nature Bill to proceed. Ed Miliband promised to work on the #CANBill's objectives. Mary Creagh pledged to deliver “binding nature commitments”.

🚨 Labour Ministers are speaking out.

⏳ What’s the delay for new, joined-up, science-led climate and nature legislation?
🌿 Steve Reed MP on Climate and Nature Bill | Environmental Audit Committee, 24 March 2025
YouTube video by Zero Hour: Climate and Nature Bill
www.youtube.com
March 25, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
peterstefanovic.bsky.social
Young people should protest for the planet more, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has said.

Britain is THREE TIMES more likely to arrest climate activists than other countries

And if you think that’s bad watch this

youtu.be/lhI7cZ0kPiY?...
🚨A shocking update - New labour Government is pursuing appeal against Liberty High Court win
YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic
youtu.be
March 22, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
We need a step change in funding away from bigger roads to looking after the roads we already have.

Also, why not try some traffic reduction? See @lowtrafficfuture.bsky.social 😎

#potholes

www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk/ALARM-2025-B...
Highways Magazine - ALARM 2025: Backlog at almost £17bn after 'decade of short-term fixes'
The backlog of carriageway repairs in England and Wales has reached almost £17bn, with roads only being resurfaced every 93 years on average, according to the road industry's flagship survey.
www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk
March 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
🚨 Press Release!

Our response to Dame Kelly’s downfall

The stepping down of Dame Bernadette Kelly, the Department for Transport's (DfT) Permanent Secretary, offers the chance for a reset of priorities and a change in approach...

transportactionnetwork.org.uk/tan-response...
TAN response to Dame Kelly’s downfall
TAN response to Dame Kelly’s downfall Responding to the Department for Transport’s Permanent Secretary quitting due to financial mismanagement concerns, Chris Todd, Director of Transport Action Networ...
transportactionnetwork.org.uk
March 20, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
Time to put this dinosaur out of its misery and replace it with something better:
⏩ better for the economy
⏩ better for opportunities
⏩ better for people
⏩ better for the NHS
⏩ better for the environment

Time for our Essex-Kent Superlinks!
transportactionnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/u...
transportactionnetwork.org.uk
March 7, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
Whichever way you look at it the Lower Thames Crossing just keeps getting more expensive

A drain on the UK's finances at a time we can ill-afford wasteful and damaging projects

www.ft.com/content/917d...
Lower Thames Crossing has cost £1.2bn even before construction starts
Outlay on items including consultants, planning and legal fees jumps from £800mn two years ago
www.ft.com
March 7, 2025 at 7:52 PM
ecochris.bsky.social
Why would we build the #LowerThamesCrossing which will choke the south east with more traffic and will only provide 5 years traffic relief at Dartford?

No one is questioning its cost or effectiveness or why a new rail link was never seriously considered

@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
February 8, 2025 at 8:09 AM
ecochris.bsky.social
Private Eye on the money as usual

Anyone championing building high carbon infrastructure to boost growth such as #Heathrow, #Gatwick or the #LowerThamesCrossing should be aware they could be stimulating an economic downturn
Extract from Private Eye showing a 12% fall in GDP for every degree of warming compared to 0.43% potential increase from Heathrow expansion
February 6, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
"Everyone will end up paying the price if the Lower Thames Crossing goes ahead with private finance." - @ecochris.bsky.social

transportactionnetwork.org.uk/lower-thames...
Lower Thames Crossing greenwashing challenged
“Like putting green lipstick on a pig” Campaigners from Transport Action Network (TAN) [1] have ridiculed National Highways’ attempt to brand Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) as the “greenest road ever” [2...
transportactionnetwork.org.uk
February 5, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
Trying to green a hugely damaging road scheme is like putting green lipstick on a pig. Not a pretty sight.

transportactionnetwork.org.uk/lower-thames...
February 4, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
shaunspiers1.bsky.social
Well there's a surprise.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reeves’s Heathrow third runway report was commissioned by London airport
The chancellor is under fire after a study cited as evidence for expanding the terminal to boost the UK’s economic growth was ordered by Heathrow itself
www.theguardian.com
February 1, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
adamvaughan.bsky.social
“Heathrow expansion just keeps on rising like a zombie from the grave. People keep disinterring it. Rachel Reeves is like: ‘I’m fresh out of ideas, so give me a spade and I’m going to dig this up...’ It just smacks of desperation,” said @crisortunity.bsky.social 👇

www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
‘Huge’ campaign against Heathrow third runway ready to mobilise
Rachel Reeves’s decision to give Labour’s backing to airport expansion ‘smacks of desperation’, lead campaigner says
www.thetimes.com
February 1, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
peterstefanovic.bsky.social
If UK news shows are going to give Nigel Farage a platform to spout this absolute boll**** about Brexit & the vaccine rollout (unchallenged) I’ll happily come back every week to correct it

We cannot allow them to rewrite history.

If you agree share this FACT CHECK widely
youtu.be/MUrf7addcTA?...
NO Nigel Farage - the vaccine rollout was not helped by Brexit
YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic
youtu.be
February 1, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
crisortunity.bsky.social
It’s me, in the Times
"Heathrow expansion just keeps on rising like a zombie from the grave. People keep disinterring it. Rachel Reeves is like: I'm fresh out of ideas, so give me a spade and I'm going to dig this up, see if I can resuscitate this corpse. It just smacks of desperation"
🛫🧟
Middle England and radicals join forces against Heathrow plans Adam Vaughan Environment Editor From protesters grounding planes on runways "climate camps" screaming helium balloons at aviation events, opposition to a third runway at Heathrow has rarely been boring. But it is arguably the unexciting alliance of "Swampies and Middle En-gland", combined with businesses, local authorities and MPs, that explains why campaigning against the airport's expansion has been so successful. "It was this diverse coalition that was terribly important," said John Stewart, who fought the runway for two decades. Stewart, 75, chaired the biggest and most organised local group Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan) - from 2000 Hacan united local residents concerned about noise and homes being bulldozed, and still has thousands of members. They were backed by big, es-tablised environmental groups such as WWF but also by more radical activists such as the group Plane Stupid Leo Murray, who co-founded Plane Stupid, said opposition to a third runway had modelled itself on the anti-roads movement of the 1990s, including protesters against Newbury bypass. "The recipe for success was this alliance of grassroots and deep greens, Swampy types who are prepared to go and climb trees and chain themselves to things, and Middle Englanders who didn't want road expansion near them," said Murray, who thinks a similar approach would work on Heathrow. The Blair government backed the third runway in 2003, just as Murray was becoming more concerned about the consequences of climate change. By 2005, Murray said, "It was keeping me up at night. I was freaking out about the end of the world and looking for something to throw my weight behind." That something was opposition to airport expansion. There followed an intense period of non-violent action, intended to increase the financial and political cost of expanding airport capacity. In 2006, Plane Stupid shut down East Midlands Airport… Lord Mandelson was "slimed" with green custard by a Plane Stupid activist in 2009, the year after Murray and colleagues had stormed the roof of the Houses of Parliament. "Gordon Brown was very peeved," he said. A week-long climate camp was held near Heathrow in 2007 in Sipson, a village which faced demolition if a third runway went ahead. Murray thought politicians after David Cameron, who opposed the expansion, alighted on the third runway when they ran out of ideas for growth. "Heathrow expansion just keeps on rising like a zombie from the grave. People keep disinterring it. Rachel Reeves is like: T'm fresh out of ideas, so give me a spade and I'm going to dig this up, see if I can resuscitate this corpse. It just smacks of desperation," he said.
February 1, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
shaunspiers1.bsky.social
The government's narrative on planning is basically the same as the last government's. That's because it has the same intellectual progenitors, the ultra free market think tanks. I'm afraid it's likely to end in the same failure. My new blog -
greenallianceblog.org.uk/2025/01/30/w... 1/
January 31, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
crisortunity.bsky.social
Just want to take a moment to appreciate @london.gov.uk continuing his consistent pattern of being courageously right about things the present Labour Party leadership are egregiously wrong about www.london.gov.uk/mayor-london...
Mayor of London statement on Heathrow airport expansion
Mayor of London statement on Heathrow airport expansion
www.london.gov.uk
January 30, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
dougparr.bsky.social
On #R4Today the UK Chancellor is making the case that Sustainable Aviation Fuel is a gamechanger for the environmental impacts of aviation at Heathrow and elsewhere

It's just not true. There's no basis for this claim

www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/three-m...
Three myths about Heathrow’s third runway and the climate problem - Greenpeace UK
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves is suggesting airport expansion, including a possible third runway at Heathrow, as a way to boost economic growth in the UK.  This article is not going to deal with the ec...
www.greenpeace.org.uk
January 30, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
transportaction.bsky.social
While we are disappointed to see the Chancellor supporting the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) today, it is far from a done deal.

Private finance has not been secured and the planning application is yet to be approved. 🧵
January 29, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Chris Todd 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇳
dougparr.bsky.social
Flea treatments for cats & dogs mean their hair is full of toxic pesticide fipronil, or imidacloprid, both banned for agriculture

The hair is shed into wider environment, used to line birds' nests

There were more dead chicks in nests with high pesticide levels

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Pet fur found in songbird nests contains high levels of pesticides, study finds
Exclusive: Chemical in treatment for pet fleas and ticks is found in nests of blue and great tits, killing chicks
www.theguardian.com
January 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
ecochris.bsky.social
Shame presenters on #BBCNEWSCAST tonight have little understanding of what is causing delays to planning decisions
January 24, 2025 at 12:04 AM