Livingstone announces major cycling scheme

By Jeremy Lovell Reuters - Monday, February 11 05:13 pm

LONDON (Reuters) - London will adopt a bicycle hire scheme similar to a popular initiative in Paris under a $1 billion (513 million pound) cycling investment package announced by the mayor on Monday.

Under the plan, part of a series of environmental measures due in coming days, 6,000 bicycles will be available for hire from ranks every 600 feet throughout the city centre.

London, which accounts for seven percent of the country's climate changing carbon emissions and is at the forefront of efforts by major cities around the world to combat global warming, plans to cut carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025.

The Paris bike scheme lets riders with an electronic card take a bike from one rank and return it at another rank anywhere in the city. It has proven popular, transforming traffic in the French capital since it came into operation last July.

Mayor Ken Livingstone's initial announcement did not give details of how much the cycles would cost to rent in London or how Londoners would pay for them.

"We will spend 500 million pounds over the next decade on cycling -- the biggest investment in cycling in London's history, which means that thousands more Londoners can cycle in confidence on routes that take them quickly and safely to where they want to go," Livingstone said in a statement.

"Around 20 percent of the carbon emissions savings we've calculated we can make from transport by 2025 will come from changing the way we travel," he added.

Other aspects of the scheme include new cycle paths and exclusive cycle zones and more bike parking facilities at underground stations across the capital.

Livingstone, facing a tough mayoral election in May with the environment as one of the major campaign issues, said he wanted five percent or 1.7 million of all daily trips in London to be by bike by 2025.

On Tuesday Livingstone is expected to announce his decision to go ahead from October with a plan to charge drivers of gas-guzzling Sport Utility Vehicles 25 pounds a day to drive in central London's congestion charge zone. Ordinary cars pay eight pounds a day to drive in the zone.

A low emission zone targeting heavy lorries came into force on Monday in the 600 square mile area inside the M25 ring road circling the sprawling city.

Added to that, Livingstone was also due to announce a comprehensive plan to fit new filters and equipment to all municipal buildings in the city to cut their carbon emissions.

China's freak snow means wildfires to come

China's freak snow means wildfires to come

The freakish snowstorms which have been sweeping across China since early January have damaged one tenth of the nation's forests. The State Forestry Administration reports that 17.3 million hectares of forests have been affected - an area larger than England.

Trees suffer from the weight of heavy snowfall, which can bend or break branches, and even kill the whole tree, depending on the species and their size.

Research has shown that death by snow and ice can have all sorts of implications for forests, from boosting regrowth to boosting biodiversity (both a result of more light and "vacant" ecological niches).

On the grimmer side of things, they also generate dead plant debris excellent fodder for summertime forest fires. Already, a SFA spokesman has warned that trees killed by the cold weather could lead to fire disasters later this year.

This year's snowstorms have been the worst in 5 decades. The total cost of the damage has yet to be determined. On 31 January, the SFA announced that the storms would cost 16.2 billion yuan (about $2.5 billion) in damaged forests, but the storms have been sustained since then, and more are predicted for this week.

Meteorologists have blamed the weather on La Nina, which warms up Pacific waters off the coasts of Asia. As a result, warm moist air comes in over the land and mixes with cold air from the north, resulting in heavy snow.

Catherine Brahic, online environment reporter New Scientist