Saturday, July 07, 2007

Carbon Footprints and carbon fibre

Live Earth - Defeating the very purpose
First there was Live Aid, then Live 8. Today it was Live Earth, a rock concert to raise awareness of climate change by encouraging people to contribute further to global warming by watching it on their televisions and listening to it on their radios - as well as burning up all those kilowatts and volts of energy by staging the event in the first place. Publicity-mad attention seekers like Madonna will readily jump on any bandwagon reagardless of the cause as long as it guarantees maximum exposure. Even Geldof was critical of Live Earth's motives. And think of all the noise pollution it will cause. A bit like doing a sponsored pub crawl to raise money for Alcoholics Anonymous.


The Tour de London

But instead of watching Live Earth I set a green example by taking public transport into Central London and watching that environmentally friendly sport of cycling. Yes, it was the long awaited prologue to the Tour de France which came to London for the very first time, as I mentioned back in January 2006 (Tour de France goes Cockney). It was refeshing to see the streets free of traffic and the assembled crowds cheering on flashes of titanium, carbon fibre and multicoloured lycra as the time triallists speeded past the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and Hyde Park. You had to be there to take in the atmosphere, but to be honest the best views were on the big screens in Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park where you could actually follow the progress of different riders and hear the statistics via the dulcet tones of veteran Tour commentator Phil Liggett, instead of just getting a brief glimpse over the heads of spectators lined along the barriers of a helmet being pursued by a motorbike.

An exciting three weeks lies ahead, but not without the shadow of doping hanging over the sport. It will take time to for cycling to shake off its tarnished image, but the thrills of agonising climbs up Alpine mountain passes, bunched masses of coloured jerseys wheeling past fields of sunflowers, the painted graffiti on roads and the finale of the Champs Elysee will go on.

3 comments:

Lady Fotherington-Smethers said...

I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE CYCLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOO HAPPY THAT I WILL GET A LUXURIOUS DOUBLE DOSE OF HARRY POTTER SOON WITH HE FILM OF ORDER OF THE PHOENIX COMING OUT SOON AND THE NEW BOOK BEING ON SALE ON 21ST JULY!! YEY!!!

Lady Fotherington-Smethers said...

PS Did I mention Harry Potter is out soon?

CW said...

Harry Potter? Never heard of him! Was he realted to Beatrix?