In response to almost one-third of people in Scotland being baffled by climate saving and sustainability terminology, yesterday, 7th August, TV presenter Kate Humble opened a waiting room for the future created by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Edinburgh Waverley Station
The ‘Our Planet Can’t Wait-ing Room’ was created after research found that 30 per cent of people do not understand the terminology around carbon saving.
Most confusion is caused by the terms ‘carbon pricing’, ‘carbon budget’, and ‘carbon accounting’, with 28 per cent of Scots saying they bluff their way through explaining what the terms mean because they’re too afraid to ask.
Other findings from the research showed that 23 per cent of people in Scotland say they don’t consider the environmental impact of travel and 62 per cent have no idea of the comparisons between travelling by planes, trains, and cars.
On a positive note, 29 per cent would probably make changes to their holiday plans if they thought it would benefit the environment.
The pop-up waiting room at Edinburgh Waverley, which was open for just one day, was designed to inspire people to consider travelling in a more sustainable way.
Inside, visitors could discover the secret air purifying superpowers of algae technology being trialled at Berwick-Upon-Tweed station, how 3D printing can turn plastic waste into products, and make a selection from a pick ‘n’ mix seed wall.
Presenter Kate Humble is London North Eastern Railway’s ‘Carbon Saving Conductor’, and used her experience to share sustainable travel tips and lead local children in a plant-a-thon.
The waiting room also featured the LNER Carbon Saving Departures Board surrounded by beautiful plants and flowers native to Scotland.
It is a traditional split-flap travel information board with a contemporary twist. The board shows emissions that passengers save travelling by train on a typical day via Edinburgh Waverley as opposed to car and plane, when compared with easily recognisable objects, animals and places including Highland cows and the Loch Ness monster.
Figures for a typical day this summer show that passengers travelling south by train from Edinburgh Waverley with London North Eastern Railway will save a cumulative 518,123 kg of CO2 emissions when compared with plane or car, a volume equivalent to 113 Olympic swimming pools of CO2, or the weight of a very healthy herd of 1,151 Highland cows!
The LNER Green Guides provide more information about sustainability initiatives and the most sustainable travel, and can be found here.
It’s so important we all do our bit to take steps to minimise our impact on the environment. But it’s really hard to do that when you don’t understand all the jargon that people use when talking about carbon and emissions.
Being armed with the facts is the first step we can take in being more sustainable. This experience is a fantastic way to raise awareness of the effect of our travel choices on the environment and to share more information about what you can do to be more sustainable – especially for kids.
Educating them when they’re young gives us the best possible chance of enjoying our amazing planet for generations to come.
Kate Humble, commenting from Edinburgh Waverley Station
Responses
Why is so much jargon used? In order to baffle people, that’s why! I can only assume that these people have never checked the data from the only GLOBAL weather monitoring system we have – the weather satellites – which shows that the climate stopped warming around 1997; temperatures then flat-lined for about 20 years, and, since then, the climate has been COOLING, with all the data from solar studies pointing the same way – that this cooling will go on for decades. When you look back over history at the way purely natural forces have made the Earth’s climate swing from one extreme to another, the idea that we can have any impact on our climate would be laughable – except that this worldwide SCAM is being used to scare people into submission; just like the ‘ruling elite’ did with Covid.
Kate, I suspect that you might struggle to promote the environmental benefits of rail travel if you found yourself standing for hours with nowhere to put your luggage and no chance of getting a drink from the buffet or even reaching the loo. This is what happens when the wires fail, like they did recently. And Cross Country will make you miserable for other reasons too.
All well and good but are the rail workers in Scotland, who have voted to strike, interested in the damage they have brought about, by forcing people to use cars during rail strikes?