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Paris Climate Accord Vs Paris e-scooters

Parisians vote to ban e-scooters from French capital An overwhelming majority of Parisians voted to ban electric scooters from the streets of the French capital on Sunday, in a non-binding referendum that city authorities have said they would follow. The ban won between 85.77% and 91.77% of the votes in the 20 Paris districts that published results, according to the City of Paris website on what was billed as a rare “public consultation” and prompted long queues at ballot boxes around the city. “I preferred to vote against, because in Paris it’s a mess. The way it’s organised, the danger that it creates in Paris, the visual pollution, it’s not good.” said a railway worker. Cities worldwide are tightening regulations on e-scooters, limiting the number of operators as well as speed and where they can park. Electric scooters accessed through smartphone apps have operated in Paris since 2018, but following complaints about their anarchic deployment, Paris in 2020 cut the number of operators to three. They were given a three-year contract, required that scooters’ speed be capped at 20 km/hour and imposed designated scooter parking areas. The current contracts will run until September 2023. Other restrictions were checking if users age was over 18, fixing licence plates so police could identify traffic offenders and limiting to one passenger. On Sunday, operators such as Tier and Lime sent free voucher codes to users to encourage them to vote against the ban. Some voters said they would have rather had tighter regulations than an outright ban. “I don’t want scooters to do whatever they wants on pavements, but banning them is not the priority said a Parisian. “I voted for (the scooters) because I’m against the rather binary choice we’re given in this referendum,” he added. In 2021, 24 people died in […]

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Meet The White House’s New Chief Climate Change Skeptic

William Happer, a Princeton scientist who is doubtful of the dangers of climate change, appears to be leading a White House challenge to the government’s conclusion that global warming is a threat. Twenty five years ago, William Happer had an encounter with the White House that ended badly. At the time, in 1993, the Princeton professor was taking a break from academia to direct scientific research at the U.S. Department of Energy. He turned a skeptical eye toward one of then-Vice President Al Gore’s favorite issues: the risks posed by chemicals eating away at ozone in the stratosphere and letting in dangerous ultraviolet radiation. As the story goes, Happer went to the White House and told Gore’s staff he saw no evidence that the ozone hole actually was hurting anyone. Gore was annoyed, and Happer lost his job. Today, Happer is back in the White House, still fighting against what he considers unfounded claims that our globe is in danger. But this time, his cause is backed by the man in the Oval Office. Happer, 79, joined the staff of President Trump’s National Security Council last fall. And according to documents first leaked to The Washington Post, he appears to be pushing the White House to mount a challenge to the government’s official assessment of climate change, which calls climate change a serious national security threat. On Thursday, the chairs of four different committees in the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Trump expressing concern about “recent reports that the National Security Council (NSC) is planning to assemble a secret panel, led by a discredited climate change denier, to undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus on the nature and threats of climate change.” The four Democrats called it “deeply concerning that Dr. Happer appears to be spearheading” that effort.

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