October 20th, 2023
Klaus Armstrong-Braun Speech from around 1994
Klaus Armstrong-Braun has long been an advocate for the conservation of our planet’s most vulnerable species and ecosystems. Klaus has also been a long time member and supporter of ELF. We have a long history and have assisted Klaus over the years with various environmental concerns as we continue to do.
Klaus has a rich history of environmental advocacy. A speech of his as a Councillor hails from a time when environmental consciousness was just beginning to gain momentum. In his oration, Klaus delved deep into the myriad ways that humanity has been detrimental to the Earth, from overfishing and deforestation to pollution and the unbridled consumption of finite resources. His advocacy from nearly 30 years ago remains a testament to his foresight and commitment to the planet, his words still having resonance today.
Yesterday is but a dream
Today is Living
Tomorrow is but a vision and a hope
If we Live Today Rightly Then
Our Dreams Of Yesterday Will be Happy
Because of human activities over 8,000 years, great harm has been inflicted on our lovely living Planet Earth wherein we live. This harm is increasing rapidly due to population growth, greater needs for finite resources, e.g. level of fossil fuels, and increasing use of technology. We must not forget our wasteful and abusive use of the earth’s resources, and our selfish, uncaring behaviour towards the earth’s natural environment and biodiversity.
Examples of these harmful activities are overfishing, increasing development of the green land to quarries, destruction of natural environments e.g. rainforests, temperate forests for logging or mining - in Britain, it is quarrying for opencast coal, construction material and dumping of waste, global nuclear pollution from nuclear power stations, weapons testing and global warming from fossil fuel burning for energy in heating, lighting and vehicular transportation movement.
Apart from the use of fossil fuels for energy production in power stations and forest burning, it is the motor vehicle which is blamed for much of the cause of global warming because of its Carbon Dioxide and noxious emissions.
To facilitate vehicle movement, we need roads without subsequent harm and destruction of the natural environment and use of finite resources and the resultant ugly scar in the countryside of quarrying activities. But it is well known the severe problems caused by vehicle emissions, as apart from global warming, there is a rapid increase in asthma, especially in children, and road athletes. Also with increasing traffic, we get huge traffic jams and “grid locking”. This is also a cost to the economy. It has been proved that new roads bring more traffic. The most simple remedy is, of course, public transport. Bus, rail, water, - what is not considered is location of developments, e.g. housing, industrial and commercial developments with the road system. Often a development is allowed which is not a suitable route to meet the needs of its activities or else it encourages rat running, short cutting, not using the roads provided for the purpose of the development, e.g. HGV’s going down country lanes instead of motorways or trunk roads or by passes because of the lane being shorter in distance but causing damage to the unsuitable lane, houses or village travelled through.
To meet the Rio Summit Inter-Governmental Agreement in 1992 on sustainable development and biodiversity maintenance, and because of the failure or lack of will of the British Government and Highway Planners to meet the above agreements, it is left to those who have the most influence on all developments and activities. That is the Engineer who creates, and also designs in some cases and produces most of our material needs. The Engineer, therefore, has a duty to make sure that what is created does not cause serious harm to both the environment and humans also to influence sound practice.
To meet their requirements, it is suggested that UKAPE Engineers who have wide experience in providing and producing most of the British People’s needs including road building should produce a Green Transport Policy to meet the requirements of sustainable development and maintaining biodiversity.
Consideration to be given to:
- The existing transport routes by rail, road, water and air;
- The existing developments adjacent to each transport mode;
- Plan from the results and efficient integrated transport plan whereby an new roads if planned to fit in with existing transport method if required;
- Then in consultation with businesses, etc., plan to locate any future sustainable development and focus on the correct transport route to meet the transport needs of the development to avoid the wrong development in the wrong place and allowing taking short cuts. Thus the Engineer is able to influence the design of motor transport and highway design to benefit our future generations in a sustainable manner.
In short a total Green Transport Plan is produced with sustainable developments located in the most environmentally friendly location with emphasis on the use of environmentally friendly transport modes. “
The Earth is our only home, we cannot afford to destroy it.
