Europe, part 2: Climate Optimism & the London Transport Museum

Elliot with Malachi Chadwick, Britain's cheeriest climate activist, in the 10:10 offices

One of our many reasons for visiting London was to meet up with Malachi Chadwick, the Director of "Communications and Climate Optimism" for an NGO called 10:10. If you're not familiar with this cheeky band of earth-saving activists, you're in for a treat. Founded as a spin-off from the riveting docu-drama "The Age of Stupid", their tagline is "Climate Change Sucks - Do Something About It." They're all about solutions, and about engaging people through hope and empowerment, rather than fear. They rock.

We had a great time with Malachi, although we were both sad to have so little time and so much to talk about. Still, it's good to know that there are smart people like him working on the same issues, half a world away. And we'll always have the internet...

The London Transport Museum - a mecca for transit enthusiasts.

We also visited the amazing London Transport Museum. Housed in the city's former flower market, the museum is a goldmine for transit junkies, packed with information and media materials, and dozens of the actual vehicles used to transport Londoners over the past 150 years. 

The original omnibus - complete with horse poop!

We were particularly delighted at this display, which engages kids in figuring out how much horse poop was left on the streets of London before the days of internal combustion and electrification. (Answer: 1000 pounds of dung per day!)

What they didn't include was an assessment of how that relates to the amount of CO2 poop generated by car traffic today. I actually ran the calculations (for San Francisco, not for London), and the answers are pretty shocking. Look for those in a future blog post...

The museum did, however, include a plaque with this quotation:

From the London Transport Museum

Europe, part 1: London

Arriving into London

Our family decided to take a holiday in Europe this summer - requiring a massive carbon splurge (30 tons' worth, in fact) which I double offset at Terrapass.com. The trip is also mitigated in part because Elliot and I are tagging along with his dad on his business trip, and we have limited our flights to the unavoidable transatlantic - all other travel will be by rail. We are visiting 5 countries and staying with friends and family all along the way.

We arrived in London on Friday, and we spent all weekend sightseeing in a frenzied attempt to get over our jetlag. Trains were our main mode of transport, and Elliot was delighted.

On our way to visit the British Museum (we've been listening to A History of the World in 100 Objects, and reading The Red Pyramid), we got off at the Russell Square underground station, where we decided to exit via the stairs instead of the elevator. We had no idea what we were in for! Up and up we climbed, on an endless spiral staircase with no exits which seemed to go on forever. We were much relieved to emerge at last - and it occurred to me that this might have been one of the many Tube stations used as air raid shelters during the blitz.

Our friends told us later that Russell Square Station is over 140 feet deep - meaning we had climbed the equivalent of 14 stories!

Finally! Emerging at last from the ultra-deep Russell Square underground station in London.

In general, we are loving London - though we have been surprised at not seeing more bicycles. And so far only one electric car!

Elliot on his first ride aboard a double-decker English bus.