Today is the day that our petrol has to contain 2.5% biofuels. It is also the day when at least 33 countries are facing the prospect of serious social unrest because of rising food prices. The biofuels - food equation looks like this. One tank’s worth (25 gallons) of ethanol requires land that might otherwise feed a person for a whole year. Wholesale turning over of land to biofuels has already made an impact on the world food situation.

What seemed like a worthy government initiative at first glance now looks horribly naive and points to a central flaw in our thinking. The inconvenient truth is that we will not be able to replace the cheap oil that we have consumed with such profligacy for the last 50 years or more. There is no quick techno fix to the issues of peak oil and climate change and transport may be the key area where these things begin to bite. We are going to need to change our lifestyles.

And that is where Chooseday comes in.

It is an extraordinary story. St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School are taking the environmental challenge seriously and when they heard about Chooseday they were straight in. Simon Stevens, the assistant head, came up with the idea of launching it there on April 1st so Chooseday April Foolsday was born. I never dreamt we would get such a response. A member of staff stood at the gates and gave every student who had not come by car a sticker. It was soon clear that the response had been overwhelming. Around 800 of the 1100 main school students and staff had chosen not to come by car. Two of the youngest girls in the school (Year 7) actually walked in from Sea Mills, which is 7 miles away. Two boys likewise walked from Westbury on Trym. Someone else skipped into school. We hope that lots more stories will come as the students use our ‘Travel and Tell’ facility on this website.
Well done St Mary Redcliffe!