Birmingham Friends of the Earth are running a new campaign on air pollution and active transport – Let's Get Moving (www.get-moving.org.uk/).
Earlier this year Birmingham was shown to have dangerous and illegal levels of air pollution, which is having significant negative impacts on the health of Birmingham's citizens and costing the city at least £182 million per year.
The statistics are quite shocking, the government's Environmental Audit Committee has announced that outdoor air pollution causes between 35,000 and 50,000 premature deaths per year in the UK. When compared with the 2,000 deaths per year caused by road traffic accidents it is clear that air pollution is a significant issue that should be taken far more seriously.
Birmingham Friends of the Earth's Let's Get Moving campaign has the aim of improving Birmingham's air quality by investing in walking and cycling as active travel options in the city, to make them more feasible options for citizens to choose. This is a particularly poignant issue in areas near and surrounding schools and parks, as air pollution in children can have lifelong health effects.
The biggest obstacle to this is the lack of cycling infrastructure, so we are calling for increased investment in active travel over the next 10 years and an ambitious but achievable target for cycling to make up 10% of all journeys by 2025. You can help us achieve this by filling in our online petition (www.birminghamfoe.org.uk/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/petition/sign&sid=1&reset=1) to Sir Albert Bore (the head of the Council).
This is an ongoing campaign, so if you would like more information or would like to get involved with Birmingham Friends of the Earth you can contact us at [email protected]
We look forward to your support.
Yours,
Birmingham Friends of the Earth