is ldn a cool city?

By 'cool' I don't just mean fashionable, trendy. How eco-friendly is this city? Is London a cool shade of green? Our lovely mayor would have us believe it's an incredibly, positively, clearly green place to live in, with tons of cycle lanes (er, really? where?), tons of buses (and they don't pollute, do they?), a congestion charge to deter polluting vehicles from accessing the city (20% less traffic just makes the streets bearable as opposed to overly congested) and we Londoners are just a bunch of eco bunnies. Right. So a trip to manic India may have him pledging one million new trees to be planted in London after the Olympics, along with a whole bunch of green initiatives. I'm in no way contesting anything he says, but really, in reality, London is a huge city, spread out, congested, with only recently implemented recycling facilities, a fairly new surge in cycling and with climate change only recently been on the political agenda. These are all positive developments, but we're hardly Denmark are we? And let's be honest, most people only vaguely care about the environment. Unless recycling bags are collected from people's doorsteps, 90% of people just won't bother. If Ryanair offers free seats to Europe, most people will say why not? A recent poll in the Ecologist - the eco bible for many greenies- stated that over 50% of its readers would actually consider flying with Ryanair if the flights were free. So really, we're all a bunch of hypocritical, selfish bastards. We care as long as the change doesn't affect our pockets or comfort. ken Livingstone wants to ban flights to france. Perhaps not the answer to ecological issues, but it's one drastic way of actively engaging with green issues. That might make London a little cooler. We'd need to build another channel tunnel though - and perhaps also an escape route for Ken once his days are over.