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- Then create some cycling news coz there’s not much of note to comment on currently and the way the world is going, who knows how long until cycling just disappears.
Since cycling and sport got professional and started being used by washers and influencers of all kinds it’s become inseparable from geopolitics, causes, product boycotts, etc. I mean who would support (as one example) Ineos or any of their riders when their kid has cancer from living close to some site that leaks because the business gets run carelessly in the name of profit to invest in egotistical sports projects to keep the media lights on so they dilute the attention on core business?
We got rid of cigarette and alcohol advertising in sport but didn’t pay much attention to what replaced it.
Just a very gentle summary for starters which I doubt interests you :
WASHINGTON, DC/BRUSSELS—Facilities owned by the massive chemical corporation Ineos are responsible for scores of serious health and safety violations across the globe, a troubling record that should move United Kingdom leaders to slam the brakes on the company’s push to begin fracking in the United Kingdom. Ineos has never drilled a commercial gas or oil well, and its indifferent safety record in chemical plants justifies blocking its foray into fracking.
A new issue brief from Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe examines Ineos plants in the UK, and across Europe and the United States. The company’s 71 facilities in 18 countries are responsible for a vast array of accidents, chemical leaks, fires and explosions, and substantial air and climate pollution.
“From towering chemical fires in Germany to toxic air pollution in Scotland and plastic pellets littering our oceans, Ineos’s safety record is appalling,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “The company is also a climate disaster waiting to happen—benefiting from fracking in the U.S. while planning to bring the dangerous practice to the United Kingdom. This company’s plans have been met with a passionate, committed grassroots movement, and political leaders are beginning to understand that the right response to fracking is to stop it before it starts.”
The company’s Grangemouth facility in Scotland is the largest industrial site in in the country, and the hub for Ineos’s global fracking ambitions. It can manufacture one million tons of chemicals per year, and has repeatedly received low environmental ratings by Scottish regulators. The plant is Scotland’s single largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
The story is similar at other Ineos facilities, which have amassed a record of fires, explosions, and chemical leaks. The Ineos facility in Cologe, Germany was the site of a massive fire in 2008, and there have been a series of high profile accidents elsewhere—a major oil leak in Norway, a number of chemical leaks in France, long-running controversies over chemical dumping in Italy, and the release of toxic gas that resulted in the hospitalization of workers in Belgium.
Over a quarter of Ineos’s facilities are located in the United States, where the company’s awful record continues. The report shows that between 2014 and 2017, 12 of the company’s 14 plants in one EPA database were failing to comply with a major environmental regulation for at least one three-month period.
Already a chemical industry giant, Ineos has been expanding into fossil fuel infrastructure and drilling, with a plan to bring hydraulic fracturing or fracking to the United Kingdom.
From beginning to end, Ineos’s business model represents grave threats to clean air and water. The company relies on fracked hydrocarbons from Pennsylvania and Ohio, which delivers immediate negative impacts in the communities near drilling sites. These dangerously explosive materials must be transported via major pipelines, like the Mariner East 2 under construction across Pennsylvania, drilling for which has already caused dozens of spills and several cases of water contamination. The materials are shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the plastics and chemical manufacturing sites, which contribute further environmental threats to the air, water and public health.
“The Ineos vision for the future is a disaster for clean air and water, and a disaster for the climate as well,” said Hauter. “At a time when the entire world must be moving off fossil fuels, Ineos represents a series of dangerous gambles that will take us backwards.”
- Can you tell me one pandora box that hasn’t already been opened? Also, half the world’s jobs are being threatened by AI and data, the other half by machines and robots, either of these problems will resolve all of cycling and sports’ (and many other domains’) problems coz in the end all of entertainment is paid for by the viewing of spectators and without jobs how will viewing be financed, or why even if none of us have money to buy anything that could get advertised anymore? He may just as well have decided to keep quiet on such matters so as not to precipitate things and manage a full career before any drastic turns. He may also have decided to stay mum on many subjects knowing he will get screened for anti-Americanism at the border, especially since the powers deciding haven’t actually defined that very clearly (though I’m pretty sure most can guess).
- They will be fighting for the podium, nothing more.
- If I were Simmons I would be spending my energy and lending my voice to changing the absurd sponsorship model teams live under where at any moment teams can get blown up and broken without proper funding.Imagine a brand new bunch of youtubers stirring up soap opera snipings about teams and riders.You know once that pandoras box opens it can't be closed.Just listen to the insanity daily on ESPN where men and women talk about the most mindless topics like whether some newly drafted rookie who has'nt played a single game yet will one day wear a gold jacket in the hall of fame.WTF is that?
- WTF....I thought this was a "CYCLING" platform.
- BTW, the term "antisemitism" had been coined by a German journalist (can't remember his name) in late 19th century to describe prejudice and hate against Jews, much before Middle east refugees invaded Europe by millions and seen on it's streets and even much before Palestinian ethnicity self declared by the PLO in 1965
- Thank you for having done the minimum of research in order not to be silenced by cheap shots of guilt bullets.
My grandfather who survived through smarter but less comfortable hiding than A. Frank and never saw any of his elders return from camps refused to visit Israel all his life for precisely the reasons you understand. He had the courage to stay and rebuild where he had been chased and looted and history proved his foresight was right, never had problems with the enemy again. When I returned from Rwanda and saw how the two sides now live more or less in harmony after the atrocities (in which some western countries are not innocent), I really asked myself if it is us living in a civilised society. Less than 10y on seeing all the actions and excuses we’ve undertaken without even knowing what there is to gain, if anything, the answer is clearer than ever.
- That’s pathetic Geoff, and as someone who lost quite a number in camps, I strongly object to using the past to compare with today. Your logic seems to be don’t moan today because somewhere in the past others had it worse was worse before.
The conflict is an extremely complicated one that every politician uses for their own agenda and we don’t need biased/extreme/ignorant/lazy contributions if we are to solve it.
The West is totally to blame for this and many other conflicts Israel was not born out of the good of hearts, it was a convenient solution of sweeping past problems under the carpet or displacing them to parts of the world few cared about before we realised how it would come back.
Even without discussing its rights to exist, it should be obvious to anyone following the evolution since its birth that something went terribly wrong and is totally hypocritical when we see how we react to similar issues in other parts of the world.
But, is there any point in discussing details with anyone who doesn’t recognise what was taken away from Palestinians in the first place thanks to the great British? Once medalists in colonialisation just about all that’s left now is a universal language, but basically by default because they couldn’t get round to understanding any other.
And by the way, even if you consider all men to be jihadists you’re still way off with your interpretation of numbers. And frankly, if you and your family had lived through and lost the same I’d hardly be surprised if you didn’t become similar, that is what Netanyahu and his gang are either not understanding or using in a sick way, the way they are dealing with things is producing jihadists and in future, probably worse. Unfortunately it will be others who pay the price of their “strategy”.
- 60,000 Palestinians have died in almost 2 years conflict. Most of them are members of a Jihadist organization.
This is hardly surplus to a daily toll of casualties in WWII (assumed 85M dead over the span of less than six years).
Yet you call it a massacre.
400,000 was the death toll in Yemen civil war (until the end of 2021. Many more died since). More than 85000 of them children starved to death.
Yet you account some footage of children unfortunate to suffer from generic disorders and children rattling cooking pots staged by "journalists" sponsored by the cunning, smart small and rich emirate from the gulf as a massacre.
Over 600,000 people died in the Syrian civil war, 10 times more than casualties in Gazza.
Many millions have died in other bitter conflicts in the Middle east in last 3 decades before and after the Arab spring: Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi civil war, Libya, Afghanistan, Algeria and even in these days in Sudan which you don't seem to care or take interest about (maybe because Jews are not involved)
And yet you call others ignorant.
As a short Corsican emperor said more than 200 years ago: "A la guerre comme à la guerre". This is war and war is terrifying. If you don't want to be engaged in one, don't start it.
- Very glad to see Froome is not in the squad, and another deserving rider can get the chance. Time for him to go, and the team can use the millions of euros on better more promising riders.
Brucegel20-08-2025
Senna196020-08-2025