Do you cycle for or at least partly for Enviromental reasons ?

[Bazzer]

In my mind partly environmental, partly saving money when commuting and partly to keep healthy; blood pressure in particular. However living without a car would be extremely difficult for a number of reasons.
I do also have some internal conflict on the environmental side, as my appetite is much greater when riding, otherwise I get too bony for Mrs B's liking.

 

[EltonFrog]

Wanna help the environment? Don’t breed.

 

[graham bowers]

Much of my local cycling is to avoid using the car, environmental reasons being one factor.

 

[PaulSB]

To answer the question - No. However I do enjoy the fact my hobby has very little impact on the environment........I realise we could have a whole debate about manufacturing, air miles etc..............but just cycling is virtually zero impact.

I ride for pleasure

 

[galaxy]

A bit of everything for me. If I could cycle more I would. I need a Van for work. I have other hobbies. I need a car.
Like everything it’s all any moderation in my view. I could not be without a bike I know that

 

[jefmcg]

[QUOTE 5486677, member: 9609"]Big on the environment, but sadly my riding is far from carbon neutral - I drive an old diesel van to the beginning of nearly ever ride I do. probably out of about 100 mile riding last week, I would have drove about 70. Not good I know
Don't think I have ever saved a journey by cycling.
And all that riding just means I also consume very large amounts of food, and that's not good for the planet either.
And it will probably give me a long life, which means I will consume for even longer

my cycling = environmental negative
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE 5487072, member: 9609"]thats true, road accidents cause around 1.3 million deaths per year worldwide. Someone dies every 24 seconds on the road.
[..]
cars are a catastrophe[/QUOTE]
You might want a doctor to have a looky see at that cognitive dissonance; I think it's becoming infected.

 

[JPBoothy]

Ha Ha, as long as you enjoy your rides you can always plant the occasional tree to please the eco Warriors

 

[mcshroom]

Only really in as much as the more I cycle, and the more friends I can persuade to cycle, the fewer cars we have clogging the roads; so the nicer the living environment is.

I cycle because I enjoy doing so, and also because it is often the most convenient way to get where I want to go

 

[Smokin Joe]

[QUOTE 5487244, member: 9609"]think its incurable, and the older I get the worse it is becoming. very few subjects can be seen in black and white, and the more I think about anything the worse it gets.

Yes I'm totally addicted to the motor vehicle whilst simultaneously hating them, cars are a catastrophe, we are destroying the planet with them. And today like most days I will be driving somewhere to hopefully cycle on roads with very few cars, because the roads close to me are far too busy with other people making pointless journeys like mine will be. I know it don't make any sense[/QUOTE]
We are destroying the planet because there are too many of us. Until we have the courage to face up to that and drastically restrict childbirth we are peeing in the wind. No use cutting carbon emissions by 10% per head if we increase our number by 20%.

I wouldn't worry over much though, we were never going to be a permanent fixture here. If we don't destroy ourselves in the meantime the Sun will take care of us eventually.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

As an add on to my original comments and the fact cycling is cheap I like Skipdriverjohn run old bikes using the cheapest good quality parts and swap and reuse old parts to keep them going ,I have no interest at all in competitive cycling so it is a purely a cheap mode of transport that I enjoy,I leave the car at home for the wife to use which she very rarely does as she hates driving as much as I do (rather unfortunate as I've spent the past 20+ years as a HGV driver) I do use the car in order to get my pack of dogs and me out to some nice local locations where there are limited people ( I'm not a socialite) but not for shopping as I work apposite a super market. I work in the recycling industry but that in all honesty is a bit of a joke so no plus points there! I must admit due to illness last year I did very little cycling but it my New years resolution to get back on the bike a lot more.I in the 90's did spent quite a lot of time out with the Eco warriors and the New Age travellers but life put a stop to that.

 

[Drago]

in the 90's did spent quite a lot of time out with the Eco warriors and the New Age travellers but life put a stop to that.

Ah, you were an officer with the Special Demonstration Squad.

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Yes, but “environmental” in its wider sense - not just carbon/pollution, but also the improvement to the built and rural environment if more of us rode bikes and we could reduce/rethink roadspace.

 

[mudsticks]

Id love to be able to just cycle and train it everywhere, for all the good reasons - eco, pleasure. exercise, and cost.

Unfortunately both my jobs require me to cart stuff about a lot of the time.

And i perceive myself as not having enough time - but i think really, i just waste it on the internet now .

But now I've got a new bike maybe i should get a trailer for it too ??

When i had young kids i used to cart them about all over the place by bike seat, and tag along, and do the shopping with panniers etc

I think, in truth I've just got a bit lazy.

I'm not one for NY resolutions - why set yourself up for failure at this already hard time of year - with some drear ambition such as losing weight - or giving stuff up.?


But i could buy into a more positive one - such as doing more functional trips by bike

 

[Smokin Joe]

Yes, but “environmental” in its wider sense - not just carbon/pollution, but also the improvement to the built and rural environment if more of us rode bikes and we could reduce/rethink roadspace.

The problem here is that most people simply do not like cycling. They may all have a bike in the garage which they wheel out with the kids on a bank holiday trip over the park, but that's the end of it. They wouldn't dream of riding a bike for any other reason and are as beyond conversion as I would be to taking up ballet.

 

[mudsticks]

We are destroying the planet because there are too many of us. Until we have the courage to face up to that and drastically restrict childbirth we are peeing in the wind. No use cutting carbon emissions by 10% per head if we increase our number by 20%.

I wouldn't worry over much though, we were never going to be a permanent fixture here. If we don't destroy ourselves in the meantime the Sun will take care of us eventually.

Definitely - empower women through education and genuine access to reproductive health services - so that having fewer children is a positive choice for them.

But there's still plenty of other things we can do to to live more equitably, and gratefully on this planet.
We as westerners consume so much more than those in the developing world, and they feel the effects of our actions far harder - doesn't seem fair really.

Copping out and saying in the long run we're all dead is a bit of ...... a cop out - imo.

Even if we can't totally reverse CC, or undo all the other sh*t we've done, I still believe we could do a lot more to let ourselves down more gracefully, and learn to conserve resources - share nicely and so on - i think we owe it to future inhabitants of Planet Earth - at least to try .

Ever hopeful - and HNY all