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

[mudsticks]

That'll be the climate change conference to which all the delegates flew in jet aircraft.

We actually had our MP - who came to our green group give us his wise thoughts on CC - tell us that the problem of rising sea levels had really been brought home to him when he went to a Pacific Island ( by canoe of course !!) to attend a climate change conference -and he'd finally realised the potentially devastating effects of CC --- This is the level of ignorance we are up against ..

Clearly the planet, universe and all things on it are doomed. Does that mean we should accelerate the destruction, which is current policy, or try to slow the rate of destruction by acting responsibly?

Hint: the second choice will never be taken, not enough money in it.

Tell me, skipdiver, and I really don't know the answer, are you a consumer? If not, could you explain to the rest of us how to do it? I see you live in London, which more or less gives the answer.

Thats if you assume that everyone makes their choices purely based on how much money things cost, or can be made out of them.

But even now your average human doesn't make all their choices this way - there are plenty other motivations - fear - love - creativity - altruism - wanting to fit in - or wanting to stand out - all that stuff and more besides...

If we could design, and implement a proper system where ecology, and people care, had equal if not greater status than sheer economic power then we might get somewhere.... The Dutch, and the folks of the Scandilands probs do come closest to that right now

But how to wrest control over all this from the most greedy, and power hungry sorts - this is the conundrum.

The meek are supposed to inherit the earth - trouble is 'the meek' for which read the less greedy selfish sorts just get trampled over or shouted down by all the bully boys ... There isn't going to be anything to inherit soon


Common sense tells us we can't have infinite growth, and consumption on a planet with limited resources, and pollution carrying capacity -

The last few generations have completely ignored this hard fact.

Remains to be seen if enough of the powers that be, all around the world wake up, and respond to the cliff edge we're teetering on ...
Maybe if electorates in general were more vocal on all this, then maybe we would get the leadership we need ??

 

[EltonFrog]

Problem is, if we each only act when someone else acts first then nothing will ever change.

Well, I do my bit, but it’s the corporate world and government that needs to take the lead.

 

[PaulSB]

I see a lot of wasteful practices and sheer hypocrisy in cycling; people that just have to buy the latest model year bike just because it's new, are too lazy to use a pump so they create loads of empty CO2 cartridge waste, those who just chuck away their inner tubes instead of patching them, those who bin a nearly new tyre after only a few rides because they didn't like something about it. Cycling can be very low impact if you do it on a shoestring, fixing up old bikes and running everything until you've wrung the last mile of life out of it. For a lot of cyclists, especially the recreational road cyclist, their hobby is far from zero impact because of the consumerist way in which they go about it.

If this is a pop at me I'd appreciate an apology. You know nothing about my environmental interests nor what happens in my household to minimise our impact on the environment.

 

[Drago]

Well, I do my bit, but it’s the corporate world and government that needs to take the lead.

Ministers are entitled to claim a Pious as their official car. Not a single one presently does. The vested interests in various polluting companies by many ministers and MPs means we have a governmental system unlikely to ever lead any any truly revolutionary issue. They will only act once the electorate apply sufficient pressure for them to do so, and the best way to do that is with our purchasing power. The manner in which we direct that power has a profound effect directly on many MPs and ministers portfolios, but also upon industry lobbyists and PR leaders.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

If this is a pop at me I'd appreciate an apology. You know nothing about my environmental interests nor what happens in my household to minimise our impact on the environment.

Mod Note:
It's not a pop at you, @SkipdiverJohn has posted similar across many threads since he joined.
I know Christmas is past, but ... peace to all CC membership, cheers!

 

[MontyVeda]

I don't drive for financial and environmental reasons.
I cycle because it gets me from A to B when walking would take too long.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ministers are entitled to claim a Pious as their official car. Not a single one presently does. The vested interests in various polluting companies by many ministers and MPs means we have a governmental system unlikely to ever lead any any truly revolutionary issue. They will only act once the electorate apply sufficient pressure for them to do so, and the best way to do that is with our purchasing power. The manner in which we direct that power has a profound effect directly on many MPs and ministers portfolios, but also upon industry lobbyists and PR leaders.

A typo for sure but the Pious car would be only for the devout.

 

[jefmcg]

And it's not just the environmental issue. When the oil is gone, its gone- no more road fuel, no more plastics (although in some ways that may not be a bad thing), synthetic materials, asphalt. Large scale food production and distribution becomes impossible at the current state of the art when the oil has disappeared.

And the more we use, the greater dependence we have on foreign enregry sources, the worse our strategic position is in a time of international crisis. These reasons are also very compelling to me.

The reasons not to fritter it away are so vast and varied I'm further astonished at societies careless attitude to its use.

If we burn all the fossil fuels, all of that will be the least of our problems. Experts predict the carbon released would raise temperatures by 10-20C. That's your mad max post apocalyptic landscape across most of the land. Which would be smaller with no ice caps.

 

[BrumJim]

I started 5-day-a-week commuting by bike for environmental reasons. Now it is due to endorphins addiction and getting home on time more often, especially on rainy days.

 

[User66445]

Please ignore anything that appears here. The powers that be and the implicit sheep emotion got to me.

 

[Drago]

A typo for sure but the Pious car would be only for the devout.

Not a typo!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

If this is a pop at me I'd appreciate an apology. You know nothing about my environmental interests nor what happens in my household to minimise our impact on the environment.

No it wasn't a pop at you. I just don't agree with the culture of a throwaway society, and I don't like the pious virtue-signalling do-gooders out there who preach one thing yet drive their lazy overweight kids to school by car and then fly halfway around the world a couple of times a year for their holiday. It's not the fact that they do these things that bothers me, it's the fact they try to lecture everybody else about what they should or shouldn't do in order to "save the planet" whilst doing the complete opposite themselves. I make no claim whatsoever to be trying to save the planet, yet my resource use footprint is probably a lot less than the typical pious and bossy member of the metropolitan chattering classes who are constantly trying to tell everybody else what to do whilst existing in their own bubble.

Ministers are entitled to claim a Pious as their official car. Not a single one presently does. ........ They will only act once the electorate apply sufficient pressure for them to do so, and the best way to do that is with our purchasing power. The manner in which we direct that power has a profound effect directly on many MPs and ministers portfolios, but also upon industry lobbyists and PR leaders.

If I was a Minister I wouldn't have one of those Pious pieces of crap if you paid me. I'd rather have a nice big V8 thanks, a proper car like Maggie's old ministerial Rover P5B's. The tree-hugger mobiles aren't even particularly economical in the real world. A mate of mine and his colleague both bought themselves a car to use at work, both doing the same job. My mate bought a secondhand diesel Mondeo for about £3k IIRC. His colleague bought a Pious costing north of £20k. That's great, you say, the Pious will give soooo much more miles per gallon, and pay for itself in fuel savings. Except it didn't. In actual real-life driving conditions, the Mondeo and the Pious both returned around the same overall economy - about 58 mpg. The so-called "green" car was full of toxic heavy metals in it's batteries and must have consumed considerably more resources to make than the Mondeo. "Green" cars like the Pious are not green at all, they just enable their owners to go around moralising about how virtuous they are for buying one. The real greenest cars are the oldest ones still on the road that are kept going for as many years and miles as possible - until they literally fall apart.

 

[Drago]

Mrs Ds old MK2 Pious would return mid 70s MPG, 81 or 82 with economy minded determination. If someone is getting 50s in a Pious they're simpy booting it everywhere like a regular car - that is only the fault of the operator. Your chums photocopier salesmans car doesnt come close for genuine economy and cant compare for urban runing (where cars shouldn't be used anyway) when then Pious can go full electric. You contention is oft repeated that "my mates/neighnours/vosses/bullcrapper from the pubs" (delete as applicable) large saloon is more economical than a Pious, and is simply incorrect - drive a pious properly, set up the regen setting, feel the regen point with your throttle foot, they work properly, and a Mondeo isn't the even near the same league - smash the pedal everywhere like a clog wearing buffoon and the Pious will drop to the 50s, but a Mundano diesel driven the same way will drop to the 30s

It's been established that cradle to grave, from digging out of the ground through to finally disposing of and recycling the dead carcass, a small petrol vehicle of 800kg or less is the least damaging, and a Pious isn't the answer to that. (My Smart is the answer to that ) And I know, theres an environmental penalty for manufacturing them. The point being (and seemingly being missed) is that Ministers aren't even bothering to make a pretence of being environmentally concerned, so any chance of them genuinely being concerned is zero.

 

[simongt]

Partly, but that is probably more of a subconcious decision. The GLW doesn't drive anyway, so a bike is her primary transport. I prefer to bike whenever possible, which is most of the time; typically pedalling around 4 - 5k miles yearly, much the same distance as I drive. For me, cycling is much more enjoyable that driving even thought it may take longer and I can switch off when I'm on an empty cycle path ; something that it's not best to do when driving - !

 

[Smokin Joe]

Approx 150,000 people die every day and 365,000 are born. The rate of increase will rise substantially as those newborns reach child baring age themselves, so perhaps an end to all child benefits for other than one child would have far more effect than swapping your Mondeo for a Smart.

You might find that unacceptable; Your choice, your planet. I'll be long gone before the consequences come home.