Is cycling anywhere near as green as it could be ?

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rogerzilla

Legendary Member
Not many people buy a new car, drive it only 10 miles, then take it to the tip a few years later, when it's taking up space in the garage.
 
In the lifetime of a bicycle is it a net contributor to pollution? Yes. Is it better than literally every alternative transport option? Unless you're walking barefoot, also yes (and even then, you consume much more energy walking 20 miles than cycling 20 miles, requiring more food per mile)

The environmental cost of mining and refining the raw materials that go into the manufacture of bikes, components, apparel and consumables is not insignificant, and neither are the costs of shipping them across the world.
Some of the chemicals used in the maintenance and operation of bikes are probably not great either, whether locally or at the site of production.

In the grand scheme of things, cycling's environmental impact is probably not even a dot when compared to the lifetime environmental cost of every other transportation mode - cars don't magically appear either. They too have to have their resources mined, shipped, processed, shipped, assembled, shipped, maintained and then, at the end of their life, scrapped.
On top of that they literally burn a finite resource, the production of which is staggeringly polluting, and in the process exhaust harmful waste byproducts for their entire useful lifetime.

EVs are only better in this latter regard, and are potentially much worse up front with the lithium and cobalt mining, the former extremely water-intensive - another finite resource, and one which is a basic requirement for life - and the latter is terribly polluting.

I don't have hard and fast figures but it doesn't take many journeys by bike that would otherwise have been done by car to break even when all externalities are factored in.
 

BoldonLad

Not part of the Elite
Location
South Tyneside
None of us are green, no matter how much we like to think. Everyone of us needs to eat, cloth ourselves, have somewhere to live and even with the most basic of human comforts (Which most of us far exceed, cars, phones, bicycles, computers, TVs etc) we all contribute to climate change simply by existing.

Climate change is caused by there being far too many of us for the planet to sustain long term. It will rebalance when it causes most of us to die and cuts our number to an amount that allows Co2 levels to fall. It ain't gonna be pretty.

Very true, IMHO, always amazes me how infrequently (if ever) population control gets a mention in "green" discussions. ;)
 
Very true, IMHO, always amazes me how infrequently (if ever) population control gets a mention in "green" discussions. ;)
If you mention that the single most polluting thing you can do as a person is to have a child, you get jumped on for being an authoritarian advocating something akin to China's erstwhile one child policy, if you say "there are too many people", the easy response is "ok, you first".

It's literally an unwinnable discussion, which is why no-one brings it up.
 

newfhouse

Resolutely on topic
Very true, IMHO, always amazes me how infrequently (if ever) population control gets a mention in "green" discussions. ;)
Every bloody time, often but not always by the same people that say “not worth me changing, wot about China?”.

Population does matter - and universal education and poverty reduction is the most effective way to reduce birth rates - but the real issue is fair distribution of resources.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
If you mention that the single most polluting thing you can do as a person is to have a child, you get jumped on for being an authoritarian advocating something akin to China's erstwhile one child policy, if you say "there are too many people", the easy response is "ok, you first".

It's literally an unwinnable discussion, which is why no-one brings it up.
It is the huge "Inconvenient truth" that no one dares face.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
Strange that everyone that bangs on about population reduction has already been born.😀
You wouldn't realise it was a problem if you hadn't been born, now would you?
 

rogerzilla

Legendary Member
I know someone who is a real green headbanger. Four kids and two large dogs. A dog is worse than a car.
 

mudsticks

Obviously an Aubergine
Every bloody time, often but not always by the same people that say “not worth me changing, wot about China?”.

Population does matter - and universal education and poverty reduction is the most effective way to reduce birth rates - but the real issue is fair distribution of resources.

Its been proven time and again that education and empowerment of women, (and truly free access to the means of limiting family size )

Leads to a lower birth rate .

As it stands birth rates are falling in the 'developed' world - thankfully - as we are the ones doing the vast majority of the consuming and polluting

So anyone concerned about bringing down the birthrate, should be directly concerned with true equality for women - globally, not just locally...
 

newfhouse

Resolutely on topic
A dog is worse than a car.
What does this even mean? Having a dog is arguably less green than not having a dog, but what’s the car comparison?

Full disclosure: I own two rescue dogs, one quite large, and a fourteen year old car that travels less than 1000 miles most years.
 

mudsticks

Obviously an Aubergine
What does this even mean? Having a dog is arguably less green than not having a dog, but what’s the car comparison?

Full disclosure: I own two rescue dogs, one quite large, and a fourteen year old car that travels less than 1000 miles most years.

But what sort of driver is your dog,??

Binary 'pedal to the metal' sort.


Or all about the smooth changing up and down through the box, and fuel conservation .?
 
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