CrimsonEclipse

...

genec

But if the rider is using far less resources overall... how does that equate?

I think the Carl guy is trying to use any excuse for an H1.

genericbikedude

When you bike, you breathe heavily and give off more CO2.

-VELOCITY-

Are you sure it wasn't Skip Clueless who made the comment?

timmhaan

one of the primary goals of humanity from the very beginning is to prolong life expectancy. so, if cycling is "bad" in terms of resource use, then so is all modern medicine and all health organizations and everyone who works to save people's lives. what a ridiculous point to make.

barba

The elimination of all humans (cyclist or not) would likely be great for the environment, but I don't know that it is a good argument for not riding to work. By that logic exercise, walking, breathing, healthy meals, vitamins, etc. are also bad for the environment but heroin and WMDs are good.

genericbikedude

humanity has goals? Who knew?

timmhaan

i know, it's amazing. sometimes we take, like, 10 steps backward though.

HiYoSilver

If cycling is bad, then smoking must be good.

And last week I saw a cyclist riding and smoking at the same time. Unclear on concept. But at least he was a good cyclist according to that author.

genericbikedude

i dont want goals. I think we'd be happier as unhairy chimps.

krazygluon

I was pretty sure they were eating, sleeping, drinking and f__ing...no different from the goals of anything else that lives.

avoiding pain...that's a good 5th one.

Jerseysbest

I guess he was breaking even

Banzai

What all of these liberal eniro-nazi factinistas don't realize is that he probably means the FINANCIAL environment. Ok, look;

It's the perfect cycle. Use more fuel...earth gets warmer...therefore we need to use more air conditioning...therefore puling on power plants more...you see, it's the perfect endless cycle of profit!

And besides, the only way you're going to get your so-called "alternative fuels" is if the Almighty free market provides it! So, you have a duty as an environmentalist to buy an SUV and burn fossil fuels even faster! Then you'll get your alternative fuels. In fact, I highly recommend the H3...it's the worlds first hybrid automobile (runs on gasoline and the blood of patriots.)

So get off your bicycles, and start burning gas like there's no tomorrow.

Who knows...there may not be.

And that's the word.

Eggplant Jeff

No no no, only WMDs like neutron bombs or bioweapons, things that kill humans without messing everything else up too bad.

Silly.

kyletuck

True, but plants inhale the co2 and convert it to oxygen.

khuon

Hmmm... if you could see my credit card bills attributed to everything cycling related, you'd realise that I'm circulating more money by cycling than I am by driving.

Nermal

Ain't gonna argue with that, khuon.

edp773

That may be true for you and I applaud you, but does the supply company for your bicycle related purchases have higher profits than Microsoft? And how many millions does the CEO earn each year?

My thoughts on this person's reasoning is some people are so narrow minded they do not realize the full scope of what they say. In Chris Rock's voice, "Does he understand the words that are coming out of his mouth!"

Banzai

Maybe it's the romantic environment.

They say Venice is the city of love, with all of those canals and gondolas and whatnot. If sea levels rise enough, you can have the same thing in New York City!

Are you telling me that you hate New York so much that you don't want it to have romantic canals?

And think of the parks. Were you ever bitten as a child by a Canadian goose whilst trying to feed bread to the cute little ducks? Now, the geese won't migrate south to the US, and will just stay north where they belong...thus exhausting their food supply and dying out.

So; romantic canals and safe parks.

And that's the word.

cooker

The source for the article on bicycling is bad for the environment is a bike friendly professor and entrepreneur called Karl Ulrich who is a founder of Xootr scooters and a CO2 trading program called Terrapass. The article is here. You can all read it yourselves and critique it if you can.
His argument boils down to this. We all use a lot of energy every day in our lives through the energy costs of our homes and offices, food production, goods consumed etc. Transportation energy is only a small part of that. If a sedentary driver takes up biking for part of his transportation, gets healthier and lives longer, his lifetime energy usage will increase, because the energy saved in transport will be overshadowed by the energy used in living longer.

Chris L

Can anyone say "troll"? Seems to me that a lot of people wanting to attract attention to their tabloid journals lately have targetted cyclists, probably because they expect to receive a billion angry e-mails and/or letters in reply. I can only assume from the fact that they are persisting with this troll that it must be working.

chephy

We should all go shoot ourselves then. Saves up a lot of energy...

P.S. No wait... strangling ourselves with bare hands is preferable: think of all the resources used to manufacture guns and bullets...

cooker

There are a few counterarguments. One is that if a fit driver (say she also works out in a gym) switches to biking, that will save a lot of energy, because there won't be the same longevity effect. So his argument only applies to people who go from no exercise, to regular bicycle commuting. Ulrich also didn't take into account that bikers may own fewer cars (so less energy for manufacturing) and require less roadspace to be built for them (so less construction energy spent on their behalf). When I emailed him about those last two points he sent a very polite reply trying to estimate what the effects would be.

gurana

the sad part is... somebody (or bodies, as the case may be) out there bought it I'm going to cry myself to sleep now; I weep for humanity.

gear

So I guess birth control pills and condoms are good for the envrioment because they prevent births which lead to human lives that leave a path of destruction to the planet.