zonatandem

Bamboo floors?
How a bout a real Calfee Bamboo Tandem?!!!

VT Biker

Has this guy seen most of the people driving their cars? Seems to me they are not cutting down on calories.

cmyke

Which is why you shouldn't feed fricking animals with CORN! There's corn in just about everything these days. It needs to stop.

permanentjaun

What a terrible argument. You could also argue that a switch to cycling improves the environment through increased food production. Cyclists aren't generally going to stop at a fast food joint like McD's, because their stomachs wouldn't be able to handle it. Therefore they shop at a supermarket and make more of their food, or at least have more options to plan their diet. Cyclists, in my opinion, are healthier and will lean towards more fruits, vegetables, and other quality foods. Thus, a demand for plant foods increase leading to more land converting CO2 gas into oxygen and cleaning the environment.

I also doubt that more trucks really pollute more. Diesel has really cleaned up in the last 20 years. Perhaps the increase of demand for food required one more truck for every 500 people considering you can carry many tons in one truck load. I doubt one truck is going to pollute the atmosphere as much as 500 people driving cars.

I could also argue that more cyclists reduces traffic and congestion on roads. This leads to fewer accidents, which means less EMT's, medivac helicopters, police cars, tow trucks and firetrucks are required to run through the streets. Therefore, reduced pollution.

What about the pollution required to produce the cars versus the pollution required to produce a bicycle? Lets see. 2000-3000 lb car full of plastics and petroleum products vs a 15-20 bicycle. Now consider the pollution cost of building trucks that weight 5000+. Cars also have more moving parts which are more likely to break. They also require more grease and oil to keep running smoothly.

There are so many ways to spin it all. Keep riding your cycle and rest assured you're helping the environment.

fix

Here's another TV argument against cyclocommuting:

Cyclists (and all others who exercise) are healthier and live longer. Those extra years we're alive mean we're using more energy over the course of our lives than all the "fat car drivers."

It was on CNBC so it must be real.

asmallsol

I read the first few posts then just skimmed the other ones, however, the orginal argument is flawed. The Food delivery trucks are transporting multiple tons of food at a time, not a single meal to my house. If I suddenly enrolled in meals on wheels and they were delivered by a mac truck everyday, then the argument would be true.

special

Not even close. When was the last time you lit a cheeseburger on fire and it expoded?

bpohl

Funny. I ride about 150 miles per week, and I eat much less than most people I know.

slimvela

I never mentioned data used as a basis for the current situation our climate is in. So I wouldn't what to reply with in terms of your statement, only that I would hope those investigating the matter would certainly use up to date technology.

What I have a hard time accepting is a persons statements without supplying good resources to substantiate their claim. Much like journalists of today, they only mention that which they feel will help their cause/point of view and don't take an equal look at the flip side. If we were all critical thinkers/readers then, and only then, would we be willing and able to accept both points of view to work on a solution. To many take things at face value, and move on.

I never mentioned any facts, just statements and questions that would stir the pot. As I stated, entertainment is all this thread will deliver.

And for the few that picked apart my original statement/s...pulled you in, even after letting you I was commiting a red herring, and then added a slippery slope for good measure.

I'm done, but will continue reading for entertainments sake.







For the record, I do believe warming is happening. After reading up on global cooling, I do believe that occured as well, somewhat. However, the reasons for the current state are so vast it is hard to accept any/all of them at the moment. Some are credible, while others are "in the moment".

Flak

The misinformation campaign at work right here in this thread.

I bet 30 years ago some of you believed that the experts were in disagreement about the dangers of smoking too

Big oil is using the same tactics big tobacco used decades ago, and the same types of people are eating it up.

rog

Unfortunately, it's actually terrible for the environment - the mass farming of all that corn causes lots of problems. There's a great book that covers the subject, as well as the problems with mass commercial farming - Diet for a Dead Planet, by Christopher D. Cook.

Nachoman

But just think . . . if you bike even less, you'll eat even less. See the whole theory is true.

matthew_deaner

Yeah... this was a case of oversimplication of a couple of scientific studies by the news media. The issue was that global warming could change oceanic flow patterns, therby shutting down some oceanic currents that bring warm water to some temperate parts of the world (i.e. Europe), and causing localized, mainly costal cooling. See shutdown of thermohaline circulation in Wikipedia.

At this point, I don't know how anyone can believe that global warming is not real. The numbers don't lie...

jim p

One real good volcanic eruption or a meteor hit and none of the global warming, fuel consumption, or any other great problems will matter much. Even a little old lady in a ford comet can take me out while I am thinking about all the worlds problems and not paying attention.

I want to thank all the experts and scientist that are working on problems and trying to make things better. This has to be a tough job and I would not know where to start. For now I am going to ride my bike and hope that the powers to be don't decide that it is illegal to ride.

SpeedNut

There are others making coin on the green movement as a polluting trojan horse: Hybrid cars. Sure they pollute less in the air during operation, but the energy to produce, maintain, and then dispose of the vehicle is much worse than the operating energy of several conventional vehicles. Instead of polluting the air, we're polluting the ground. That is until we figure out how to throw our trash into space. Then the problem is solved

GNB

So I guess the best thing you can do for the environment is to stay bedridden....or just die.

Dr_Robert

I ride as often as I can, for leisure and transportation. I'm also in the gym 3 days a week. My daily calorie requirements are pretty high.

I still eat about half as much as the average American. So screw that guy.

-DR

Coyote2

This guy is a moron. There's your discussion.

I grow much of my food and acquire much of the rest of it from local sources, by the way.

Duke of Kent

I'd be willing to bet that by riding my bike to work, I save FAR more energy than is used to PRODUCE the EXTRA AUTOMOBILE that I would "go through" in commuting, all those years. Not to mention the gasoline it consumes, and the gasoline/diesel used to transport it to the dealer.

Let's say I burn ONE gallon of gasoline per day commuting. While that isn't that bad, that one gallon of gas could also produce and transport FAR more food than I would ever consume in a single day.

Having worked for an agronomist/plant breeder/pathologist for the last 3 years (i.e. a professor who breeds soybeans) I am very aware of the energy expenditures it takes to bring food to the market, and this is pretty much hogwash.

Archinutt

How crazy, it is kind of like the article circulating on the internet about the woman who wrote to her editor that daylight savings added to global warming because it added more daylight to each day.

What about all of the farmland the government is paying people not to farm on to keep prices down? The corn for ethonal isn't the edible kind, but the price hikes come from people switching crops to get on the band wagon. It should settle down over time. Apparently even tequila is more expensive now because blue agave cactus growers are trying out corn this year.

permanentjaun

Ain't democracy and freedom of speech grand?

Takara

The TV news story was probably a mangled version of some research by Chris Goodall that was just published and is making its way through the news machine.

Goodall was making a point about what a grotesquely large amount of carbon is released into the atmosphere in beef production, which is hugely energy-intensive. It also involves feeding grain to grass-eaters, which exacerbates the, production of, er, digestive methane. Goodall points out how environmentally grotesque this is by pitting a car against a walker, and demonstrating that, for a given distance, the walker's carbon footprint is four times larger than the car's -- if she replaces the calories she exerted with beef.

A vivid illustration! Strangely, the beef and the carbon fell out of the picture before the story got to television news, and now it's about driving being better than walking. About as twisted a misrepresentation as could be imagined (but all too easy to imagine, at the same time . . . )

An article: https://tinyurl.com/2hfxme

ilpirata87

I think the general point is that the average American diet is ridiculously resource-intensive (transportation, packaging, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) and that people take the pollution caused by cars for granted but often aren't cognizant of the pollution/ environmental burden caused by the food they eat. IMHO the more awareness of that the better. That said, some idiots seem to misinterpret it and take it as justification for their stupid gas-guzzling lifestyles...
Not to mention the argument is completely flawed as other posters have already amply demonstrated, has anyone even mentioned the astronomical money/resource costs required for the medical treatment of problems caused by obesity? (https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obes...nsequences.htm)

MrCjolsen

I eat way more on days when I sit on my ass than days when I bike or swim.

brokenrobot

Just so we're clear: you do believe in science, right? At least insofar as oil and coal are FOSSIL fuels, from billions of years of ancient plant life, and not miracles from God hidden under the Middle East to teach us a lesson?

Next, do you believe in physics, or at least in the law of the conservation of energy?

If so, is it really amazing that by taking billions of years of stored solar energy and releasing them in a couple hundred years - mostly in the last hundred - might have an effect on things around here?

Stupid people who declare war on science because Fox News says so provide entertainment value, but they also make my head hurt and my heart sad.