Manc33 wrote: ↑11 Mar 2023, 4:28am
It's always assumed that if you're a cyclist you're "doing your bit for the environment" but I reckon that applies to a tiny minority of cyclists. How many cyclists do you know that only took up cycling or, they only carry on doing it, because they think it's helping the environment?
So who is cycling just because it helps the environment? Anyone? It's just another stupid political football that's being kicked around. It's not everyday people that can help save the environment, it's big companies dumping millions of tons of toxic junk into rivers and oceans, it's big companies cutting down trees. They
can help, by packing it in. Finding other ways of doing whatever they do, without polluting and taking away so many trees.
Anyone that thinks they are helping to save the planet by cycling, I don't even know what to say.
Ah, that would be myself. I took up cycling way back in the 1990's after my brother was involved in the Twyford Down protests. Before then (and despite not having a driving licence for a car until mid 2006 (although at the time I held a motorcycle license) I actually ran a local car club which organised meetings and club runs and all the rest of it...
..while there's much conversion about things like co2 and mirco plastics, for me the situation was much more simple. Every time I used a car, it was an arguement to build more or wider roads - that my vehicle movements would appear on the traffic counters' figures as a car, and be used as a reason for yet another road, and more displacement of wildlife and the destruction of trees and hedges and all the green things, which I love.
I'd much rather have countryside than roads. So the car club was handed over to someone else, and I pulled my out my mountain bike from the garage and used that for all my local journeys.
Yes there are big companies clear cutting forests, and poisoning the land and sea and air. However they're not doing it for fun. They're doing it because of consumer choice - that is to say the companies behave this way because we buy products from them, and by doing so support their behaviour.
The first couple of rides were horrible. But I got fitter, I changed things like the tyres and saddle and then sorted out my riding position. And as I got fitter I enjoyed it more and riding the bike became more fun than driving or even motorcycling. I now cycle because it is fun to do so, the fact it is not harming the planet in the way my car does is a good thing, and the fact that I am riding it to the shops and places I need to be is a good thing as by doing some it becomes an argument to provide better cycling facilities
We as consumers and users of products have an incredible amount of power. However to wield it we need to do so incisively and to be prepared to maintain that pressure. Everyday people can help the environment, and it takes a small percentage to act in a way to do so to begin to create change. Look at Greta, she is an everyday person who has simply maintained pressure. If 2-3% of the population maintained the same pressure we could see some amazing differences. Not all of us have the time or energy to do that, but if we all did something everyday or week we can change the way companies operate.
There are two quotes come to mind
'be the change you want to see in the universe'
'It is thought that a tremendous power is needed to thwart the designs of evil. That is not what I have found. I have found that it is the everyday acts of love and kindness which holds the darkness at bay'