Hey Mr. Green: Is Driving Better Than Cycling?
Sierra Magazine’s Answer Guy Answers Folk’s Green Living Questions:
Hey Mr. Green,
I always chuckle when I see articles like “Two-Wheeled Wonder” (March/April) make claims of bikes having “no emissions.” A bicycle produces no greenhouse-gas emissions the same way my home heating and cooling system does: No emissions are produced on-site. But to claim that a bicycle is emission-free fails to take into account the emissions produced by making the bike and fueling its engine. Specifically, what powers my bicycle? Human muscle. It takes corn, beef, and a variety of other food fuels, most of which require the use of carbon-based energy for production. One might even make the claim that bicycling is less efficient than using an automobile given the resources needed to support my engine. –Philip
