4 ms·
> How do you come to the conclusion that biking to work does anything significant to offset the 20 tons of co2 emission you produce? Let alone bring it anywhere
by btrettel 8y ago
> How do you come to the conclusion that biking to work does anything significant to offset the 20 tons of co2 emission you produce? Let alone bring it anywhere near 0?
I never claimed that it did. I think it helps, but I don't know how much. It was only an example of one thing that people think is a sacrifice that I don't.
As for the Vox article you linked to, a correlation between income and energy usage is just that, a correlation. I don't see any particular reason why that needs to hold in the future.
Anyway, as a graduate student I don't make a lot of money, so perhaps by your own estimates I'm relatively green, even ignoring the cycling.
- Arnt 8y agoYou live and work in buildings whose construction needed a lot of energy, for example, and the construction business uses a lot of fossil fuel. But I agree. Belgium is richer than Burundi, but not because construction in Belgium uses cement mixers driven by petrol engines while those in Burundi use electric power. It's richer because it has structures such as your university (buildings and institutions) that educates people to a level quite different from Burundi. The dirty or clean power used to build is a detail. Like, in a way, your cycling. Compared to a car, your cycling cuts the relevant emissions drastically with ~zero impact on your actual quality of life. Belgium didn't turn poor like Burundi when it stopped burning coal, it kept the good parts (like that university) and just used less dirty power sources. It didn't even grow poorer.