Cycling The Carbon Cost

oldandcrusty

We all think that by cyling to work on a regular basis we are all doing our bit on the Green Issues. However, does anyone know what the Carbon cost is to actually make our bikes. After all many components are made abroad and then needs to be transported to the uk.
So if you cycle, say 50 miles a week instead of using the car the carbon not used by the car is then offset against the cost of the bike how many weeks, years, decades does it take to re-pay back the cost........... if ever? :?:

Ale

Oh my god, that's so true! Some of my bike is even MADE out of Carbon! And when I cycle, I eat more, which is also probably flown in from Australia!

I'd better get back to my car. I don't think any carbon is involved in its manufacture, and it's probably built locally and organically.

mtb.boy

Yeah making a car requires no carbon. I mean - all that steel and plastic is just found perfectly formed in fields locally.

passout

I think the last, rather unforgiving posting, has a point. A rather obvious point really.

I'm think that global warning is just a new version of middle class guilt/paranio. When I was a kid I thought I'd die in a nuclear war, then it was AIDs, then the Ozone. The ancient Chinese feared dragons flying over their villages at night. Man-made global warning is in the same category i.e. b******s. Forget enforced fear and people, who don't actually know, telling you to feel guilty.

But despite all that bicycles are clearly 'green' so keep the car in the garage.

Kaipaith

I don't think global warming is entirely bollocks, but I also wouldn't underestimate our ability to adapt either.

Sure making a bike has an effect... but it's not as big an effect as making a car (one of which I also own, and is currently my primary form of transport).

oldandcrusty

oh yes I think we can all agree that bikes are "green" to run but how about their manufacture?
Oh s**t Iam getting paranoid by my own thread!!!!!
The point is of course that this argument can be applied to all and everything at least we can say that our activities are not contributing to greenhouse gases any further unlike any other forms of transport...... and this is the real argument in favour of cycling to work.

mtb.boy

Think about when you are in a traffic jam - all the nasty fumes going into the lungs of people walking or cycling by.

Now imagine if a lot of the people started using bikes - less fumes. i.e. better health for people walking by and the environment.

redddraggon

Making a CFRP framed bike, is locking the carbon up so that it won't add to the CO2 in the atmosphere.

Therefore if we all have carbon bikes we are taking that little bit extra of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

richardjallen

There a lot of emphasis on CO2 but no one mentions that the NO2 that comes off chemically fertilized fields is 200 times as powerful as a greenhouse gas as CO2 and methane from cattle is about 20 times as powerful.

The CO2 cost of making a bike must be less than that of a car (which is also shipped over).

BentMikey

passout wrote:

But despite all that bicycles are clearly 'green' so keep the car in the garage.

No, they're not really. Just less polluting than cars. The OP makes a valid point.

JustRidecp

passout wrote:

I'm think that global warning is just a new version of middle class guilt/paranio. Man-made global warning is in the same category i.e. b******s.

No. I'm afraid its fact my friend. Its just popular with the middle classes to broadcast it as it makes them feel better. You really should seek out all the facts before coming to your assumption. I'm an earth scientist - the study of our planet is my vocation. Its true that the Earth experiences long term, natural climate fluctuations due to slight variations in solar orbit, changes in tilt of the earths rotational axis and wobble in the earth's axis. In the last 4.6 billion years of the earth's history, never before has there been an animal that can manipulate and change the physical environment around it like man can - perhaps with the exception of photosynthetic algae!. The consequences of these changes are being felt today - all the glaciers in Europe are retreating - the tundra is thawing - polar ice cap is disapearing. The changes we are seeing today are happening on a staggeringly rapid rate - we really are in uncharted territory. I can assure you that man-made global warming is real. Its just fashionable to attribute everything to global warming at the moment. e.g. the summer flooding.

richardjallen

JustRidecp,

Is it true then that nitrogen dioxide and methane are more powerful greenhouse agents? I believe this is so but confess that I got the information from a TV programme over Christmas. Although they may be more powerful agents I cannot comment on how much is produced so overall if they contribute more or less.

JustRidecp

Yes. Methane and nitrogen dioxide absorb more long-wave radiation (energy the earth recieves from the sun) than carbon dioxide and thus warming the atmosphere. This is the greenhouse effect - where gases in the upper atmosphere absorb and reflect heat back to the surface rather than letting it escape to space. This is a completely natural process that makes the earth habitable for life and these three gases exist naturally in the atmosphere but levels are currently being increased artificially.

One of the implications of global warming is that the arctic tundra contains large amounts of methane which is locked into the frozen soil. As this melts, more methane will be released into the atmosphere.

Methane levels in the atmosphere are increasing by 1% per year compared with 0.5% for CO2.

However, anthropogenic carbon dioxide has the greatest contribution to radiative warming as, quite simply, there is more of it! Thats why it gets the press.

mazcp

oldandcrusty wrote:

We all think that by cyling to work on a regular basis we are all doing our bit on the Green Issues. However, does anyone know what the Carbon cost is to actually make our bikes. After all many components are made abroad and then needs to be transported to the uk.

Yes. The answer is given 51 seconds into this video clip. Pure class...

xio

so am I a bad person because I ride a bike because I like it, it's fun and a much better/quicker way of getting to work, rather than trying to get any green credentials?

baudman

One way we can all reduce the carbon cost of our bike(s) is to resist the urge to get a new one every year. (I know I sure don't $$$, but I know of plenty of ppl who do!)

John Stevenson

xio: No.

Damn, I like these easy questions. Next!

Johno68

JustRidecp wrote:

However, anthropogenic carbon dioxide has the greatest contribution to radiative warming as, quite simply, there is more of it! Thats why it gets the press.

yeah, Just far too many people... We need a major plague, world war, or a campaign of genocide (targetted at the worst polluters) to save the planet. :twisted:

John

palinurus

passout wrote:

I think the last, rather unforgiving posting, has a point. A rather obvious point really.

I'm think that global warning is just a new version of middle class guilt/paranio. When I was a kid I thought I'd die in a nuclear war, then it was AIDs, then the Ozone.

The hole in the ozone layer is real enough, and to limit the damage international legislation was put in place significantly reduce the release of ozone-depleting chemicals. Hardly paranoia, and middle-class guilt didn't really come into it. The changes were made by manufacturers, not the public. I'll not comment on AIDS, except suggest you think harder.

tuxpoo

JustRidecp,

Since when is mans effect on the global climate become fact?

I thought the antartic polar ice cap was getting bigger?

I also thought it was the job of scientists to be sceptics, it seems all scientists involved with climate change seem to be taking theory as fact... bad science:(

Even virtually proven theory of evolution is still scrutinised by scientists.

I dont dispute climate change and even agree that mans effect is very likely. But I would never call it fact!

Tux

domtyler

The carbon molecules used in the production of bicycles are normally organic ones that have extremely high densities of affiliation. This results in a structure that is incredibly rich in carbon nano-molecules and high in organic solid matrix. What this actually results in is a significant reduction in atmospheric carbon levels to a degree that would make the the third world weep with joy.
________
Pot News

helz

I cycle mainly for the same reasons as xio mentions in his post above. Trying to be green comes into it a little bit but I'm fully aware that the manufacture of bicycles creates carbon emissions. Not nearly as much as the manufacture of cars though I'm sure.

oldandcrusty

Its not that cycling is "green" as such but that the non-cycling puplic thinks that serious cyclists do it because "they" see it as a green issue, not helped by politicians who ride a bike and then shout "look at me arn't I green".
Whether global warming is fact or not I think that no one can dispute that we can not keep polluting the earth continusly without some kind of adverse effects. In this we are all partly to blame. It gets my blood boiling when some tv advert tells me to turn of a light or the thermostat by 1 degree as if this alone is going to have some glorious profound result. Cobblers, all it will do is reduce my fuel bills by a small margin.
While we live in a consumer led society when everyone must have the latest I-pod, LCD tv or whatever we are in trouble. All these goods will be made to satisfy the consumer. The producers will of course (being profit driven) source their parts from the cheapest supplier. This being mainly the Far East and China are going to meet this demand for their own economic well being. They are well placed to achieve this with their vast cheap labour pool and huge energy resources in native coal reserves. All this will lead to even further greenhouse gases being emitted.
There was a suggestion for Nuclear Holocaust to redress the balance, however this must be seen as seriously "un-green" and I'am sure that would violate someones Human Rights.
It's a proven fact that cycling helps you to live longer, the question now is will the planet live long enough for us to take advantage of that fact.
Rant over.