Lowering carbon footprint

rain dogs · #11 09-22-2021, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .RJ

honest question, even if i am stirring the pot here - how is buying a new bicycle, with batteries and motor, beneficial for my 'carbon footprint' compared to using the car that I already own?

sometimes I wonder if we (collectively) spend lots of money on things (bikes, new cars, new appliances, etc, etc) to feel like we're helping the environment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by .RJ

Thats a lot of 5 mile trips to take to postpone/offset a new car purchase.

I wonder about this stuff since we fret about own impact in my house. Living in an area where I dont need to use the car for everything, having 1 car, not commuting, avoiding things like single use plastic or paper (and recycling or reusing where I cant), composting, repairing stuff instead of replacing it, environmentally friendly cleaning stuff... does it matter or add up? I dont know....

You know the answers to this, and you know you (and how much usage you'd be comparing against). And if not, there are plenty of calculators online.

But in general, it's a transition tool. Sure, perhaps buying new things constantly isn't helping (but I don't see many people NOT buying new things "green" or otherwise), but if it's a straight up choice between new petroleum fueled car and electric bike, the comparison isn't close.

You could buy the most ecological car made today - park it and never drive it - and it'll have a larger LCA/carbon footprint than tens of thousands of miles by electric bike. The production of a car = about 42g of carbon/Km (160,000km life) or about 6700kg of CO2. A bike is about 5g/km (19,000km) or about 95kg of CO2. Emissions by type are for Gas (from the US department of energy) 11,435lbs/yr vs electric 3774lbs/yr for a car.... sorry about the units distinction.

An electric bike uses about 9g of Co2/km in electricity (although I've found figures as low as 1,5g/km), that a regular pedal bike doesn't. But that's about 730,000km of riding an ebike to equal the emissions of *just* producing a car based on 9g.