Shades of Green
No. 31 in a never-ending series. Winter 2003
Dear friends,
I have a question? Can you be slightly opposed to the continuing slaughter in Iraq and slightly in favour? Can you be a little for and a little against nuclear power? How about eating meat. Can you be vegetarian in principle but eat roast beef in practice? Of course dear fellow cyclists, the answer is entirely clear. It is black and white. There are some things where there is only one moral position to take. No compromise is possible. The same is true for being green. We must all save the planet.
Latest research suggests that the planet could heat by 6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, within the lives of our grandchildren. It's warmer now than at any time in the last 2000 years, and the heating effect is accelerating. The last time the earth suffered such a variation in temperature, there was some minor discomfort, with the appearance of an ice age and mass extinction of up to 96% of species on earth. You know all this already, which is why you are all fully committed to a green lifestyle. That's why you are a member of this cycle campaign founded all those years ago, by, err, I forget who. There are no shades of green. You cannot be slightly green. You cannot want to save the planet just a bit, or now and then. You either want to save the planet or you don't give a toss.
So my dear reapees, if the world boils away in this century, you at least want to move to the higher realm with a clean conscience. Being green involves a change of lifestyle, like recycling bottles, insulating your house, turning the central heating down and using those sickly dim energy saving bulbs. And of course what bonds us all together is our shared hatred of the oil economy, and cars. Which is why we all cycle and hector idle, selfish, planet destroying car drivers. Quite right too. We agree up to this point.
But then it all goes pear shaped, the glasses are left off and the myopia sets in. Grim Reaper, like the next sentient being, needs a holiday from time to time. We would, I am sure, agree that train would be a more Spain, especially when it leaves from Bristol airport and can get you to Malaga before the train even enters the channel tunnel. And how are you meant to get to Nepal, and South America for your holidays if you don't fly? And if you have any queasy qualms of conscience you can at least plant a tree and have an environmentally sensitive holiday when you unload your bike from the plane hold and pedal off into the sunset. At least you didn't drive there!
Perhaps my pale green friends it would have been more honest and less damaging if you had driven there with your bike strapped to the rear door, just like the millions of others.
A round trip of 1600 kms, (London to the South of France) by car with the bike on the roof, creates 360 kg of CO2, the main greenhouse gas. If you go by train and hire a bike when you arrive, you'll create 100 kg of CO2. If you go by plane, with your bike in the hold, you'll generate a whopping 850 kg per person, which is more than the amount produced by heating an average size house for a year! Estimates of the contribution airplanes make to global warming are up to 15% and rising. To arrest the acceleration of global warming it is accepted that the West (that's you, my friend) must cut CO2 output by 80%.
So dear pale green reader, if you must fly, then you might as well leave your bike at home, throw your bottles in the dump, and leave all your lights on. You'll meet me far sooner that way, and bring everyone else with you.
Peep Peep!
The Grim Reaper
