Commuting by Bike; Reducing Carbon Emissions to Invent a Better Future
Authors: Cooper Harris, Ashley Krolikowski, Dallas Smith, and Erica Warnert
America is a country full of dependent and devoted drivers who have become so comfortable with this air polluting hazardous machine also known as the ”vehicle”, that if every “vehicle” was to shut down for some bizarre unknown reason almost every single person in America would have a detrimentally interesting day. If we drove cars less and started using are brains to create a more eco-friendly environment, communities will become more socially interactive instead of fragmented from each others daily lives. Our voices together can change the abuse we have caused on this planet; take control over your life and make one small step for a better tomorrow.
If we as Americans drove cars less, we would be emitting less carbon that comes from driving and operating fossil-fuel based cars. This would lower our carbon footprint, pollution levels, and somewhat slow climate change. When pollution levels in America are lowered, the environment and community will benefit as a whole. Americans can stop polluting and give earth a chance to grow strong and natural. Air pollution is also a major factor with breathing problems and may cause eye, throat, and skin irritation. Animals and plants suffer just the same from air pollution. By driving cars less Americans force the top automobile productions to make fewer cars on an annual basis, and in doing so, decrease the total carbon and pollutions emitted from these plants, especially the petroleum plants. With fewer cars on the road, the fewer problems Americans will have from the poisons and other hazardous wastes produced by the car factories.
The manufacturing of automobiles isn’t the only type of production responsible for emitting air pollution. The heating and burning of metal or carbon based materials for shaping the frame of a bike requires fossil-fuels to be burned, therefore emitting pollution into the air. Bicycle manufacturers are now inventing bikes made from bamboo, a more natural resource that sucks up carbon dioxide pollution as it grows. Bamboo.com stated,” There are about 500 species of bamboo and hundreds of sub-species throughout the world. Within a year, plants reach full height, and over the next 6-8 years, the plant will gain hardness and strength as it lignifies. It is an enduring natural resource that can be selectively harvested annually”. Bamboo bike frames are able to absorb road shocks and vibrations while remaining stiff and strong giving the bike a performance advantage on longer rides, reducing the overall fatigue and shock associated with carbon frames. Bamboo is the ideal material for bike construction, and sets a perfect example of how much smarter it is to use natural resources that are ecologically friendly and perform better then hazardous materials which require fossil-fuels to be built.
Fossil-fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.) currently provide more than 85% of all the energy consumed in the United States, nearly two-thirds of our electricity, and virtually all of our transportation fuels. Since most of the cars in the United States run off of fossil-fuels, cutting back on how much Americans drive will lower the dependence we have for fossil-fuels. Certain measures must take place to make bicycles more acceptable to the American population.
