Tuesday, July 18, 2006

That's one solution, I guess

Title at Gristmill: "Love the earth? Die."
The TerraPass blog points to a new study out from U. Penn professor Karl Ulrich called "The Environmental Paradox of Biking" (PDF). The rather jarring conclusion is that switching people over from cars to bicycles has, at present, no net environmental benefit.

...

Just by being alive, you're sucking up resources.... If you stop driving everywhere and bike instead, you'll live longer. So you'll suck up more resources. So it's a wash.

If you really love the environment, you'll drive your car ... off a bridge.

2 comments:

Declan said...

I guess not having any/many kids would be a compromise solution...

Ronald Brak said...

Sounds like a variation of the old, "Cigarette companies are doing society a favour by killing off old folks before they collect their pension," arguement.

Personally, I think the idea is to actually enjoy life as long as you can and leave the world in a fit state so other people can enjoy their lives too.