Posts Tagged ‘sustainable’

My Miles (estimate):

1. To Work: 17mi/day*260days= 4420mi
2. Farmer’s Market: 13mi*20 = 260

3. Misc. rides to store:  52*10= 520

4. Critical Mass:  10*13= 130

Total Mileage:  5330

My Bikes:

1.  Circa 1997 Schwinn Homegrown converted to single speed with knobby street tires (work commuter)

2. 2005 Breezer Citizen 3-speed with trailer bike and child-car attachments (grocery getter)

Things I Bought for Biking (that I can remember)*:

2 pairs of shorts (baggies), Two poly shirts, 3 pairs of socks, 2 chains, 2 pairs of pedals, numerous tubes and patch kits, 1 pair cranks, 1 bottom bracket, one rigid fork (the suspension was warn out), 2 rear tires (my front tire is about 5 years old and has about 8000 miles), 1 saddle, 2 rear lights, 2 front lights, two boxes gauze pads, 2 boxes band aids, two rolls medical tape, 1 tube of triple antibiotic goo, 1 pump, 1 rear hub rebuild kit, 1 single speed conversion kit, 1 brake cable kit, 2 sets of brake pads, 1 set of brake levers, repair of internal hub (I messed it up trying to adjust it), one rear fender, reflective tape, 1 pair shoes (my others were 6 years old)

Keep in mind that this was not my first year of commuting.  Most of these purchases were required just to maintain the bikes.

* Does not include cash purchases

Total Cost:  $1358.49

He has recently been pressing the Texan government to ban tobacco smoking in just about every place known to man in the state of Texas. Obviously a part of his personal war on cancer. It’s a continuation of the end of civil liberties. Soon, no longer will private (I did say private) have the right to choose if they will allow their patrons to smoke. Next step, no smoking in your car or house.

I am biased as I am an avid cigar smoker. I also enjoy the occasional cigarette — the kind without all of the chemicals that speed nicotine to your brain. However, I would argue that smoking of a different kind is far more damaging to humans, and the world in general, than tobacco smoking.

While I have no hard statistics, I’m willing to bet that one day or one week of driving an undesirable vehicle (petrol-powered) releases more harmful pollutants into the environment than one year’s worth of tobacco smoking. I have read countless articles from reputable, no-agenda institutions reporting the vast destruction to which the oil industry has subjected our planet. Take a look at the environment impact of oil, and coal for that matter, on Pennsylvania, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Alaska. It’s ruined entire ecosystems. There are towns in Pennsylvania that are completely dead from coal mines that are burning, yes burning, beneath them.

Why do you not see this as a political issue? Just like big tobacco of many years ago, big oil owns you. They dictate what you read, hear, have access to, how you live, your mode of transportation, your government’s decisions. You happily drive your car everyday while they knowingly and willingly screw you. Big oil is the big tobacco of now. Don’t believe me? Sit in your garage with your car running. Seems stupid doesn’t it? Yet, billions of people around the world (everyone’s garage) everyday drive their cars tens of miles. That’s what I call smoking.

Lance, like many a professional athlete, your intent is good. Yet you lack the breadth of education to focus on the important issues. I agree — ban smoking. But ban the real smoking — oil burning. The future of the human race depends on it — not just cancer survivors.