this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
227 points (95.2% liked)

Cool Guides

4700 readers
1 users here now

Rules for Posting Guides on Our Community

1. Defining a Guide Guides are comprehensive reference materials, how-tos, or comparison tables. A guide must be well-organized both in content and layout. Information should be easily accessible without unnecessary navigation. Guides can include flowcharts, step-by-step instructions, or visual references that compare different elements side by side.

2. Infographic Guidelines Infographics are permitted if they are educational and informative. They should aim to convey complex information visually and clearly. However, infographics that primarily serve as visual essays without structured guidance will be subject to removal.

3. Grey Area Moderators may use discretion when deciding to remove posts. If in doubt, message us or use downvotes for content you find inappropriate.

4. Source Attribution If you know the original source of a guide, share it in the comments to credit the creators.

5. Diverse Content To keep our community engaging, avoid saturating the feed with similar topics. Excessive posts on a single topic may be moderated to maintain diversity.

6. Verify in Comments Always check the comments for additional insights or corrections. Moderators rely on community expertise for accuracy.

Community Guidelines

By following these rules, we can maintain a diverse and informative community. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to the moderators. Thank you for contributing responsibly!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] general_kitten@sopuli.xyz 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I did some random calculations and with the assumption that cycling uses 300kcal/h @15km/h that makes it use about 20 kcal/km. Assuming it is burned by consuming carbohydrates(glucose)(4.5Kcal/g) and it converts 1:1 into CO2 that makes cycling emit about 5g CO2/km making it about as climate friendly as using eurostar trains.(assuming you dont want to exercise ever)

Hmm, thinking about it, I think maybe the direct CO~2~ exhaled during exercise may not be the most useful metric for human-powered travel. Every atom of that carbon was recently removed from the atmosphere by the plants you ate or that went to feed the animals you ate. It isn't carbon that was underground for millions of years as is the case with fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, growing the food does involve carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Taking this page's number of 2.5t/yr for the typical American diet which they assume to be 2,600 kcal/day that works out to 2.6g of CO~2~ / kcal (2.5t / 365 / 2600 = 2.6E-6 t = 2.6g), or 52.7 g / km for cycling, or similar to an electric car if the chart is at all comparable (I don't know the chart's methodology; for example for the fossil fuel transport options does it count the carbon cost of producing and transporting the fuel or just the tailpipe emissions?). Changing one's diet looks like it would improve this; the best-case would be a vegan diet which would result in 31.6 g / km.

Now that's just based on numbers from that one source, so I don't know how reliable they are. It does say it includes the large amount of wasted food in the final number, and I don't know if the numbers in the original chart are that level of conscientious. Regardless I think the takeaway here isn't that cycling is bad, it's that our food production system is terrible and it badly needs to become way less carbon-intensive.