Comments on: Don’t Wait: Start Biking Now

By: Murray

Murray — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:13:00 +0000

I often get labeled as a ‘doomer’ because I don’t sugar-coat the physical realities of peak oil and its POTENTAIL consequences. I have been told by friends that I seem to have lost hope. I strongly disagree with that. I simply hope for something very different to what I used to.

I do agree that even if peak oil or global warming were complete fantasies there would still be plenty of great reasons to ride bikes.

By: Mighk

Mighk — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:19:00 +0000

I don’t disagree with you, Odograph. Neither am I as pessimistic as Kunstler sometimes sounds, and many at the forum this morning expressed a similar opinion. Indeed, Kunstler himself said we need to generate our own hope, and we do that by taking a clear-eyed look at the world and then taking constructive action in response to what we see.

As I noted in my initial post on the purpose of this site, there are plenty of great reasons to bike. Peak Oil is but one.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:51:00 +0000

I'm a happy bicyclist, and after a 2-3 year survivor of the peak oil sites. For what it's worth, I think peak oil and bicycling are both about "risk assessment."

Bicycling is good for us (reducing health risks) if we go about it carefully (reducing accident risks).

Maybe someday it will be an immediate response to oil shortage or high oil prices, but that isn't this week. It isn't for most Americans, anyway.

To my mind the problem with Kunstler and doomerish folk, is that they go beyond the hardest science of peak oil (Hubbert's curve) and move into a nested series of dark predictions. None of those predictions are required by current events, but the deeper you nest, the more you add your own pessimism, the more you can create a bad future.

Pessimism in, pessimism out.

So, while I promote bike use in my small way (with friends, and through a League of American Bicyclists membership), I try not to sell bikes with any short-term (or even firm) worry about peak oil.

Right here in front of us we have our health and happiness to consider, and those are plenty-good reasons to ride.