Bike use in 3rd world countries

[Excel Manalang]

Do people in china/taiwan still ride bikes to/from work everyday, or have they become more civilized? Just something I was thinking about today.

[amacjr2001]

riding a bike is uncivilized?

[seanchai]

Do people in china/taiwan still ride bikes to/from work everyday, or have they become more civilized? Just something I was thinking about today.

You can think about being about 1 post away from being the fastest ever kicked off this board if you continue like this.

Yes many people in China/Taiwan still ride the bike to work - as it's faster, cleaner and cheaper than cars. So do people in many parts of Europe.
Both countries are more civilised than many countries I've been in where people take the car to the corner of the block to pick up a bottle of milk.
seanchai

[BeardedOne]

Damn, Mr. S., I thought that was rather harsh until I saw the microlink.

Now =THAT's= uncivilized.

[Ecstatic]

Whoa, that microlink was so small, these old eyes scarcely saw it!

Although bicycling remains a popular mode of transport in China and Taiwan, there's serious global warming and energy production issues surrounding the fact that they have the fastest growing number of cars in use in the world.

[seanchai]

Whoa, that microlink was so small, these old eyes scarcely saw it!

Although bicycling remains a popular mode of transport in China and Taiwan, there's serious global warming and energy production issues surrounding the fact that they have the fastest growing number of cars in use in the world.

I missed the microlink - I was responding to his stupid and racist post.

Ecstatic - the US is the biggest culprit in global warming despite faster car growths in other countries, the US has more cars per person, larger cars, un-willingness to look at (or try to block) cleaner technologies. If they took a stance, other countries would follow - Europe is far ahead on it.
The US will never change when oil lobbyists control government thinking, unfortunately.
seanchai

[robin]

Ecstatic - the US is the biggest culprit in global warming despite faster car growths in other countries, the US has more cars per person, larger cars, un-willingness to look at (or try to block) cleaner technologies. If they took a stance, other countries would follow - Europe is far ahead on it.
The US will never change when oil lobbyists control government thinking, unfortunately.
seanchai

I thought Greece was the number one global killer. Athens is a toxic waste dump :partyman:

[Ecstatic]

Ecstatic - the US is the biggest culprit in global warming despite faster car growths in other countries, the US has more cars per person, larger cars, un-willingness to look at (or try to block) cleaner technologies. If they took a stance, other countries would follow - Europe is far ahead on it.
The US will never change when oil lobbyists control government thinking, unfortunately.
seanchai
Without a doubt, nor was I implying otherwise. But the rate of growth in China is exponential, thus adding significantly to the complications. And that's not to mention India (the second largest, second fastest growing major economy in the world), nor other up and coming economies. Couple that with the deforesting of the Amazon basin,* the increased methane production of the same area due to cattle production, plus other factors and the situation is dire. Yes, the US consumes 40% of the world's resources with only 5% of its population, but that ratio is changing thanks to China and India, and faster than one might think.

China has moved into second place after the US in oil consumption, and with 20% of the world's population, their rate of total consumption is accelerating far beyond the US (though not as yet the total consumption itself):

#1 United States: 20,030,000 barrels per day
#2 China: 6,391,000 barrels per day
#3 Japan: 5,578,000 barrels per day
#4 Russia: 2,800,000 barrels per day
#5 Germany: 2,677,000 barrels per day
#6 India: 2,320,000 barrels per day
#7 Canada: 2,193,000 barrels per day
#8 Korea, South: 2,168,000 barrels per day
#9 Brazil: 2,100,000 barrels per day
#10 France: 2,060,000 barrels per day

"For many resources, the United States of America is the world's largest consumer in absolute terms. For a list of 20 major traded commodities, it takes the greatest share of 11 of them: corn, coffee, copper, lead, zinc, tin, aluminum, rubber, oil seeds, oil and natural gas. For many more it is the largest per-capita consumer.

"A typical example is meat. China, with the world's largest population, is the highest overall producer and consumer of meat, but the highest per-capita consumption in the world is that of the United States. The average United States citizen consumes more than three times the global average of 37 kilos per person per year." - http://atlas.aaas.org/index.php?part=2

Indeed, Europe leads the US -- and the world -- in several key areas, such as wind power generation. However, Europe is also the major importer of Brazilian beef, an industry which as mentioned by combining deforestration with methane-producing cattle ranching is a major contributor to global warming. The US produces most of its own beef (and exports a great deal), so only a small fraction of Brazilian beef is imported into the US. (However, our pork farms are majors contributors to global warming and pollution.)


* An area the size of Massachusetts is denuded annually; however there is some good news recently: Forest loss for the 2005-2006 year was 13,100 square kilometers (5,057 square miles) of rainforest, down more than 40 percent from last year. The figure is the lowest since 1991 when 11,130 square kilometers (4,258 square miles) of forest were lost.
- http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=62715

[syntax]

the US and Australia were the only two countries to refuse to sign the Kyoto Summit agreement to limit the production of greenhouse gases....

makes you proud..

[bunzy]

Ecstatic - the US is the biggest culprit in global warming despite faster car growths in other countries, the US has more cars per person, larger cars, un-willingness to look at (or try to block) cleaner technologies. If they took a stance, other countries would follow - Europe is far ahead on it.
The US will never change when oil lobbyists control government thinking, unfortunately.
seanchai

...But president Bush said there should be a 25% cut in global emissions by 2012, i guess that's a good start though.

[Craig]

The US may be a bad polluter and China is right up there but unfortunately I believe that Canadians are the worst polluters per capita in the word.

The worst offenders in Canada are:
Saskatchewan is the highest polluter, because most of the electricity is generated using Coal burning plants. Temperatures here range between -40C - +40C (-40F - +110F) which means alot of heating and/or cooling is needed depending on the time of year. These coal plants are among the single most polluting things on earth, but coal is cheap and plentiful. The cold also means people leave their cars running longer etc.

Alberta is a major polluter due to having the worlds second largest deposit of oil. The rush to get this oil out of the ground has led to there being virtually no pollution controls implemented for the oil sands operations there.

Then there is Toronto, the smoggiest place I have ever seen. You would not think you would find such a polluted city in a country that is known for its sparse population, wide open spaces & nature.

Also bicycle use is frowned upon in North Korea because it is felt that it gives citizens too much freedom. Cars aren't even an option.
In this case bikes are civilized.

[Ecstatic]

I just read a fascinating article on the new power source in the Boston Globe today: rocks! That's right, superheated rocks found between 4 and 6 miles deep depending upon where you live. The western US has a shallow crust (as anyone who's been to Yellowstone can attest), where rocks reach 400F merely 2-4 miles down. The rocks are heated by the earth's mantle. and pumping water down to superheat it and then bringing it up as steam can generate tremendous electrical power with virtually no pollution. It's basicaly a closed system, and an inexhaustible resource. And that's more power than solar and wind technologies combined, currently. In the eastern US, you have to drill 6 miles down, but it's still there.

The US developed this technology, and it's used extensively on a small scale, but not yet on a big scale. But, typically, Europe is poised to outpace the US in geothermal power deployment at present, as they are investing at a faster rate. And Australia is also getting into it, though they recently had a well collapse which lost millions of dollars of equipment. But the US could pick up its development and take the lead again. Interesting stuff.