The (true) Price of Gas

[TalkingDog]

[ComplimentarySwine]

1. How many pounds of greenhouse gasses are released

when walking or riding a bike?

Without some sort of alternative as a frame of reference, it's hard for me to know what to do with this information.

[TalkingDog]

3. This might help. As expected the difference is vast.

So, although I can't come up with any figures, they would be very small potatoes compared to the waste involved in driving an auto. After all, we are comparing 35 calories per mile cycling to 1800 calories per mile motoring. In addition, my additional food consumption because of cycling is only a small part of the total. For example, if a cyclist rides 10 miles a day, he or she burns only 350 calories of energy, which is just 36 calories over the amount of daily exercise needed to keep the cyclist from gaining weight. My 500 mile weeks during the summer probably do not cost anything near 17,500 additional calories except while I am building up. My body become efficient enough on a trip that after the first few weeks, I actually have to limit how much I eat to prevent gaining weight.

snip

Let's suppose that a car and a bike are both going to be used to travel a thousand miles. Most automobiles will burn between 20 and 100 gallons of gasoline in a thousand miles, depending on their size, age, and method of operation, and we will include a car that gets the fleet average for passenger vehicles, or 19.1 miles per gallon. We can also assume that the cyclist will use a quart of gas to cook food in that distance, if it makes everything seem fairer.

Gasoline has a higher energy value than rice because it is a hydrocarbon while rice is a carbohydrate. Hydrocarbons are composed entirely of hydrogen and carbon, while carbohydrates have carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in fact, always enough oxygen to balance the hydrogen to produce water, hence the name: hydrated carbon. Gasoline has an energy value of 33,000 kCal per gallon, and it produces 25 pounds of CO2 per gallon. To get the same amount of energy from rice (33,000 kCal) as is found in one gallon of gasoline, we need 20.6 pounds of rice which will produce 30 pounds of carbon dioxide. Yes, burning carbohydrates actually produces more CO2 per calorie produced; however, the CO2 from food is recycled from the air and does not increase the total amount in the air, while the CO2 from gasoline is new to the atmosphere, from fossil fuels, and does increase the level in our atmosphere. But for the sake for this comparison, we'll ignore that distinction as well.

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/advocacy/bike_co2.htm

[ComplimentarySwine]

4. It looks like that pretty much answers it

I was thinking about how when I ride my bike (I'm afraid that I'm a bit out of shape at the moment.), it feels like due to my heavy breathing that I must be producing A LOT of CO2, but I think that your post raised a good point with regards to recycling CO2 vs "new" CO2.

[TalkingDog]

5. If you cloned yourself a few hundred times, you might equal the CO2 of an auto

That's including all the extra cals your "selves" would take in.

[Left Coast2020]

2. I'm amazed at the damage to the environment in....

....China. At most gas stations I've seen, there is a line. I would always walk by a station when going to work and there would always be about 10-15 cars lined up. That was in N.E. China. Imagine what its like in Beijing. The pollution will make you cough--especially in the summer. They have several subways in Beijing, yet people still take their cars--because its a status symbol. Sad.