As economies like India and China start to demand more oil, the current global oil supply and the infrastructure will not be able to handle the ever increasing demand. Unfortunately, our petroaddictive behavior will definitely speak louder than words. Who are we to tell them they can't live like us?
Fortunately, there is Pedals for Progress who not only donates used bicycles to third world countries, they also help "developing world economies by promoting self-sustaining bicycle repair businesses." Convincing other countries to pedal will not be an easy chore, but someone must do it in order to save our planet.
Aside from saving the earth, pedaling has so many advantages over motoring such as the exercise it provides, the cost factor, the space factor, and the easy care and maintenance. Unlike horses or camels, bicycles do not require any fuel at all except the combustible substance of human calories.
Of course, calories is something most Americans have in spades. This is not the case for billions of people across the globe, especially now as the ripple effect of our fiscal crisis can be felt across this terraqueous ball we all occupy. Not to mention the effects of global warming, in part caused by our compulsive physiological and psychological need for more where oil ranks as the number one requisite.
Climate Change Summary Says Asia And Africa Will See Danger, Death, And Extinction Of Species Unless Countries Adapt:
Global warming's effects now still may be more pesky than catastrophic. But a new scientific report says that when the Earth gets a few degrees hotter, inconvenience will give way to danger, death and extinction of species.
The world faces increased hunger and water shortages in the poorest countries, massive floods and avalanches in Asia, and species extinction unless nations adapt to climate change and halt its progress, according to a report approved Friday by an international conference on global warming.
The poorest parts of the world, especially Africa and Asia, will be hit hardest, says the summary from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued Friday after a long, contentious editing session.
In a
New York Times article,
Scientists Detail Climate Changes, Poles to Tropics, James Kanter and
Andrew C. Revkin report on how climate change is already changing the planet and detail how it will get worse.
"In its most detailed portrait of the effects of climate change driven by human activities, the panel predicted widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia. It stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest."
Nevertheless, the people who do not have enough calories to burn are of little concern. If they can't afford to feed themselves, they certainly can't afford to motor themselves. Rather, we need to concern ourselves with the people who are past the point of starvation and who are starting to climb out of the depths of deprivation ...these are the people we must meddle in the affairs, to persuade them to pedal and spin their wares.
...and therein lies the reason I remain anonymous.
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