This is quite interesting. It's something I've wondered about before, and now it seems to have been answered. Can't say I care that much though, since I never expected cycling purely for pleasure to somehow be helping cutesy ikkle polar bears.

You what?

please, somebody stop this Guardian Blogger! There are so many more issues out there other then how much theoretical and tenuous good some chap is doing by riding a bike. It's a fun thing to do. Isn't that enough?

Sorry, click "This" in the original (I have trouble seeing links too sometimes).

Or here: Clicky

all this 'carbon footprint of cycling' is great as long as the cycling actually replaces a journey would have, otherwise, have been made in a car.

there's so many cyclists who ride for recreation or, worse, drive somewhere to then ride that the carbon footprint of their cycling is probably worse than a non cyclist who stayed at home and watched telly.

What the ****? So I take it car commuters don't have any breakfast?

What an utter pile of shite.

And thus the tedious and often irrelevant process of measuring all things by how much CO2 they produce continues apace…

so don't explore new places and enjoy the country in which we live?

For what?

Proven to benefit whom?

Are you a carbon footprint auditor?

Guilt won't change this world, only lack of choice…..

So I take it car commuters don't have any breakfast?

That's what I thought too. It also seems to assume that this is 'extra' food needed for cycling. I'd be better off knowing the carbon needed to produce a Snickers and maybe an extra litre of water.

Guilt won't change this world, only lack of choice…..

am I allowed to feel guilty about my lack of choice?

how very commendable.

Like it or not, WE don't have a say in it. Only those running the fossil fuel companies can do it, but is it in their interest?

More time and energy in to alternatives that provide us with a solution, with limited change to our way of life will be accepted by the populous

What a load of bollox..Does that bloke have nothing better to do with his time?? He would be better off working out the carbon footprint of the curry Im having later by smelling my sh1t tomorrow am!! Boils my p1ss!!! 👿

Well said repack!

Does anybody actually fuel their cycling by guzzling air-freighted asparagus? Intriguingly silly…

I ride about 2000 miles a year. How much air freighted asparagus would I need to eat to fuel that? And how smelly would me wee be?

I like that 50g of the CO2e per mile is from the embedded energy in the bike. My bike's sat there whether I'm riding it or not… Ignoring that makes fuelling cycling with bananas 15g per mile, rather than 65g per mile…

there's so many cyclists who ride for recreation or, worse, drive somewhere to then ride that the carbon footprint of their cycling is probably worse than a non cyclist who stayed at home and watched telly.

I commute by bike and ride from my door all winter and evenings throughout the year, have I saved up enough co2 to drive to the lakes/peak to ride in the summer?
🙂

pedant point, "2800g CO2e: powered by air-freighted asparagus", dont we produce our own? Pretty sure I heard that we export none of our own. Do we top up from abroad then?

pedant point, "2800g CO2e: powered by air-freighted asparagus", dont we produce our own? Pretty sure I heard that we export none of our own. Do we top up from abroad then?

During the domestic asparagus season, asparagus-fuelled cycling produced less CO2e.

I like trees more than people, but I don't like asparagus.
Can I just eat extra bananas to increase my CO2 ?

Isn't the guy who organises the Exmoor Explorer an asparagus farmer? I think with a bit of subtle marketing, asparagus could be the new beetroot/goji berry/pomegranate/(insert Daily Wail fad food of choice here).

Isn't the guy who organises the Exmoor Explorer an asparagus farmer? I think with a bit of subtle marketing, asparagus could be the new beetroot/goji berry/pomegranate/(insert Daily Wail fad food of choice here).

God i hope not, with the average UK males inability to pee into a fully functioning toilet means public toilets/parks/doorways stink bad enough as it is, if everyone was eating asparaguis it'd be bloody awful.

Did I read the same article as everyone else?

I didn't learn very much, and it may be that some anti-cyclist types will have read the headline and no more, and got the wrong end of the stick.

I read an article which said that although cycling in general is better for the environment than driving a car, the benefits can be reduced if you don't think about where your energy comes from. There's a bit in the end where he says he's a keen cyclist and that there are lots of other carbon benefits to him cycling.

It might not have been particularly imaginative, but the headline probably got more people reading than would have read otherwise, and if, as a result, more people stop to think about the actual point of the article (food miles) then it's not a bad article.

Or what?