Sierra Magazine’s Answer Guy Answers Folk’s Green Living Questions:

Hey Mr. Green,
I always chuckle when I see articles like “Two-Wheeled Wonder” (March/April) make claims of bikes having “no emissions.” A bicycle produces no greenhouse-gas emissions the same way my home heating and cooling system does: No emissions are produced on-site. But to claim that a bicycle is emission-free fails to take into account the emissions produced by making the bike and fueling its engine. Specifically, what powers my bicycle? Human muscle. It takes corn, beef, and a variety of other food fuels, most of which require the use of carbon-based energy for production. One might even make the claim that bicycling is less efficient than using an automobile given the resources needed to support my engine. –Philip

Read Mr. Green’s answer here »