To meet climate goals, when do we have to 'walk and bike a lot more'? Now.

Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times:

"While it’s very nice that cars are transitioning from gas to electricity, switching the fuel source of our automobiles is unlikely to be enough to meet our goals for emissions reductions to combat climate change. Combating climate change also requires American to drive less and walk and bike a lot more than we do now."

So, regarding bike safety:

"American states and cities now have an opportunity to do [the] same [as Amsterdam]. But they must act fast, and they must act decisively. This is no time for half-decade-long action plans."

"Riding a Bike in America Should Not Be This Dangerous." Farhad Manjoo. New York Times. April 21, 2022.

In the 2020s, we must reduce driving 25%

People can come together in different ways

"In an influential essay in 1938, Lewis Mumford, perhaps the greatest American critic of urban planning, defined a city as that place where 'the diffused rays of many beams of life fall into focus.' Cities, said Mumford, are the culmination of humankind’s domination of the earth; they’re where the need for industry and cooperation have come together. Cities are the great sites of monumental and public life they are living museums of themselves, cathedrals to their own glory and to the forms of life they make possible; cities are where vastly different kinds of people can come together with different functions, and desires, and needs, that somehow are orchestrated into the great four-dimensional fold of human social life."

— Why Are We So Obsessed with Making Cities Greener? Des Fitzgerald Wonders What "Nature" Actually Is. Des Fitzgerald. LitHub. November 21, 2023.

Electric bicycles!

now do e-bikes! virtually no air pollution, significant safer streets, virtually no road wear or maintenance costs, no noise pollution, builds better and more resilient communities... sh*t - i wonder why congress refuses to subsidize the sh*t out of these climate wonders

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— Mike Eliason (@holz-bau.bsky.social) October 7, 2024 at 1:18 PM

No, which country sells the most stuff is not, in fact, 'way more important than climate change'

Thanks. If this exchange had happened earlier, I would have used it in the piece. This is the problem, right here.

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— JW Mason (@jwmason.bsky.social) October 23, 2024 at 9:55 AM

See also: "'This is the Team': Collective Change on Climate". It's a 7-minute read on Medium. You may also consider a paid membership on the platform.

If you like the bike photo, feel free to use it elsewhere. If you'd like to give credit, it's by Tucker Lieberman and you can find it on Pixabay.