Where are the bicycles?

Bicycle. Does the word ring a bell? It looks as in the above picture. The dictionary says 'The bicycle is a pedal-driven, human-powered vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other.' But it is not only a simple vehicle used for getting from point A to point B. It also saves fossil fuel, reduces pollution and global warming, facilitates easy movement in heavy traffic, saves money in taxes, maintenance, parking and gym fees, comes in lovely colours with wonderful accessories, gives an awesome workout, is long-lasting and you don't need a license to ride it. All this at only a fraction of the cost of a motor-bike or a car. Now how cool is that!

I wonder when we forgot to ride bicycles. When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for my parents to get me my very own bicycle. Then when I went to high school, it was suddenly not cool to bring a bicycle to school. You were only cool if you owned a motor bike. Why? Why did we forget to cycle? Today in this day and age when we talk of global warming and sudden weather changes, do we pause and think how we are contributing to it and how we can reduce it? Have you ever paused and thought what is the reason for the Latur & Gujarat Earthquake, The Tsunami, Mumbai flooding, Hurricanes in the USA, the China earthquake and the many other freak weather conditions? Let's face it. Humans are the biggest contributors to these natural disasters. Every time we drive our car or motor-bike, use electrical home-appliances (in most countries, electricity is produced by burning coal which not only contributes to global warming but also gifts the cities with smog and miners with cancer), fly in airplanes, eat meat or light a bulb we are contributing to Global Warming.

Imagine a hot summer afternoon. The temperature is more than 40°C degrees. You are on your motor bike, stuck in traffic, dying to get home and drink chilled juice or buttermilk but you can't move ahead because of the traffic jam. You are caught between two big air-conditioned cars, with their dark windows rolled up, cooling on full blast inside. But you are outside and can feel the horrible heat coming from the cars and it is intolerable, isn't it? Doesn't it feel like hell taking the sun's and the car's heat at the same time? If you can feel it, the earth can too. For you maybe its only for 5-10 minutes, but for our planet its day after day, year after year. For you, its 1-2 cars but for our planet is zillions of cars and motorbikes not to mention other causes.

You have a Choice...

The biggest contributor to global warming is the burning of fossil fuels and yes each one of us contributes to it when we ride our shiny Kinetic Honda or Karizma. Why is only riding a motor bike cool? Why isn't cycling cool? At a time when our planet is facing the biggest environmental crisis that mankind has ever faced, should our mantra not be 'RRR' - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle? Do you know that the actors who endorse the motor bikes themselves ride bicycles to keep healthy? Now a days its one car one person or one motor-bike one person in the case of smaller towns. Why can't we convert it to One Bicycle One Person? Not only would it solve the traffic problem to a very big extent, it would also contribute to reducing global warming in a big way and make the riders sexier from the workout.

http://www.bikeszone.com/forum/index.php
http://mnes.nic.in/
http://www.renewingindia.org/
http://www.zenithenergy.com/
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/default.asp
http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/
http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/benefits.htm
http://www.carbonfootprint.com/
http://www.indiasolar.com/
http://www.mithradham.org/