But consider that bicycling commuters would probably be exercising in some other way if not commuting, and gaining the longevity anyway. So the longevity is a constant and the foregone emissions a gain.

First of all, the first letter describes me perfectly. I used to ride my bike to work. Than I moved to southern Cal, where none of my jobs have been within 30 miles, of my home and riding on the roads to get there would likely get me killed. I guess that would be a plus for the environment, but excuse me if my commitment to environmentalism falls a little short of that. So I exercise differently, and am actually in the best shape I've ever been, but in a way that doesn't off-set any carbon at all. So I'm a double environmental fiend, I guess.

But maybe there is hope. I'm in my forties so perhaps I'll push things a little too far and get a heart attack. The earth may smile but I assume my family will be bummed.

Is there any proof that cyclers live longer anyway? It may make you healthier for a few decades, but is it really going to keep those cancer tumors away when you reach your 70s and 80s?

Its a pretty silly argument isn't it? I mean forget the bicycling angle, the gist of all this is that the worse thing we can do for the environement is to keep living. Environmentalism has enough trouble gaining traction without prompting people to retort "Well excuse me for breathing" and get to be literal about it.

are into all kinds of progressive things, including one couple who chose not to have children and they are in their late '40s now. It does have a trickle down or chicken/egg quality, that people who ride bikes are probably easier on the earth than the average SUV polluter--in lots of ancillary ways.

My issue is with the Tour de France. Will I be shot for saying this, or is it one of the more elite of the sports, what with the fancy bikes and gear, the clothing, travel, and hordes of gas powered flunkies who follow those long limbed specimans around? It's kind of like golf on wheels. I know Lance worked his way up from a humble beginning, but the whole thing seems a bit crazy to me and it's frankly painful to watch when they are doing the mountains. It escapes me...

I think bicycles are the result of unchristian voodooism and evil magic. They must be feared for they are not a car and they are not a horse... so WHAT ARE THEY, DUDE???? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

I think bicycles are the result of unchristian voodooism and evil magic. They must be feared for they are not a car and they are not a horse... so WHAT ARE THEY, DUDE???? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

has been injured. The most recent injure-ee I know had to drop out of school for a year, thereby delaying his entry into the higher-paid workforce and necessitating having to borrow money from his family to see himself through his jobless recovery.

What is the overall rate of injury to frequent bikers who bike more than 2 or 3 miles a day? Because I'm betting it may cancel out the "healthy" benefits due to bike accident-related loss of work time, doctor and hospital costs and, in many cases, surgery.

This hardly seems likely. When we have any excess funds, real or imaginary, in this country, we spend them on productive activities like waging wars halfway across the world. We don't waste them on frivolous leftie ideas like carbon abatement.

I say, let the fat be fat, if they want to be. The body-Nazis would have us all live to be 109, blind, senile and incontinent--but elegantly thin!--endlessly feeding the eldercare industry with our dependents' hard-earned dough. If half of us die at 75 of heart attacks because we were a little porky, that's a carbon-abatement program us fatties can participate in wholeheartedly.

Once again, the old argument that bad behavior should be encouraged if it makes people think about being good.

That isn't thinking, it's herd following. That's why we get faith based environmentalism.

At least leonard's snippy little punditry at article's end has some acuracy for a change. The best thing a person can do for the environment is to decrease the population. Oddly, the implication is that no one has ever been greener the joe stalin.

I would be sincerely surprised if the people who are at all inclined to give up their cars and begin biking to work aren't already bikers of some sort. In the rare case that they aren't, most likely they are at least somewhat fit already, as people who sit around watching TV, smoking cigarettes and eating pork rinds are pretty much going to be the last group to start biking to work.

If that premise is true, then the premise of that article is not. Adding some biking to an already active lifestyle isn't going to measureably increase lifespan.

Further, if you suppose that the argument is valid, and that any energy we save now will have to be repaid with longer lifespans, it buys us some time by pushing that energy and carbon useage a minimum of 20 - 30 years into the future (if say, a 45 year old starts biking to work now, even further into the future if that person is younger). Given the strong chance of significant movement towards a non-oil based economy over the next 20 - 30 years, I'd call that a good bet. I'll stop using energy derived from oil now, and use a bit more derived from solar and wind when I'm 75 and our entire economy is more efficient.

There are about a hundred and thirty two more semi trucks that can be driven through the holes in this argument, but we should also address the major problem that he overlooked in arguing against the use of bicycles. A significant increase in the use of bikes over cars means that people are going to be more active. Even if this doesn't mean a significant increase in lifespan (as I would argue) it does mean a significant increase in the amount of calories burned by the typical bicycle commuter in the course of the day, which will mean an increase in the amount of food needing to be eaten. If taken to its natural conclusion, where the entire world population bikes to work, obviously there would be massive food shortages. World hunger is already a big issue. If you bike to work, you're only going to make it worse.

Stephen.