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Cycling like the Dutch would slash the world’s carbon footprint (www.euronews.com)
submitted 1 week ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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Dutch people cycle an average of 2.6 kilometres each per day. If this pattern was replicated worldwide, the study suggests, annual global carbon emissions would drop by 686 million tonnes.

This mammoth figure exceeds the entire carbon footprint of most countries, including the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

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[-] y0kai@anarchist.nexus 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

On the other hand, around 80% of all people live in cities, so there is potential.

Agreed, and that is a good point I hadn't considered. I'm not anti-biking or anti-city, just anti-unrealistic-expectations for (what I guess amounts to) the remaining 20% of us haha. Those of us in cities who can bike (I now live in a sort of bikeable city. It's dangerous atm, but they're getting better) certainly should when feasible. When I can afford another, I plan to start biking to work again.

A question that comes to mind though is: Do suburbs (common in the USA, idk about other places) count as the "city"? They're often within "city limits", so one could say they live in the city of Memphis, TN, but actually live 5mi outside of commercial parts of the city.

But at the end of the day this puts the blame on individuals. We need to take industries into account!

100%! It's on the state and on industry. They designed the system, forcing or otherwise coercing us into using it, so it's on them to provide solutions like reliable public transportation and clean energy.

ETA: or we could, you know, abolish the state entirely, take over the industries, and do it ourselves 😁. might make a fun weekend

this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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