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Happy Earth Day!
04/22/2020A note from Todd Boulanger, Executive Director
As an Environmental Planner (UH Manoa) reflecting on the 50th Anniversary of EARTH DAY and living through the period that led to its creation; I can say one of the greatest lessons learned is that avoidance of damage is a much better solution than mitigation (a fancy word for cleaning up a mess). My father, a chemical engineer, a mid-century man of the pre-Earth Day era, was trained to approach ‘pollution solutions’ first through mitigation, as one of his favorite sayings to me growing up was “the solution to pollution is dilution”.
So, you ask, ‘how does Biki and bike share fit into mitigation versus avoidance’? Well, by exchanging a motor vehicle trip for a human powered bicycle trip you are avoiding the creation of much of the vehicle emissions tied to moving around our city quickly and conveniently, like half of our members reported doing. In 2019 you and your fellow Biki riders rode 1.37 million rides for an estimated 2.7 million miles in town. This quantity of miles would typically generate 3.3 million pounds of CO2 emissions by cars. But, instead of waiting for planted trees to grow and absorb these gases, they are never created. Put it simply, it is like 323 cars being removed from the town.
Plus, there are other “me” benefits like losing weight or gaining muscle tone as you ride to your meetings or to see friends. I mean how many other environmental solutions are fun AND make you smile as you just live and go about your normal day?
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