Despite the sceptics, our climate is continuing to change. This year, we quietly reached our first climate tipping point, as warm water coral reefs passed into long term decline. Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C, other tipping points could be fast reached, including the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.
Climate change isn’t just affecting our natural world, it’s impacting our mental health, too. Levels of climate anxiety among 16-25 year olds is prevalent – and growing, with over 50% of young people from ten different countries “extremely worried” about climate change. 45% said these feelings “negatively affected their daily life and functioning.” Climate change is impacting our mental and physical health, our natural environment and the trails we love to ride.
But what is cycling’s role in the climate crisis? Shift Cycling Culture, a Netherlands-based not-for-profit “movement”, released a report last month outlining the industry’s commitment to sustainability.
“Both sides, however, are aligned on the way forward,” the report reads. And that path may be more straightforward than you might expect.
“It’s not about reinventing the wheel,” Santra Brandt, Shift Cycling Culture’s executive director told Cycling Weekly, “There are actually so many existing concepts that we can build on, like circularity, like taking responsibility for the end of life of the product, then feeding this back into the design and development process.”
“I believe one of the biggest opportunities there are for the next few years is to look into material choices. The industry is basically built on materials that are produced in very energy intensive manufacturing processes. If you think about materials like aluminium, steel and carbon, some of these materials are difficult to…