Cyclists along the Canal du Midi, from The Daily Mail, at dailymail.com.
Think of Paris and the image of a young man or woman riding a bicycle through the streets with a baguette in the front basket almost immediately comes to mind. Cycling is also associated with France through the famed Tour de France annual cycling race. It is no surprise then, that cycling is also a popular form of sight-seeing for French people and visitors. The Canal du Midi of the Canal des Deux Mers offers wonderful scenery to the cycling tourist, be it a casual ride along the banks, or a more intense trip from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. There are many guides available, from Lonely Planet to personal blogs. Find one today and get pedalling!
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
May 6, 2013 at 5:49 pm
The environment issue and economic growth is strongly interconnected with each other. Economic development provided people with better standards of living, health and education, but it also brought up some critical environmental problems, such as air pollution and global warming. The authors of Sustainable Development, Tracey Strange and Anne Bayley (2008) argue, “in the last 200 years the world’s economy has grown sixfold, and almost tenfold in the regions that were first to industrialize”, but they also point out climate is undergoing significant change due to human activities and the excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that cannot be absorbed by the ocean and plants. CO2 can be emitted mainly through combustion of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. The global emission of CO2 has become the main cause of global warming and “global warming that has occurred since the 1970s caused over 140000 excess deaths annually by the year 2004” (The World Health Organization, 2012).
Researcher and writer Isidor Buchmann claims, “Concerns relating to burning fossil fuel were first published in the early 1970s, governments acknowledged the possible environmental impact in 1991, and 20 years later global warming is continuing at an alarming rate.” For example, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, CO2 emissions in the United States increased by about 10% between 1990 and 2011. It also suggests, “the increase in CO2 emissions corresponded with increased energy use by an expanding economy and population, and an overall growth in emissions from electricity generation”. History shows us even some governors were aware of the negative impact of excessive CO2 emissions; they did not take proper steps to reduce CO2 emissions. . Instead, they chose to sacrifice environment for the rapid growth of economy.
“Unsustainable” practices in the history have put great stress on the environment.
What can we do to save mother earth? Environmental problems cannot be solved if we don’t find a better mode of human development and strength international cooperation and coordination. Sustainable development meaning “development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Tracey Strange and Anne Bayley, 2008) is the best way to meet people’s needs while preserving the environment. Furthermore, environment protection is beyond geographic borders, every country in the world has responsibility to take care of mother earth. Not only a nation can make efforts to protect the environment, but individuals’ contribution will also make a difference to the environment. One can simply use public transportation, such as cycling as alternatives to using private vehicles to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In Paris, young man or woman riding a bicycle through the streets becomes a beautiful sight. Moreover, annual multiple stage bicycle race The Tour de is held annually in France and cycling becomes a popular form of sight-seeing for people in France.
May 28, 2013 at 5:15 pm
Xing LI, xing.li001@umb.edu, College of management
VOICE OF THE FUTURE: Discussion and Implications
The environmental issues and economic growth are strongly interconnected with each other. Economic development provided people with better standards of living, health and education, but it also brought up some critical environmental problems, such as air pollution and global warming. The authors of Sustainable Development, Tracey Strange and Anne Bayley (2008) argue, “In the last 200 years the world’s economy has grown sixfold, and almost tenfold in the regions that were first to industrialize”, but they also point out climate is undergoing significant changes due to human activities and the excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that cannot be absorbed by the ocean and plants. CO2 can be emitted mainly through combustion of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. The global emission of CO2 has become the main cause of global warming and “global warming that has occurred since the 1970s caused over 140,000 excess deaths annually by the year 2004” (The World Health Organization, 2012).
A researcher and writer Isidor Buchmann claims, “Concerns relating to burning fossil fuel were first published in the early 1970s, governments acknowledged the possible environmental impact in 1991, and 20 years later global warming is continuing at an alarming rate.” For example, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, CO2 emissions in the United States increased by about 10% between 1990 and 2011. It also suggests, “the increase in CO2 emissions corresponded with increased energy use by an expanding economy and population, and an overall growth in emissions from electricity generation”. History shows us some governors did not take proper steps to reduce CO2 emissions even though they were aware of the negative impact of excessive CO2 emissions. Instead, they chose to sacrifice the environment for the rapid growth of the economy.
“Unsustainable” practices in history have put great stress on the environment. What can we do to save mother earth? Environmental problems cannot be solved if we don’t find a better mode of human development and strengthen international cooperation and coordination. Sustainable development means “development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Tracey Strange and Anne Bayley, 2008). It is the best way to meet people’s needs while preserving the environment. Furthermore, environment protection is beyond geographic borders and every country in the world has a responsibility to take care of mother earth. Not only can a nation make efforts to protect the environment, but individuals’ contribution will also make a difference to the environment. One can simply use public transportation or cycling as alternatives to using private vehicles to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In Paris, young man and woman riding a bicycle through the streets becomes a beautiful sight. Also, multiple stage bicycle race The Tour de is held annually in France and cycling becomes a popular form of sightseeing for people in France.
Reference:
Buchmann Isidor, Battery University, http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/environmental_concerns, Accessed April 19, 2013
Strange, T. and A. Bayley (2008),Sustainable Development: Linking Economy, Society, Environment, OECD Insights, OECD Publishing.
The World Health Organization Site
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/,Accessed April 19, 2013
The United States Environmental Protection Agency Site
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html, Accessed April 19,2013