Also, the world is dying, so just bike anyway.
Earlier this month, the Dutch government launched a campaign, urging its citizens to turn down their heating in order to help decrease Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas for the obvious reason that in Europe you are indirectly funding a country that invaded one of your neighbors.
Now, the European Union is going further, promoting a nine-part plan drawn up with the International Energy Agency, which is supposed to save a typical household roughly €450 ($486) a year.
Frankly, this fine institution say nothing new, pointing out once again that we can save energy by driving less at a slower pace, walking and cycling more, as well as by using public transport, turning down air conditioning and working from home instead of the office. They also say we should take trains instead of planes, yet don’t even get me started on the state of international rail services in most of Europe.
Well ahead of the EU guidelines, Dutch goverment buildings have been operating at 19 degrees Celsius (66.2 °F) instead of the usual 21 °C (69,8 °F) since April 2. According to Reuters, 40% of the Netherlands’ energy is sourced from gas, 45% of which went to electricity generation, 28% used for heating and 21% for industrial consumption in 2020. Roughly 15% of that natural gas came from Russia, while the European Union’s average shows an even higher ratio. To counter that, the European Commission announced the EU will reduce its imports of Russian gas by one-third this year alone, mainly by increasing liquified natural gas supply from the United States and Qatar. However, accelerating the EU’s Green Deal, investing heavily in renewables as well as in nuclear power once again is far from being an overnight job.
At a personal level, there are multiple ways one can help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian madness. One is to make Russian energy obsolete in the western world, all while cutting global emissions and getting into a better shape. And in case you are looking for some extra oomph, let us show you how great eBikes have become.
If bikelanes taught us anything, it’s that there’s no real reason to spend your time stuck in urban traffic anymore.
