Bogotá's March for the Climate

Anti-climate change marchers on the Ciclovia today.

Bogotanos participated in the global 'March for the Climate' today, supposed to combat global warming. Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro has made fighting climate change a centerpiece of his discourse - but not of his policies, unfortunately.

Petro has implemented some limited pro-cycling policies, but under his watch the number of private cars - and particularly motorcycles - has boomed. That's not exactly Petro's fault, but he has not advanced policies, such as a vehicle congestion charge or real solid waste reduction laws, which could reduce the city's global warming gas production.

'Help the planet? Don't eat meat!'

That said, Bogotá and Colombia in general still do produce relatively small amounts of global warming gases per capita. That's because Colombia's a developing nation in which car ownership is still lower than its neighbors and because almost all the country's electricity is generated by hydropower.

However, car ownership is growing fast, the country is losing it forests at a dramatic rate and it's a significant and growing exporter of hydrocarbons, particularly coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. And Colombia recently approved the use of fracking, meaning it hopes to accelerate still more its fossil fuel production.

As in Colombia, climate change gases are booming across the developing world. According to a report released today, the planet set a new record in greenhouse gas emissions, driven particularly by China and the United States.

Consciousness-raising marches may be a good first step. But it'll take real lifestyle changes for the planet's wealthy if we want to halt climate change before it becomes too late.

Communist marchers denounce capitalism as the cause of environmental destruction. That's true enough, but communism, which can brought us Chernobyl and other disasters, didn't do any better.

Greenpeace - despite its idealism - or because of it - opposes nuclear energy, which is the only low-carbon energy source that can realistically replace fossil fuels in the medium term.

Factories 'Guilty of Causing Sicknesses.'

'Protect Our Wetlands.'

Soon after passing the climate change march, I spotted this pollution-belching bus, a half-block from the Ministry of the Environment.  

While global warming gases and traditional air pollution are different things, 'rolling chimneys' like this one are an indication of the government's lack of seriousness in environmental matters.

The city government has permitted projects like this one, a private university's massive parking garage being built on Bogotá's hills. 

Projects like this one contribute to climate change (and damage quality of life) in multiple ways, by promoting private car use and deforesting the hillside.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Orlando's Anti-Gun Campaign

Orlando on his protest bicycle on La Ciclovia with placards blaming the U.S. for gun killings.

Orlando, who carries out a daily campain for Cuba and against the U.S. and Colombian governments, has a new cause: Gun control.

I greatly admire Orlando's willingness to take stands on issues, altho I disagree with his unquestioning admiration of Cuba, the Americas' last dictatorship. But I heartily applaud his condemnation of an armed society like that of the U.S. His sign today claims that "65% of the world's murders are committed with weapons made in the United States." Orlando's sign also refers to the recent massacre of 20 schoolchildren and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut, carried out by a man with an semiautomatic rifle appropriate for a battlefield but absurd for hunting or home defense.

I'm not sure about Orlando's statistics. But the U.S. does produce a huge number of weapons, and it's plain that lots of weapons from the U.S. (including ones first imported to the U.S.) get smuggled across its borders into Latin America, including Mexico and Colombia, where they escalate murder and mayhem.

I don't pollute the environment, do you?

The U.S.'s deadly gun policies are the world's business because of its blocking the United Nation's arms treaty - altho that may change now. The U.S.'s National Rifle Association has ordered its puppet legislators to oppose the U.N. treaty even tho it would have absolutely no impact on domestic gun rights. But the NRA long ago abandoned its origins as a defender of hunters and now defends the interests of hugely wealthy gun manufacturers, which want carte blanche to hawk deadly, powerful and expensive firepower all over the globe.

In the wake of the massacres at Newtown and so many other U.S. locales, Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro's decision to suspend gun carry rights looks better and better. That's not necesarrily because of the lack of school massacres in Bogotá, but because the city's homicide rate has dropped. As horrible as they are, these mass killings constitute only a small percentage of gun murders. Most gun victims are killed one or two at a time, in gang disputes, suicides, by drunken, jealous husbands and in robberies gone awry.

Orlando's anti-gun cause is just, altho his defense of Cuba's dictatorship, which has banned guns, does the gun control cause no favors. But those who warn that 'guns are the key to our liberties,' should look at the world's many, many free and democratic nations, including Australia, the U.K. and Japan, which restrict gun possession. Guns do not guarantte liberty. Citizen activism, including Orlando's, is the foundation of liberty.

 By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Pooches Protest

Nothing but a hound dog? 'Grupo Basset Hound'

To the barricades!

During today's Ciclovia, these basset hounds marched down Ave. Septima demanded their right to be recognized as basset hounds.


Apparently, whoever decides these things in Colombia, doesn't recognize the basset hound as a breed, which has generated a full on identity crisis for these poor pooches.

The funny thing about this protest march was its police escort - but whether to protect the pooches or protect the rest of us from these beasts, I don't know.

And as far as I'm concerned, they're nothin' but hound dogs.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Four Legs on Two Wheels On La Ciclovia

I couldn't help posting this picture I took on today's Ciclovia of this four-legged cyclist.

Usually, of course, it's the person who's on two wheels, with the canine companion running alongside.

Perhaps this is a case of dog-walks-man.

This kid also had it good, thanks to hard-trotting parents. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Scenes Along La Ciclovia

A girl and her dog on La Ciclovia. 

Bogotá's world-famous Ciclovia, during which hundreds of kilometers of streets are shut to cars every Sunday and holiday, has enjoyed sunny weather during the past several weeks. The Ciclovia is a celebration of cycling and other sports, but it's also many more things, including the world's longest street party, a place to see and be seen, a vendors' paradise and a place for art and politics. 

And it's not just for cyclists. La Ciclovia's also for walkers, skaters, wheelchair users and joggers. 

Celebrating La Ciclovia. 

Enough! On Seventh Ave. across from the Plaza de Toros, anti-bullfighting activists have hung signs condemning the practice. 

This guy found a new load for his cargo bike - his two kids. 

Not all Ciclovia users are casual cyclists, as these competitive types show. 

TransMilenio construction work is going on along much of Seventh Ave. in central Bogotá. The work is way behind schedule. 

This woman pedaled a vending cycle. 

Disabled racing tricyclists. 

This kid was driving a loud, gasoline-powered scooter - which should be prohibited on La Ciclovia. 

A girl steps off of her scooter to look at the Presidential Palace. 

Guinea pigs line up to race near San Francisco Church. 

Hockey on skates in the National Park. 

Kids on new bikes. 

Lorenzo the vicuña in Plaza San Victorino. 

Crossing Seventh Ave.'s bridge over 26th St. The bridge is to be demolished and replaced. Where will La Ciclovia go?

Orlando, a regular on La Ciclovia, celebrates Cuba's revolution and denounces the Colombian and U.S. governments. 

La Ciclovia is also a huge sales floor. Here, a man selling plums from a cart. 

It's also a political platform. Someone set up this photo display about human rights issues. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Ciclovía Trims Bogotá's Budget and its Waistline

Cyclovia riders on Bogotá's Seventh Ave. 

Bogotá's Sunday/holiday Ciclovía has gained worldwide fame and been imitated in cities across the Americas - altho never as ambitiously as in Bogotá.

But here at home La Ciclovia is sometimes criticized and even ridiculed as an expensive, frivolous event which - God forbid! - inconveniences car drivers.

Aerobics in the National Park. Part of La Ciclovía's
accompanying Recrovia program. 

But a study recently published in the Journal of Urban Health found that Ciclovia-type events are not only good for the health, but are good business, too.

The study looked at the 'Ciclovias' in Bogotá, Medellin, Guadalara, Mexico and San Francisco, California and compared the costs of the events to the savings in health care expenses they produced. All four events saved money, ranging from about a 20% return in the case of Guadalajara to a return of between 323 and 426 percent in the case of Bogotá.

And those payback numbers don't include things like economic productivity, since a healthy happy person is generally a more productive worker, who misses fewer days and has fewer health care expenses.

Kids on new Christmas bikes. 

Of course, economics isn't the best reason for holding Ciclovias. They're fun and improve quality of life, particularly for lower-income people, who could never afford a gym membership.

So, even tho economics should be secondary for such a wonderful activity, the fact that Bogotá's famous Ciclovia also makes good business sense provides yet another justification when the auto-addicts insist that 'frivolous activities' such as cycling, skating and walking should give way to important ones, which generally involve sedentarism, fossil fuel burning and pollution.

Comparative weekly costs of various physical activity programs.
Bogotá's Ciclovia, the least expensive, is on the far left. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours