Bike Lanes; Why They Are Important.

Have you ever tried to ride your bike on a busy road, only to find that the traffic is taking the whole space up? Yes, this has probably happened to all of us, even the experienced bikers. Do you really think that this is fair for the people with bikes? No. Of course not. The way that people cut off bikers and pedestrians is not safe, or fair. Next time you are driving, look at the road. Do you see any areas dedicated to bicycles?

If you do, then this is a very good example of what should be done in more places. If you don't then the city must not know how important the safety of the pedestrians is. Here are some questions you can ask your self before you go riding.

1. Do you know the proper place to be riding on a busy road?

2. Do you know the proper hand signals to use to indicate you are turning left, right, etc. ?

3. Do you have the proper safety equipment on your bike for riding at night?

If you make sure you have and know all of this, then you are now ready to ride. Bike lanes are important. I, myself, live in a city that has very few bike lanes. People have even petitioned against the Idea. These people must have good reasons for doing this, but they must also grasp that safety is an issue as well. Our city needs to take the ideas at hand and use them. Other people need to take the lead, even though they may bee standing alone. We need to show the people who don't want bike lanes that they are important, even if they don't look good. ( I think they look great.) If we want safety for ourselves and for others, we need to try and make it so that it is possible.

Green Tips.

Ok. For every one reading this thread, here are some GREEN tips for you to try at home

1. Try reminding your children about turning off the lights before they leave a room. This will save you money, and cut down on the energy demand.

2. Did you know that if your tap is dripping, you can lose litres of water a day? Try to watch for any leaks in taps, and if you find one, get a plumber to fix it up for you. You will be saving money and our drinking water.

3. If you are using a cord-less phone in your house, try rethinking that idea. Cord-less phones require an electrical current to keep them running. Cord phones will stay up during a bad storm, unless the telephone lines are down. If you switch to cord telephones, you wont spend as much money on the electrical bills.

4. Try to buy your produce as locally as you can. If you support your local shops and farmers, you will not have to spend as much money on shipping in produce from other countries. You can go online to find sites such as FreeCycle to get other's furniture that they don't want and get it for free. If you have things you don't need, you can give them away for free. Most of all, try to recycle and buy locally.

5. And last, but not least, the lesson we are trying to send, try to ride your bikes, or walk more often. This will reduce the need for cars, which will bring gas prices down, and it will give you more exercise.

If you try to stick to these GREEN tips, you will make a big difference in how we treat our world today.

One more thing. Remember to RECYCLE!

-Ollie. PEACE!

What is Being Done to Help Reduce Urban Sprawl?

Almost all of us know what urban sprawl is, but what is humanity doing to help prevent it?

What is Being Done Now: Today, some land owners are giving their land to create land preserves or small parcels of land for farms. Plans have been put in place to help fill in the blanks. This means that we will soon be moving up. If these plans follow through, that means we will have more room to build the things we need to survive. If we can create ways to build up, we will save space that is important to use for other uses. More plans should be put in place to help conserve room on our earth.

What Should Be Done in the Future: Transportation is a major issue with urban sprawl. We will always need transportation to get around. Whether it is cars, bikes, trains, planes, or just your feet, we will always have some where to go. The increasing need for cars is increasing the need for more fossil fuels. Hopefully in the future, electric transportation like cable cars, electric buses, and magnetic transportation will be put in place instead of the gas guzzling cars. Hopefully, nature preserves and urban gardens will be put into action too.

Who Is Affected By Urban Sprawl?

Who is affected by urban sprawl? Farmers, loggers, or developers? All are affected, but the farmers are losing the most. The land that is used to build the developments has been used to farm for a long time. All the land on this earth used to be a forest, but now the forests are being destroyed. Think of how much we could gain from building up instead of out. The land shouldn't be wasted on building mega- suburbia! Loggers should, instead of clear cutting, cut down selected trees. Developers should build apartments, or high-rises. At least give the houses that are in mega- suburbia! should have some individuality. The suburbs can be changed into many apartments, or places where more than one family can live. If we can grow up, then it will change how many people we can keep in our neighbour hoods, and it will broaden our diversity in friends. If we learn to do this, we can have more people living in our lives.

First of All, What is Urban Sprawl?

Urban Sprawl. It affects everyone. You can see it when you walk past new developments, or even in your neibourhood. Many people ask if Urban Sprawl really affects us. Urban sprawl may be growth, but its growth in the wrong places. Its actually a chain reaction. Urban Sprawling takes up land that could be used as farmland. If it takes up farmland that was already there, then it could stunt the flow of growth to our cities and towns. Without these resources, we lose important resources we need to survive. We also use land that is important to the enviroment. In this land, many species of plants and animals will drop dramaticly. The cause? Urban Sprawl. We need to rember that we could be filling the spaces in the communities that are already developed. We could be building up instead of out. We need to think about how much this growth will affect our selves, our homes and our world. Once our earth is used up, we wont have a planet to sustain our rapidly progressing race. Once we kill our earth, what are we going to do? We should always keep that thought in mind, because who knows when we will need to find a way out of a tight space.

Welcome to Concrete Earths homepage!

Hello, and thank you for coming to our blog. This blog will be dedicated to informing the public about one of the largest environmental issues happening right now. We will be posting information about our cause about twice a week. If you have any information you would like to share with us, or happenings in the issue we are covering, please leave a comment! We are open to any thoughts or ideas shared with us. Please tune in for information on the earth. We are open to any ideas or friendly criticism. Thank you!

- Ollie and Han Han