Shadowing Practice: Can cycling reduce global warming? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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We all know that bikes are good for our planet, right?
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But how good are they really?
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In order to better understand this topic, I'm going to explain what is a carbon footprint.
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You see, a carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide
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and methane that are generated by our actions.
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Globally, the average yearly carbon footprint per person is around 4 tons, though in United States is closer to 16 tons.
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That's quite a lot.
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To have the best chance of avoiding a 2 degrees celsius rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop under 2 tons by 2050.
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But transport emissions aren't falling fast enough, which is why I wanted to see if using a bike could help us.
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So, you may think that cycling does not have any emissions or just a few from manufacturing.
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However, the real emissions will be shown and compared against other types of transport.
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We all know that most of the bikes are made from some kind of metal, right?
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Carbon emissions may differ from the types of metal you are using, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll take the steel bike that weighs around 20 kg.
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To manufacture that bike, 96 kg of CO2 is released into the air.
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That's this not the end though.
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We need to consider all of the calories you burned
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which need to be brought back by food unless you're on a diet.
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For better understanding, imagine Bob.
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He weighs around 70 kg and he's cycling a 30-speed at 16 km per hour.
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He is burning 11 kcal per km more while cycling than if he was laying around.
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This number might seem small though, but if Bob cycles for 1 hour every day, he burns around 1200 extra calories per week.
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He gets that energy back by consuming two extra burgers.
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In order to produce those two burgers, some of CO2 gets released into the air, mainly by food production and transport.
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If we add 96 kg of bike manufacturing emissions,
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average of 1.5 g per calorie in food emissions and that average lifespan of a bike is 90,000 km,
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cycling releases about 21 grams of CO2 each kilometer.
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Uhhh...
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And of course you need to talk about e-bikes.
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We know that manufacturing k-bikes releases more CO2 in the air, right?
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But less calories are burned, so carbon footprint is quite smaller.
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Look, emissions fall to 15 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
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Results may differ depending on the source of electricity, but I was still very surprised about that.
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With that said, buying an e-bike still defeats the purpose of a bike, You won't get nicer legs and you may become fat.
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But the ultimate green way of transport should be walking, right?
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Well, not really.
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Because walking is less efficient, more calories are being burned.
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All things consider that walking releases 56 grams of CO2, about twice as much as cycling.
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Despite that, walking is still very healthy and certainly a lot better than a car.
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You see, they may be useful, but cars are big polluters.
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Internal combustion cars are very inefficient, especially when useful for journeys.
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Everything is a lot more polluting, from manufacturing, driving and later recycling.
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Look, carbon footprint of an average car is around 200 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
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That adds up to be 11 times more than a regular bike.
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That is not even mentioning the room that needs to be made for car infrastructure.
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are cutting down forests in order to build more roads and parking spaces, right?
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Hundreds of tons of CO2 are released out of those processes.
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Roads also require maintenance, which is even more polluting and costly.
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On the other hand, bicycle lanes are much smaller and require a lot less maintenance.
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Look, that's why electric cars won't fix anything.
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They still waste space and destroy roads.
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Yes, they have carbon footprint of 90 grams of CO2 per kilometer, which is a lot smaller than a regular car, but they aren't the right solution.
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Last, but not least, let's take a look at the bus.
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Lots of people are being carried, and their lifespan is quite long.
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However, they suffer from high fuel consumption, making their carbon footprint around 100 grams of CO2 per kilometer, slightly more than an e-car.
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As we saw, cycling really is the eco-friendliest way of transport, right?
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If we only used bikes, what would be the impact on the environment?
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In 1940s British cycled 6 times more than in 2020s.
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If they would cycle today as much as in 40s, carbon emissions would be reduced for 7.7 million tons of CO2 per year.
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That is equivalent to 13 million flights from London to New York.
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That is not even considering other countries.
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Look, if we replaced most of the short trips with bike everywhere, carbon emissions would be lower significantly.
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Let's not forget that noise pollution is also a problem which bikes would be able to solve.
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To conclude, cycling is the cleanest mode of transport, right?
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They also offer tons of other benefits such as stress reduction, better health and affordability.
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If you are more interested in this topic, make sure to check out the links in the description.
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Thank you guys so much for watching and remember that even small actions can have a big impact.
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Perfect.
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About This Lesson
You're practicing English with "Can cycling reduce global warming?" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.
Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.