We stopped for a few minutes by a gliding club. Gliders are quite fascinating machines. They're probably the most efficient powered vehicles in existence, as they can stay in the air for hours after just a few seconds of towing (which could be electric but never is IME).

We hear a lot of hype about electric flying and drones, but almost none about the potential of gliders, which could be flown by robots and used to make air deliveries with far lower emissions than drones. People just seem to like motors.

There is a problem with recycling of glassfibre, but it's often overstated.

For instance my velomobile has something like 10 kg of glass and epoxy and I've used this to travel nearly 70000 km without any emissions at all. At the end of its life even if it can't be recycled it's a very inert lump unlikely to do any further harm.

On the other hand, if I'd used any motorised vehicle to cover that distance it would contain more difficult to recycle material at the end of its life and would also have generated vast emissions which would be spread around in the atmosphere for us all to breath in and which will contribute to climate change for hundreds of years to come.

So the bike wins easily, whatever it's made of.
@twilwel #glassfibre #gliding #glider #windturbine #velomobile