| A group of parents ride with dozens of elementary schoolchildren to their school in San Francisco in an organized "bike bus." (Amy Osborne for The Washington Post) | | Welcome. This week, DVD-size hail and Vermont tells oil companies to pay up. But first, let's hop on the "bike bus." |  | | One crisp morning this March, I pedaled a journey that was once common but is now exceedingly rare in America: the bike ride to school. Arriving in San Francisco's Mission District at 7:30 a.m., I expected to see a bunch of groggy children. Instead, the atmosphere was more like a festival. Kids sported fluorescent bike helmets with mohawks. Girls zoomed around their parents in princess costumes. One mom distributed doughnut holes to waiting children. Every few minutes, more cargo bikes arrived ferrying very young children while older siblings cruised alongside. Then the music turned on. Someone started a bubble machine. Finally, a cry went up, and our impromptu caravan began rolling down one of San Francisco's leafy residential streets. This is a bike bus: a convoy of parents and children who ride to school, picking up kids along the way. While the concept has existed for years, a "bicibus" in Barcelona popularized the idea where it spread like wildfire through videos on social media in 2021. Thousands of parents (and kids) eager to step away from their vehicles have jumped on board. For the first time in decades, a small but critical mass of children are riding their bikes safely to school again. During the 1960s, 42 percent of schoolchildren walked or biked to class. Today, the share has fallen to roughly 11 percent, only 1 percent of whom bike, according to Federal Highway Administration data. More than half of kids now get to school by car, up from 16 percent in 1969. |  | | The bike bus offers children a different route, says Sam Balto, a physical education teacher in Portland, Ore. He argues that America's preconceptions of children — glued to their devices and reluctant to venture outdoors — are all wrong. "You give kids an opportunity to be outside and be with their friends, no matter what the weather is, they want to do that," says Balto, who co-founded Bike Bus World, an advocacy group to help spread the practice. "We just have to create opportunities." Transportation researchers estimate more than 470 bike buses are active around the world along routes anywhere from three blocks to three miles, including several in San Francisco. I joined one to see how they roll. Click the button below to read the full column. How do you get to school without a car? Tell me your stories at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  | Field Sample "Unbearable" heat in New Delhi is testing the limits of human survival, report The Post's Karishma Mehrotra and Dan Stillman. Fueled in part by pollution overheating the planet, temperatures reached 122 degrees (50 degrees Celsius) in India's capital territory. Heat waves have also roasted parts of the Middle East, Mexico and Florida in May. | | A woman gives a cold drink to her daughter amid "unbearable" heat in India. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) | | The temperatures are particularly dangerous because of the humidity. Wet-bulb globe temperature — a heat stress index that includes temperature, humidity and wind — entered the potentially lethal territory of 97 degrees to 100 degrees last Tuesday. That's well above the 89.6 degrees wet-bulb temperatures researchers says can kill with long exposures because the body begins losing its ability to shed heat by sweating. In India, workers have stopped working during the heat of the day — but many are desperate for wages, and may resume despite the risk. "It creates a massive loss for me," says Amit Sah, a labor contractor in east Delhi. "But the past three days have been unbearable. It feels like we are on fire outside. Our mouths run dry for water. We are sweating nonstop." |  | The Second Degree After my column on getting rid of junk mail, many of you wrote to say how much you hate it, especially when it comes from environmental groups. "It is amazing how much of the 'junk mail' I receive is from groups who are concerned about the environment, sustainability and animal preservation," wrote Cheryl. Sierra Club be warned. And I will need to build a library to house all your recommendations about Climate 101 books everyone should read. I was surprised by the diversity: There were crowd favorites by Katharine Hayhoe, Hannah Ritchie and Bill Gates, but many more sleeper hits such as "I Want A Better Catastrophe" by Andrew Boyd and "The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery. I'll be reading and sharing these in a future column. Thank you! |  |  | | Miska is sharing the spotlight this week with Pauline's 9-pound toy poodle Lily in Tucson, who loves celery. "I eat it a lot so she thought it must be good and she started wanting it too," she writes. Dogs, like humans, are omnivores, according to the scientists and nutritionists writing for the National Academy of Sciences, who recommend normal adult dogs get at least 10 percent of their total calories from protein whether it comes from plant or animal sources. Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday. See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | |
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