Before the Second World War, everyone everywhere rode their bicycles—and then with the dawn of the 1950s the automobile killed the cycling culture. In the 1960s Copenhagen was very polluted and crowded with cars. It took the city planners and politicians a long time to reclaim (恢复) the streets of Copenhagen. 【小题1】

Rush hour in Copenhagen is when 45% of the population travel by bicycle to their places of work or study each day. 【小题2】 It looks very different there than in my home country of Canada—where there is a very low percentage of the population who ride bicycles.

The environmental concern is a minor part of what encourages people to cycle in Copenhagen. 【小题3】 Is there a linkage to cycling and why Copenhagen is often ranked the happiest city on the planet?

The Danish don’t have big monuments, they have Hans Christian Andersen’s “Little Mermaid (美人鱼),” which is life-size. This captures the spirit of the city; laid back, practical and responsible. Their monuments are big wind turbines (发电机).

【小题4】 There are many other renewable energies. We just need to look around mother nature’s playground.

Trees bring rain. When they sway in the wind, they purify the air. 【小题5】 When the leaves drop to the ground, they help the soil become fertile but hold their shape for a long time—no matter how hard it rains. When you cut down trees for building, for farming, the land and rivers dry up. The springs as God made them are gone, as is every living thing found that requires water to survive.