Biking/Bus, etc

Hi Everyone-

Christophe and I got together for a meeting last Monday. We had a great discussion on a variety of topics; I have summarized our discussion below.

As far as the next meeting is concerned, I’d like to get some feedback from the group. I know some of you have a conflict with Monday. By no means am I married to Monday. Let me know what days are good for y’all, and I will try to accommodate as many people as possible.

Biking around Baton Rouge:

Christophe rode his bike to the meeting; I drove. I drove on back roads that are really bike friendly and averaged 15mph. When you compare that with Christophe’s cruising speed of ~12mph on a bike, the car doesn’t always get you there as fast as you think!

Christophe pushed his bike boundaries the other day and realized that BR isn’t as unfriendly to bikes as people think. He rode from our office in the Bon Carre business center (old Bon Marche mall) all the way to Jefferson near Essen. He rode the whole way on sidewalks, never encountered a pedestrian, and got there faster than when he drove. I can tell you from experience that it’s a great feeling to pedal past cars that are stopped in traffic (especially in the gridlock after an LSU game!). There are so few pedestrians in BR that the sidewalks can really function well as bike paths; no need to wait for infrastructure improvements.

It’s unfortunate that BR is so spread out, but for a lot of us it is possible to get to our jobs or at least the store/gym. A great website that really motivated me to start riding is the “2mile challenge” put on by clif bar. Enter your home address and it generates a 2 mile radius. A 2 mile ride takes about 10min.

http://www.2milechallenge.com/map.php

As far as heat is concerned, my fellow riders and I have been pleasantly surprised. Even riding home 2.5miles one way at noon for lunch doesn’t bring out the dripping sweat. As long as you take it easy while you are pedaling, you arrive at your destination a little misty, but that is it. Not bad at all.

Climate Change/ the Environment:

As usual, we ended up talking about climate change. For the record, Christophe and I both think global warming is real. One point that we totally agreed on is this: if people are 99% convinced for whatever reason that global warming is a hoax propagated by “liberal, tree-hugging, environmental wackos” (I can say that because I am one!), the 1% of doubt should be enough to make them do whatever they can to stop a global catastrophe. The risk of inaction is too great if the “wackos” turn out to be right.

An argument that I hear a lot is that the world is too big for man to make irreparable changes to the planet. Christophe brought up a good point. He talked about the nearly immediate fallout from the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia. The effects were felt across all of Europe in a matter of days. If that isn’t man changing the environment, I don’t know what is.

Home Energy Use:

In my entergy bill this month, they had an interesting insert that had a breakdown of where the energy goes in an average home. The big ones are heating and air conditioning which total 55% and water heating which comes in at 20%. That is 75% that is purely for comfort (as much as I hate to admit it). I’m going to seriously look into solar water heating; I’ll let you know what I find.

Two weekends ago I finally set up a clothesline in the backyard. Unfortunately, I haven’t used it quite yet; every time I am ready to hang up some clothes it is either raining or night time. At least I am making progress! I miss the smell and feel of clothes dried on the line. It’s the best.

Making Changes:

One thing we talked about is why people don’t make changes to their lifestyle. One big thing is that people are so distracted by television, sports, music, work, errands, etc., that they don’t have time to think or evaluate alternatives. At the same time, alternative lifestyles or just life choices are not always packaged in a way that makes them come across as fun. Biking to work is fun. Growing some food in a garden is fun. Going to the farmers’ market is fun. We need to find a way to make the average American realize this.

Buses:

Good ole Christophe has started to explore the city bus service. You can ride all you want for $2/day on weekends. Not bad. To put your bike on the bus, you need to get a free permit at the CATS office.

Also, there is a bus that goes from BR to New Orleans called the LA Swift and costs $10 roundtrip. Christophe and another friend Patrick have both used this bus and have been very pleased. Pat actually stowed his bike in the luggage compartment of the bus then rode around New Orleans. Here is the link for LA swift:

http://www.laswift.com/

Take care-

Jeff

No Spend Month blog

I found this challenge- No Spend Month. Read all about it:
http://smallnotebook.org/2008/07/01/july-is-no-spend-month-whats-it-about/

More made in USA items

I found cute jeans at Vertigo clothing store on Lee Drive. They are called JUST USA. They are cute & reasonably priced. Vertigo & Macy's (surprisingly) have several items made in the USA so check them out if you are interested. I believe it is important to support American designers and companies.

Simple Living to the extreme!

This is an article that Chris found about a guy who is trying to only own 100 things. I guess we all can take baby steps to only use what we need.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html

Next Meeting June 23rd/ Notes from last meeting

Hi Everyone-

I hope you are having a nice summer! We had a good meeting last Monday. Joe, Christophe, and I got together and talked about a few things. We set the next meeting date for 23 June since Christophe and I are both going to be out of town for work on the 16th. I hope the 23rd is good for some of you. After you get a chance to look at your calendars, please let me know if you are in our out for that date. If only a few people can make it, we could change the date/time to accommodate more people or the venue to better accommodate a small group.

In the meeting, we first talked about some of the forecasts for faster than previously thought climate change. For example, some model predictions from the US Navy Post-graduate school say that the arctic could be ice free in the summer by as early as 2012. That is scary soon. We talked about how because there are doubts that humans could be responsible for altering the climate, it is false until proven true. With this cultural mindset of false until proven true, we continue to do nothing. This is definitely not the safe play when the entire planet hangs in the balance.

We also talked about how the climate change "debate" is somewhat of a distraction to tangible, undeniable human induced catastrophes; examples include deforestation, vacuuming the oceans (Christophe told us how the fishing town in his ancestral home in Portugal struggles more and more to catch fish and how fish that used to be "trash fish" are now prized as a delicacy due to shortages), spraying our crops with ever more potent toxins,...A good article that talks about some of the psychology of this denial is attached. The title is a little avant-garde, but the article is very good. Here is my favorite line: “The fact is that if climate change were caused by gay sex, or by the practice of eating kittens, millions of protesters would be massing in the streets.” A link to the article is as follows if the attachment doesn’t work:

http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/blog/200607.html

After getting thoroughly worked up and a bit depressed, Joe provided some stress relief tips from an article that got passed around his office. The link to the article is below. There are definitely some good ones in there. We needed to put a few of these into action immediately!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/05/15/destress.parenting/index.html

Another topic was scheduling free time. This almost seems like an oxymoron, but in our hyper-scheduled world sometimes we need to do this. When I think back to my childhood, some of the fondest memories are of playing in the vacant lot next door with a friend. No x-box, no cell phone, no baseball practice. Now, some of the best times with my own family are lazy Saturday mornings where we make pancakes, stay in our pj's until noon, and water the tomatoes.

My mom is reading a great book that is called Last Child in the Woods. I haven’t read it yet, but she is fired up about it. It talks about the disconnect between children and the natural world. Here is the link on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/1565123913

Take care,

Jeff

Next meeting Monday June 2 at 6pm / Update from last meeting

Next Meeting:

I will be out for the rest of May, as will Chris. How does June 2^nd sound for the next meeting?

Interesting Articles

This is a really good website and magazine.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/

Some of the articles that I found particularly interesting are:

The Gospel of Consumption: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2962

This article talks about the engineered rise of consumerism. An interesting section talks about how Kellogg gave workers the option of a 6hr workday; the majority took it in return for less pay and more time with family/community. This could happen now if the entire economy were not based on consumption.

Snap into Action for the Climate: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2956

Wow. This article presents some information on climate change that you don’t hear much about in the mainstream media. The main message is that the major government models predicting climatic events such as melting of the summer disappearance of arctic ice are probably very conservative. A study put out by the US Navy Postgraduate School suggests that the Arctic may be ice free by as early as 2013 due to some unfavorable feedback loops. That is 5yrs away. This would have a major impact on the earth. Scary stuff.

Jeff

Sandals Made in USA

I found some sandals made in the USA. They have a great website: http://www.okabashi.com/environment.
I found them in the garden section of Target. They are cute & comfy.