When I was a kid, my mom and a bunch of other parents in and around the neighborhood arranged a carpool system whereby each parent would drive a group of kids to school one morning and pick all of us up one afternoon each week. I never really thought much of it other than it allowed parents to go to work on time most days of the week (for those that did work). In retrospect, it was a great way to not only save time, but money as well. The amount of traffic was reduced by up to four cars for each group that carpooled. Costs were also driven down, not just gasoline, but also wear and tear on the car. For those that don’t remember the halcyon days of their youth, children can take a toll on the car itself.
With the recent uptick in collaborative consumption, more and more companies that engage in this type of consumerism have come to our attention. One of those companies is Carpooling.com. With 3.5 million registered users in 2011, they help provide transportation to roughly 1 million people each month.
Growing Up in LA
A few weeks ago I was talking with another transplant from Los Angeles who also became interested in environmental sustainability. She asked what it was that got me interested in ...
Happy Birthday, 2nd Green Revolution
It has been three years to the day since our first post at 2nd Green Revolution. From that beginning, the number of visits to the site has tripled each year, ...
52 Japanese Municipalities Now Energy Independent
Given the dearth of natural resources, new concerns over nuclear power, and a "mottainai" mentality, it seems natural that Japan should look to put in place policies and develop technologies ...
Carpooling Grows Up
The Rising Meat Consumption
A recent report from the Worldwatch Institute stated that global meat consumption is up 20% over the past 10 years. The report claims the majority of the increase is from developed nations and the expanding size of factory farms. In fact developed nations consume 80 kg (176 lbs) per person on average a year, while in developing nations the average person only consumes 32 kg (70 lbs) per person. This can cause many sustainability issues since factory farms pollute the environment and use mass amounts of resources. Factory farms use massive amounts of water, feed (grains and corn that could be used to feed the largely growing human population), antibiotics, and land space. They also pollute mass amounts. The waste that is created from factory farms is not able to be used as fertilizer since the animals are fed corn and antibiotics and the waste is basically toxic. If animals are raised in more natural or pastoral ways they may still use massive amounts of resources but their waste is usable and it is healthier for you to eat.
A few interesting tidbits from the report are:
Where the Trees Are: New Biomass Map Shows Forest Cover Across the U.S.
Calling their work “possibly the highest resolution and most detailed view of forest structure and carbon storage ever assembled for any country,” the NASA Earth Observatory has released a map that includes measurements of about five million trees. With a scale of 30 meters, 4 computer pixels represents an acre of land. As the Earth Observatory states,
The map…was built from the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD), released in 2011. It depicts the concentration of biomass—a measure of the amount of organic carbon—stored in the trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees. The darkest greens reveal the areas with the densest, tallest, and most robust forest growth. Over six years, researchers assembled the national forest map from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and a massive amount of ground-based data. They divided the country into 66 mapping zones and ended up mapping 265 million segments of the American land surface.
Game Day Challenge: College Football’s Other Season Long Competition
Last week the extended collegiate football season wrapped up with a one-sided victory by the University of Alabama over Louisiana State University. In the championship game matching two football powerhouses, there was little room for smaller schools to compete for the national championship against the proverbial “big boys”. Unlike the NCAA baskteball tourney – in which even small schools can make it to the “big dance” – schools smaller than Alabama but also with one loss were not able to challenge for the title because of the BCS system. However, there was another competition in college football that concluded last week as well in which several smaller schools came out ahead.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2011 Game Day Challenge winners were announced last week. Here are the victors in the five categories:
Secretary Chu Says EV Batteries Will Be 70% Cheaper in 3 Years
At a recent speech in Detroit - a kind of pep rally for the city and its car industry – Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu had some good news about the cost of the batteries that power electric vehicles. In addition to making inroads on new kinds of battery technology, he talked about the likely decreases in battery prices that will make EV’s more affordable for the average consumer:
While a typical battery for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with a 40-mile electric range cost $12,000 in 2008, we’re on track to demonstrate technology by 2015 that would reduce the cost to $3,600. And last year, we set a goal of demonstrating technology by 2020 that would further reduce the cost to $1,500 – an accomplishment that could help spur the mass-market adoption of electric vehicles.
In addition to talking about the future cost of batteries,
Book Review: Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania
Bottlemania marks the second book that I’ve read (and now reviewed) written by Elizabeth Royte. Much like Garbage Land, Royte’s first book I read, Bottlemania has a fluid narrative. Royte does a wonderful job of weaving the story of one town’s relationship with bottled water into a larger discussion of the resource turned commodity. In addition, Bottlemania has provided a wealth of data for past Five Friday Facts.
Much of Royte’s research comes via interviews and meetings with those involved in the bottled water industry, as well as managers of public water utilities. One recurring question that Royte deals with throughout the book centers on tap vs. bottled water. On the whole, she provides a balanced critique of both players. The social and environmental impacts of bottled water – along with the expense and lack of strictly enforced regulation – paint a rather unsavory picture. However, tap water, which is regulated by the EPA, also received the microscope treatment. Deadly outbreaks and an aging infrastructure were the two greatest issues that surfaced when looking into municipal supplies.
Throughout the book, Royte returns to the town of Freyburg, Maine. In their battle against Poland Spring, the town and it’s citizens have gone to great lengths to preserve their water. This microcosm serves as a powerful indicator of the clash between corporations and municipalities. In the case of Freyburg,
My Issue with Keurig Coffee Cups
The new rage is K-cups, also known as Keurig individual cups of coffee. Not only do these individual coffee cups have individual packaging that is not recyclable, it also has its own coffee maker that you have to purchase in order to use the K-cups. The idea of these coffee cups bothers me, deep down to my hippie core. Is it really that complicated to make an individual cup of coffee, especially when there are small 4 cup coffee makers and individual french presses?I decided to take a look into the Keurig company and see what they have to say about their glaring sustainability issue. They claim on their website that, “all companies have sustainability issues.” This may be true but not all companies have products that are so unsustainable. They also claim they are diligently working on making recyclable K-cups in order to be more sustainable. Even if they do make recyclable cups, they have to make their consumers recycle the cups, which is an issue in itself.
They also claim, “it’s a challenge to create a K-Cup® portion pack that is recyclable and delivers an extraordinary cup of coffee.” Sustainability is always the last priority, but this is why we have so many environmental, economic, and social issues currently. By not thinking of sustainability with initial development we end up paying the price in the end, or the environment (or our children) pays the price.
Not Your Average Bus Trip: How “Green” is that Green Bus? Part 5 (Final)
This is the final installment of the green bus series. Read all five parts here.
Standing as one of the most memorable and defining experiences of my life, the adventures of our green bus brought us back to Tahoe, right where we had started. From Hannibal, Missouri we continued to make a giant loop around the country, circling down South from Chicago through Ashville, North Carolina, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and all the way down across the northern part of Florida and through New Orleans, Austin, and Carlsbad for some cave exploration in New Mexico. In addition to meeting countless incredible people along the way and receiving numerous notes on our bus with excitement of what we were doing, some notable experiences included: attending Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, Outside Lands in San Francisco, and Burning Man in Nevada, cleaning up an oil spill caused by burning a hole in our 50-gallon collection drum, being gifted by a stranger in Charleston a brand new Gasboy Model 60 pump when ours died, and someone donating a full tank of biodiesel to help us finish the last leg of our trip north from Los Angeles, when our filters were giving out.
All in all, we estimated to have traveled roughly 12,000 miles and recycled nearly 1,300 gallons of waste vegetable oil over the course of our summer. The knowledge gained during this trip, through pure experience, is indescribable. I walked away with a new perspective on people, on myself, and most importantly, on the entire controversy of biofuel. I realized that making a “green footprint” was much more complex than it seemed,
