Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-The Demise of the Car
-Yep, High Speed Rail Will Slash Emissions
-Citizen Crosswalks in Paris [video]
-California Cyclists Are About to Get Three Feet of Breathing Room
-With Funding Tight, Cities are Turning to Green Infrastructure
At this writing, the Tres Hombres schooner-brig is just reaching the Netherlands, on its way back from Copenhagen.
This we are sure of: as petroleum dependence continues to wreak havoc on our Earth’s sensitive environment, and the energy alternatives do not comprise an immediate solution, sail power emerges as the most viable energy source for trade and travel.
Batteries fail—as certainly as death and taxes. Rechargeable batteries at least offer the possibility of repeating the cycle, so are in this sense more like recurrent taxes than death. But alas, the story cannot repeat indefinitely… Add to their inevitable demise an overall lackluster performance in battery storage technology, and we have ourselves the makings of a blog post on the failure of batteries to live up to their promises.
Most people living in our modern industrial society take air travel for granted. We think very little about hopping on a plane and travelling around the world for little more than a couple of weeks wages. As jet fuel prices bounce along with the price of crude however many airlines are increasingly struggling to break even. Fuel prices now account for 35 percent of operating costs compared to 15 percent a decade ago. The future of the global aviation industry is in big trouble.
You can glimpse the future right now in forward-looking American cities—a few blocks here, a mile there, where people riding bicycles are protected from rushing cars and trucks.
-How green are electric trains?
-Baby You Can Drive My Car
-The $9 Cardboard Bike From Israel
Going for a drive along a nearby street isn’t my usual idea of a good conversation starter or a way to get to know someone, but it was all for a good cause, so I gave it a try—and ended up seeing the internal workings of my main street for the first time.
Hoyle Hodges founded the new Olympia Schooner Company in the Puget Sound. This year it has instituted delivery of fresh produce as part of a business plan to at least break even with sailing cargo and eventually passengers. The company began as the Mosquito Fleet Sustainable Shipping project at Evergreen State College where Hoyle studied. When we saw his video here at Sail Transport Network central in June, we were inspired to learn more. Here’s the interview we conducted…
-California’s high-speed rail as an energy lifeline
-DIY speed bumps: Traffic control for neighborhoods
-NYC’s Hottest Commercial Districts Are Awash in Livable Streets
-Confirmed: Fracking can pollute [report]
-Shale gas drilling declines in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus region
-Drilling trucks have caused an estimated $2 billion in damage to Texas roads
My new job is a little more than five miles from home, and I’ve started biking regularly. This is an extension of an already established habit, so every morning I must make the decision again: today I’m going to put my lunch and other necessities in my backpack, sling it on, put on my helmet, roll my bike out of the hall and through the door, carry it down the steps, get on and go.
– Cyclists Ride in Portland’s Disaster Relief Trials (“Your bike – the coolest part of your disaster kit. “)
– SF Has Turned 30 Car Parking Spots Into 336 Bike Parking Spots
– Suburbia or Urban Infill?
