I was interviewed this past Friday for a series of articles in the Metrowest Daily News on rising fuel costs. The newspaper also sent a photographer to take some pictures of me getting ready for my bike commute.
My parents came up for Mother’s Day, and to visit my kids school (on Monday). We went out to the playground and we had a great chat while watching the kids play. I mentioned that I was interviewed for the paper, and being that today was Sunday it should probably be in it. Then we went out to Fresh City for dinner. After our meal we stopped by the little coffee house section, where they had the newspapers and took a look. Everyone was shocked when we realized, right there on the front page, was a big color picture of ME. The article continued on an inner page, and there was another picture of ME.
That was very exciting, so we went to Ben and Jerry’s to celebrate.
Thanks go out to Aaron Wasserman for interviewing me and writing the article, Marshall Wolff for taking some great photos (including the one included here) and the Metrowest Daily News for publishing it.
I’ve already continued bike commuting much farther into the winter season than I ever had before. I overcame darkness with my 6 volt rechargeable 10 watt halogen headlight, illuminite jacket and helmet cover, and an array of blinky lights. I overcame freezing temperatures, wind and rain with my windproof balaclava, lobster gloves, neoprene shoe covers and rain pants. (The Nashbar/Performance Bike Gods own me.) Now I’m ready for anything, including snow and ice.
I made my own home-made studded tires for my mountain bike. I followed the instructions at Icebike.org. I used my super-cheap $7 knobbie mountain bike tires from performance bike, #8 by 1/2″ hex head self-drilling zinc metal screws ($4/100), and cut up some extra tubes ($4 each) to use as tire liners. It took a nice long time and my hands are pretty worn out, but I put 52 studs in my front tire, and 39 in the rear. Total cost for two studded tires: $26 - most of the brand name studded tires (not that many out there) are around $50 to $100 each.
I’ll continue to ride my road bike in most weather as I have been doing. But in the event of snow and ice (should come soon I hope!) I’ll be out on my mountain bike.
Talking about saving the planet. A few days ago I got a piece of paper in my mailbox as did the 3,000 or so other people who work at my office. The paper was promoting the use of compact florescent bulbs to save energy and help the environment. It boggled my mind that a group who was intent on saving the earth would make such extraneous use of paper, its was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. This group had an event a few days later in our cafeteria, where you could bring your signed paper and you would get a free light bulb. Of course, they also had a bajillion more copies available right there. It turned out one of my friends was working the event, so I mentioned I thought their use of paper was completely against the point of saving the planet. She agreed, and mentioned that of the 3,000 or so copies they distributed, only about 10 had been returned - everyone else was just picking up a new copy at the event.
In any case, to help make up for this I made up my mind to do even more. Before I left the office on Friday, I turned off the TV over my cube (which has been on since I started 7 years ago) and turned off my Mac and my MacBuntu (which I hardly even use anyway). I usually leave my computers on so I can remote access them, but I really only need my one Windows desktop. I’m going to look into a way to turn that off too and remotely wake it up if need be. Today my family went to Home Depot and we bought enough compact florescent bulbs to finish off every light in our house, which really didn’t have that much left. I had to remove a dimmer switch to avoid killing some of the new bulbs, but now I can say we do not have any halogen or incandescent lighting in use in our house.
I received several email updates from Al Gore - last Wednesday he went before congress to demand immediate action to solve the climate crisis. Before then he had a website where you could “sign” a petition, I and 519 thousand others got our names on the list in time for his presentation.
This whole shenanigans inspired me to actually watch his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” I think I was already up to speed with most of it, but I thought the movie was a really good presentation. The end credits had a lot of good ideas about what you can do to start making a difference. I also felt inspired to start biking season early. I definitely suggest taking the time to see this movie.
- Carbon dioxide warms the surface of the planet by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels and clearing forests have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causing temperatures to rise.
- The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. The earth has cyclical periods of warming and cooling within a range. The last 30 years do not apply to this cycle, and all boundaries have been broken and are “off the charts.”
- The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
- The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
- “I believe the purpose of life is to glorify God, and we can’t do that if we’re heaping contempt on the creation.”
- Roger Ebert wants you to see this film.
A few days ago I was flipping channels and stopped on this program that totally caught me off guard. It was reverend Jerry Falwell on his nationally televised program from Thomas Road Baptist Church, giving his sermon, “The Myth of Global Warming.” After having just seen a very scientific presentation on the facts around global warming, I was just shocked to see someone debating it. However, I tried to be open minded, and this is what I took away from Rev. Falwell’s sermon:
- Global warming is not based on science, but is rather a political issue.
- Global Warming doesn’t exist and is not due to human contribution of CO2.
- Al Gore invented the internet and helped invent global warming, abortion and gay marriage.
- Climate change over the past 30 to 150 years is well within the bounds of natural variability - Earth’s climate has warmed and cooled cyclically throughout its history, largely natural in origin and not susceptible to significant reduction by any actions we take.
- “I am not a scientist.”
- Alarmism is promoted by the UN, liberal politicians, radical environmentalists, liberal clergymen, Hollywood, pseudo-scientists and the Weather Channel.
- Alarmism is promoted in order to create major economic damage to America, distract us from the world’s declining morals, legalize abortion and gay marriage, and is Satan’s attempt to change the Church’s focus.
- The Earth is the Lord’s, and it will not cease.
- Jesus commands you to spread Christianity so you can go to heaven.
I urge you to think what you will and make informed decisions about how you live your life. The repurcussions of how you live will directly effect the lives of your children and grandchildren. I believe Global Warming is a real issue based on real science, not on politics or religion. My suggestions: Bike more, drive less. Use energy smartly, don’t waste. Watch A Convenient Truth and visit your local Unitarian Universalist church next Sunday and help us worship the coffee pot with our liberal clergymen.
