CNG cars in Kansas city

I don't know if you've noticed, but many of the cars that belong to the city run on compressed natural gas. I happend to be behind one on the highway (actually, it was being dragged on the back of a tow truck, but nevermind) and it suddenly occured to me that here was a completely clean-running, alternative fuel vehicle right in front of me. It was sort of a "They do exist!" moment, like when Santa and the M&M's saw each other in that old commercial--though I doubt the car was surprised by my existence. Frankly, I don't think it noticed. But I digress.

Anyway, ever since then I had it in my mind that I was going to call the Water Services Department (who's name was on the side of the car, a Civic GX) and talk to their fleet manager to find out what they did with their old CNG cars. Days and days later, I finally got around to getting ahold of the person I needed to talk to, who, as it turned out, actually was in charge of purchasing the cars for the whole city. I told him my intentions, that I was an environmentally-aware citizen and was interested in getting ahold of a used CNG vehicle, and he was very friendly. He told me that the old cars get sent to auction, and although he couldn't tell me the name of the auction company off the top of his head, he did tell me that, as a citizen, owning a car that runs on natural gas wouldn't be very efficient in this city. This is because, as he said, he was only aware of one CNG filling station, and that was in Overland Park. Living in Gladstone as I do, that is clearly what we in the industry call "a little out of the way."

He said the only alternative, if I was set on CNG, would be to install a compressor in my home and compress my own natural gas (well, not my natural gas, the gas coming into my home). He said doing this would require some retrofitting of the car in order to make the fuelling process work, and that it could get sort of expensive. I thanked him for his time and hung up and pretty much put away the idea of having a CNG car in the near future.

CNG cars are great because they are completely emissions free, but they do have their drawbacks. Obviously I've already hit on one of the major ones, if not the biggest one. Also, they tend to get the same or less fuel-efficiency than their gasoline-based counterparts, and when it costs about the same to fill the tank as it does for gasoline, really it's a wash at best. Pretty much the main benefit to driving a CNG car, as far as I can tell, is being able to tour around with the knowledge that you are contributing nothing to global warming, climate change, the uglification of the air...whatever you want to call it.

So I guess, since I can't have a Civic GX, I'll just have to go back to not having a Civic Hybrid. Sigh.

Eating out.

With all the eco-controversy surrounding beef cattle, because of all the destructive methane they release into the atmosphere, a lot of green people choose to go vegetarian. My wife has been off meat for over half a year now, and not because she's eco-conscious but just because she feels it's healthier. Well, I don't know about that (after all, things like french fries and peanut butter are both still technically vegetarian), but I am trying to be more conscious of how much beef I eat lately. It's tough, especially since the new house we just got is only a mile from a Steak n' Shake...mmmm...but, hey, if these choices weren't tough I wouldn't have felt compelled to start this blog. Though I said my wife is vegetarian, she still eats fish, and so I've sort of unofficially started taking her lead. When we go out to eat, which we have been doing a lot lately during our renovation, I try to get shrimp or fish, or, in a pinch, chicken. I've still been known to have a burger now and then, and I don't feel too bad about that. I don't think beef should be outlawed or anything, I just think we as a society could cut back on how much of it we consume, and I'm trying to do my part. What's important to remember, if you're struggling at the drive through menu between getting that double quarter-pounder or the lowly fish fillet, is that after you eat either of them you will be full, satisfied, and won't need more food again until dinner. So why not make the more earth-friendly choice? Forget giving in to your "cravings" and just fill your stomach. The ozone layer will thank you.

I miss my bike.

Simple as that, I miss riding my bike. I still have it, of course. It's sitting peacefully in the garage at our new house, waiting, like me, for another nice day when I can pull it out and ride again. What I like most about my bike is the motor. Yes, I said motor. It's electric (boogie-oogie-oogie). The thing that strikes me most when I tell people that I have an electric bike is their response. If I had a dollar for every person who said "Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" I could buy them their own e-bike and they could see for themselves. My answer is usually to say "What purpose?" If it was a stationary bike, then yes, a motor most definitely would be defeating the purpose. But a bicycle is good for more than exercise. Do you really think half a billion Chinese people ride bikes every day to keep away the love handles? It's sort of sad that the majority of Americans seem to overlook the transportation value of the bicycle. For them, to think of a bike is to think of Lance Armstrong. Don't they realize there was a time before the automobile, when people had to either walk or ride some sort of self-propelled transport?

Of course, the electric bike isn't completely self-propelled, and so I realize that the argument I was headed towards there isn't completely valid. But it brings us back to the "purpose" of the bike. Not only do I not think that the motor on my bike defeats the purpose, I believe it actually increases the purpose. It improves it, if you will. Not only is it fun to ride around, but with a range of 10-20 miles on a single charge, it's fun to ride far. And I also believe that the reason most American's don't consider the bike a viable transportation option is because we are the fattest country in the world, and most people (including myself) simply can't ride a bike efficiently and effectively for any distance. There are tall hills and uneven roads and body sweat and flabby thighs and all the other things that keep biking from being practical. That's what is so great about the electric bike; you can pedal when you want, and maybe get a little exercise, but when the going gets too tough just lay on the throttle and coast up the hills. Coast the whole way, if you want. Personally, I do a little of both at the same time, always trying to pedal when possible.

Not only does the electric motor increase the practicality of the bicycle for everyday transportation, but it helps improve the environment. If more people are able to ride bikes without breaking a sweat, they might be less likely to drive cars. It's a great eco-friendly alternative to the silly notion of starting up your four-door sedan to haul one person three blocks to the store.

Now, e-bikes aren't without their disadvantages. Traditional bikes are still far, far lighter, which makes them easier to pedal and easier to haul up and down stairs and store in closests and whatnot. In fact, the bike I have is heavy enough that it's probably a better equivalent to a scooter or even a small motorcycle, but I'm okay with that. Also, they are much more expensive than your average bike, unless you're looking to ride in the Tour de France or something. Expect to pay as much for a good quality e-bike as you would for a top-of-the-line racing bike. Speaking of which, there are very few good-quality e-bikes available. Mine is a Tidalforce, made by Wavecrest, now defunct. The bike is now being made by another company, who's name escapes me at the moment, but there are still many Tidalforce's available on sites like eBay. I bought mine from a nearby shop called ElectricRider, in Lawrence, who do most of their sales via the internet. If you're looking for advice on which model is right for you, or you just want a few questions answered, they are very knowledgable and friendly. Unlike some bike shops I've found that have one or two e-bikes, it's all that ElectricRider does. Furthermore, they sell some pretty neat kits that can convert your existing bike into an electric one for a fraction of the price. Personally, I went for the Tidalforce because of the rugged, off-road capable design, but there are other options if you are more interested in street riding. Please, check it out. If you are interested in doing your part to help the environment, but you aren't in terrific shape, you may be a perfect candidate for an electric bike.

Forget saving the cheerleader, just change a bulb.

Listening to the Energy Smart News podcast (for links to this and my other favorite green podcasts, see the sidebar to the right), I heard an interview with a representative from the EnergyStar program, and she talked about their campaign to "change a light, change the world." The goal is to get everyone to pledge to change at least one lightbulb in their homes and replace them with an EnergyStar bulb (You've seen them, they're the spirally ones) in order to make a worldwide impact on energy efficiency and therefore sustainability.

If you want to do your part, "watt" are you waiting for? (Badum-psh!) Visit www.energystar.gov/changealight to sign up for the campaign. More than sweeping political promises or even extreme activistm, grassroots campaigns like these will be key, in my opinion, to shaping the green future of our world. Be a part of the solution.

The Civic Hybrid.

After the information I've casually gathered over the past few months, the Honda Civic Hybrid has become my car of choice. For one, Honda is the only auto company that hasn't fought government emissions regulations. And look at all the new technology that Honda has pioneered, like ASIMO, the walking robot. This company is not only on the forefront of technology, but they seem to be interested in using it for good! Furthermore, according to HybridCars.com it has one of the top fuel economies of any of the hybrids available, and personally I think it looks terrific.

Well yesterday I had some time to kill and decided to stop by our local Honda dealership and see what questions I could get answered. Turned out I didn't have a lot of questions at the moment (I'm the type of person to quietly gather my own information and make my own choice), but Dan, the salesman, was friendly and mostly helpful. He was a little older than I would have preferred my salesman to be. Not that I'm an agist or anything, but I'm young and naturally I would feel more comfortable with someone near my own age, whom I relate to on a certain level and whom would perhaps share certain sensibilities with me. Dan was a little gruff, a little old-school, and simultaneously a little too slick. He honestly didn't seem to know a whole lot about hybrids in particular, and my guess is he had been selling cars for possibly a couple of decades already. Oh well, we're still months away from even being able to afford another new car. Plenty of time for Dan and I to drift apart, and for me to maybe talk to some other dealerships.

The important thing is that I walked away having picked up a brochure and having sat in one of the cars myself. These are little steps towards a larger goal, and as you probably realize by now I'm a big proponent of little steps and large goals. Though a Civic Hybrid is a little out of our price range now, especially since we just took on a mortgage for the first time, it's not an unreachable goal. Right now my wife has an older Accord (paid off) and I have a Scion xB. Ultimately, I'd like to replace both of them with more eco-friendly choices (though the Scion is pretty efficient already). Actually, I'd like to get down to being a one-car family if possible, and rely on my electric bike or some other electric vehicle for transportation. Don't know how practical that would be, as long as my wife and I are both working, but it's a goal.

I'll keep you all up to date on my plans and how they are coming together, and I'd encourage any of you who are working on perfecting your own green lifestyle to post comments here or send me a message and share how it's going. If we're going to succeed as a society we have to create a sense of community, and a sense of how each of our decisions can affect the whole. Why not start by posting a comment on this blog? Good luck, and keep checking back.

In the meantime, remember that you may own the house, but you're only renting the land.

The Problem with Memory.

When it comes to making any change in your lifestyle, large or small, one obstacle we all must overcome from time to time is simply remembering our intentions. We want to do good, either to the environment, to ourselves, to other people, but we are so entrenched in our daily routine which we've grown to take for granted that it's easy to forget from day to day that we wanted to change anything. If you want to quit smoking, I'd imagine it's not so much a question of forgetting to quit as it is maybe remembering how much you'd really like to be healthy and live a long time. I don't know this for a fact, because I've never started smoking and so I've never had to quit. But when it comes to living green, it can be a problem sometimes to remember to not buy plastics, or to limit your trips in the car, or even to turn off lights when you're not in the room. No matter how altruistic your intentions are, you simply can't seem to break certain habits and keep it in your head that you meant to recycle more this week, or that you really didn't want to leave your car idling the whole time you were in the store. Oops.

For me, remembering intentions has been a long-fought battle. Just ask my parents, or my wife, or any of my grade school teachers. No one is more familiar with my forgetfulness than they. At least not that I can recall. That's why I've found it helpful to use external reminders, to keep the liability of my own brain out of the equation as much as possible. I used to have to make a note at the end of every class of what my homework was, and what books I would need to take home. When it comes to paying bills, I have to have a regular, automatic email sent to me to remind myself every month (www.memotome.com, for instance). And now that I'm trying to live in a more eco-conscious way, it's been another struggle. There are a couple of things that I've found to work quite well in keeping my mind on my goals, however, and I'll share them now;

Podcasts:
Podcasts are basically radio shows that are downloadable in mp3 format, and can be listened to anytime, as many times as you want. I listen to several different green or environmental podcasts on a regular basis. Thanks to iTunes, I never miss an episode of The Lazy Environmentalist or America the Green. I may not listen every day, but at least a few shows a week seems to keep me constantly aware on a general level on my aspirations towards a greener me. If you have iTunes, do a power search for some keywords like "environmental" or "eco-friendly" and start subscribing to any and all the podcasts you can. Don't worry if you end up not liking some of them. You can always unsubscribe from the ones that are crap (and there are always going to be a few). Conversely, you might just find some of them to be immensely inspiring and informative.

"Is it Green?":
One of the ways we can all improve the environment is being more conscious of our purchases when we buy things like groceries or other products. Being the capitalist society we are, it's also one of the hardest daily routines to affect change on. That's why I simply put a note on my wallet, written in plain English and taped right in front of my cash and credit cards, that says, "Is it Green?" A simple question, yes, and most likely one with a complicated answer. Not everything is black and white when it comes to green, so to speak. But even seeing that question every time I pull out my money to buy something causes me to pause for just a second and consider, which is more than I would do without the note. This type of external reminder might be too much for some people, who might think it's too odd or nerdy, and that's fine. I'm not suggesting it's the best solution, and certainly no one I know would swear that I'm not odd or nerdy, but I only offer it as an example to you to take and use to inspire your own choices. Find your own way of remembering your intentions, and if something else works for you I'd love to know what it is. Feel free to leave comments and feedback about your own experiences.

Until next time, remember you might own the house, but you're only renting the land.

Apart of Nature.

Let me recite to you your life so far, if I may be so bold:

You were born, someplace, some time ago and began growing up some time after that. You lived in a dwelling of some type, made of things like concrete, rebar, possibly brick and/or stone, and can't remember the first time you rode in a car. Nowadays things aren't that much different; you are still living in a dwelling, still riding around in cars, and you probably take it all for granted. Sound about right?

Did you ever stop to think about the fact that it hasn't always been this way? See, when you're born into this world you're immediately thrust into a working society of construction, renovation, deforestation and urbanization. There are already innumerable cars on the road, not to mention the innumerable roads themselves, and buildings of all shapes and sizes. People go about their lives as if there is and always has been a division between man and nature. "Mankind lives in buildings and drives cars," they seem to think, "and nature doesn't." Simple as that. But there was a time (and forgive me if this seems like an obvious point because at one time not long ago I thought it was, too) when Man was a part of nature; when human beings lived in nature, not apart from it. Then, as we began to "evolve"--to use the term loosely--we taught ourselves to use tools and build shelters. Pretty soon we built better shelters, and better ones still. Then we had the industrial revolution, and suddenly we were no longer living in nature at all. Suddenly the natural world was something else. Consequently, today people don't even think of our world--the one made of asphalt and plastic--as even existing within nature. Just look at the first definition of "nature" according to Dictionary.com: "The material world, esp. as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities."

I challenge you, reader, to look around you the next time you leave the house and realize that there is no invisible fence; no Great Wall separating our urban, bipedal life from the natural world that was here long before us. We have built everything that you see, and in doing so have separated ourselves. We still breathe the same air and sleep under the same moon. The sun that we hide indoors from at the peak of summer was already there long before there was even such a thing as indoors.

Now I know that coming to this realization won't immediately change anything about the world, except maybe your view of it. But really, what is more important than that? The goal of the green life is to not necessarily forget how far we've come as a society or as a species, but to remember where we came from. We owe our very existence to nature, and if we want to stay around we'd better start noticing it.

That's all for now. Until next time, remember: You may own the house, but you're only renting the land.

Little Things

A lot of people get intimidated when they think about "going green," or "being an environmentalist," or "caring about the earth and not killing everything on it with our big, stupid feet." They think they can't afford a hybrid car, or they can't take the bus every day to work because a) their town doesn't have a bus stop; b) there is a bus stop, but there's only one and it's across town; or c) there is a robust transit system with many stops but each and every bus in the fleet always seems populated with odd, hobbit-like people.

Well, look, you. You don't have to feel bad about things like this. Everyone has obstacles to overcome in their lives, some are big and some are small but they're all relative to you. Remember when you first learned to drive? That was a big thing, back then, but looking back the act of driving is really quite easy. That's why you do so much of it, after all. You really should stop that. Anyway, making a change to a green lifestyle is just another part of your life where you might encounter big and small challenges, and like any other time, it's often best to tackle the small ones first.

The following are some things I'm working on in my own life, and I'd encourage you to give them a try, too. See how you like it.

1) This winter, turn the thermostat down one degree at a time over a period of an hour or so and see how low you can get it before you become uncomfortably cold. We all have different body temperatures, so there's really no right number to shoot for. But maybe all this time you've been using up more energy on your heat than you needed to, and this is a good way to find out. In the summertime, do the same thing but turning the temperature up one degree at a time. See how hot it can get before you can't take it anymore.

2) When you get up in the morning, if the sun is already up don't immediately start turning on lights around the house. Get out of bed and just see how much you can do throughout your day with just the sunlight coming in through the windows. I bet you'll be surprised at how much the sunlight really does illuminate. And not only will you be saving yourself a lot of money on electricity costs, but all that sunlight is going to make you feel great--unless your albino, in which case you might want to skip this experiment altogether.

3) Try to start combining trips in the car. Instead of going to the store in the morning, then going out later to rent a movie, make a list of everything you'll need that day and just make one trip. Little by little you might notice some savings in gas spending. But what you might not notice is the amount of CO2 you're not spitting into the atmosphere with all that driving around.

4) When you're ready, make a trip to your local organic grocer and just browse; don't buy, just see what they have. Maybe you'll be surprised to find some actual "normal" food there; it's not all wheat grass and soy beans. Then you might just find something that sounds good, and end up introducing yourself to a new diet.

5) Visit sites like BigGreenCity.com or listen to the podcasts available at TheLazyEnvironmentalist.com. Both are great resources for getting your feet wet in the comfort of your own home, and getting educated on issues and solutions involving environmentalism and sustainable-living. The most important thing is learning, because if you don't know how you can help, how can you help? I'd also encourage you to check out Bridging the Gap's website. It may seem like a lot to take in, but look over it at your own pace and you are sure to take away some valuable information.

6) Finally, keep a journal or a blog like this one that will let you keep track of your little accomplishments and look back over them with pride. Accountability is important, but so is a feeling of achievement. Maybe even keep a running tally of the amount of CO2 or electricity you've saved, if you've got access to that information. Whatever helps you keep on track, do it. You owe it to yourself and your neighbors--both human and otherwise!

If you conquer all of these little steps, then maybe it's time to move on to something bigger. Think of something you never thought you'd be able to accomplish as far as living the green lifestyle, like purchasing a hybrid vehicle, and set that as a goal. First, research which make and model is right for you (HybridCars.com is probably the best resource), then figure out how long it will take you to save up the money. If it's 6 months or 5 years, it doesn't matter. Make a plan and stick with it. After all, isn't long-term planning sort of what the eco-lifestyle is all about?

Kermit was right.

It ain't easy being green, especially in Kansas City. With the high percentage of alternative thinkers that reside in this city, you'd think it would be rife with information on living an eco-friendly lifestyle. Maybe it is, and they're all just hiding it from me, like the kids in the neighborhood who used to get together in the treehouse every day after school and never invite me.

But with an increasing awareness of the environment and what is called the "sustainable lifestyle" permeating the airwaves and magazines, it only makes sense to try to do my part as well. I'm not rich, so I can't afford every new eco-gadget or hybrid car that comes on the market; I have a regular job, so it's not like I can spend every waking hour protesting at power plants or landfills; and, to tell the truth, I've just never been into Birkenstocks. But surely there is a way that an average, young, urban-dwelling American like me can do to impact the environment in some way.I sure hope so, because if not this blog is going to be short-lived.

Starting today, I'm going to actively pursue (relatively speaking) the green lifestyle, from buying organic or locally-produced foods, to wearing organic clothing and conserving more energy. I already own an electric bicycle, so I guess I'm already on my way. If you are like me, and want to know what you can do within your own little bubble to help out the trees and the fishes, keep checking this space as I post updates of my own journey. And be sure to check out www.biggreencity.com to get started on your own path towards a greener you.

Until next time, remember that you may own the house, but you're only renting the land.