Category Archives: Green Ideas

Moving to Denmark

Lindholm says 55 percent of Copenhagen residents commute to work or school by bike. The comparable number for Portland is six percent; and that’s tops among large U.S. cities.  In Copenhagen, the road system is also geared toward cyclists. Lasse Lindholm: “When it’s snowing, during January for example, the first thing that has to be cleaned, that’s the bike paths. They clean the bike paths before they clean the roads.” The city’s Lasse Lindholm also points out how the traffic lights on busy commuter routes are synchronized to generate a wave of green lights at 12 mph. You’ll note that’s bicycle — not car — speed. On major arterials, the bike lane has its own traffic light. Lasse Lindholm: “What we are doing is that we give cyclists a ëpre-green light.’ That means that you have from 5 to 12 seconds advantage as a cyclist so you can get into the intersection and thereby become visible for the car drivers.” Gasoline costs more than seven dollars per gallon in Denmark. High taxes also discourage car ownership.

I will start packing my bags tonight.  Denmark, here I come!

Click here to read the original article, “Bicycle Commuting Rising, But Still Pales Compared To Europe,” by Tom Banse for Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Winter, already?

Fall lasted for about a week, maybe a week-and-a-half tops, followed by two days of rain, followed by, eh? Not really fall, not quite winter. Much to my dismay, we ran the heat for a few hours on Sunday morning. I was hoping to make it to November without turning on the heat, but there we were, hovering just above 60 degrees in the apartment on October 11th. Ugh. Not only does running the heat use energy, in our apartment, it dramatically lowers the air quality.

Growing up, I always recognized the first heat of the late fall by that smell that gas furnaces make when running for the first time in several months. The key phrase in the previous sentence is, “for the first time.” See, after the first few cycles, the furnace burned up the dust or whatever was in there, and then, for the rest of the heating season, there was no scent.

However, in our apartment, that is not the case. Despite numerous furnace filter changes, we smelled that special furnace smell EVERY TIME the heat kicked on last winter. All winter long. Our landlord investigated and determined that there was nothing wrong with the furnace or the air ducts. Riiiiiiight. If we can smell something burning, our lungs are being exposed to less than stellar air.

So, with that in mind, here are some ways to run your heat less this winter. The planet and your wallet will thank you!

  • Set your thermostat lower: 68 degrees is a good upper limit.  At night, when you’re all snug in your bed, turn it down to the low 60s.  When you leave for the day, turn it down to 55 degrees.
  • Get cozy at night with flannel sheets and a good comforter or lots of blankets.  Our combination of flannel sheets plus a faux down comforter kept me overly warm the past two nights.
  • Wear slippers.  And a nice, snugly sweatshirt.  And pants.  Sadly enough, sans pants does not work for winter.
  • Check for any leaky spots around windows and doors.  Use weather stripping, caulk, etc. to fill in the gaps.
  • If you own your place, or can talk your landlord in to it, insulate, insulate, insulate.  There are many rebates available for this right now.

Rain, rain go away

Come again another day — preferrably some day after we have had a chance to dry out from the 3 inches of rain you dumped on us in less than 48 hours.  Some parts of the state received SEVEN inches of rain in that same time period. I reluctantly took the bus/light rail for the second day in a row.  Better than driving, but not near as good as biking.

Yesterday, I attended an offsite meeting, located a short distance (along a large busy street) from the light rail stop.  I planned to catch the bus, but when it did not materialize on my timeline, i.e., immediately, I opted to walk.  I walked that third of a mile in constant fear of The Splash of Death, that great deluge caused by some thoughtless driver who blasts through a huge puddle right next to the sidewalk occupied by a hapless pedestrian.

Now, if the puddle simply contained nice, clean rain water, it would be no big deal — just an easy way to get my weekly shower.  But folks, that puddle does not contain nice clean rain water.  It contains dirty, dirty water.  Water full of oil, grease, chemicals, road dirt, and fecal matter (because you just know someone somewhere failed to pick up after his/her dog).

I eluded The Splash of Death yesterday, but I have seen it happen, and I know it is only a matter of time until I, too, fall victim to the dirty deluge.

Compare and contrast

On Monday night, we attended a talk by sustainable farmer and author Joel Salatin, who I mentioned here.  I thought I wrote a bit more about his book, Everything I Want to do is Illegal, but apparently I only wrote about it in my head.  The book did not turn me into a libertarian, but it was a near thing.  When I read that he was going to be speaking at a local venue, I was very excited.

“I wonder if he’ll be a good speaker?” I said to Matthew as we waited for it to start.  I knew he was a good writer, and I highly recommend reading the aforementioned book, but good speakers are a rare find.  There are plenty of people with potentially interesting things to say, people who may write well, that are mediocre speakers at best.

About three minutes into the talk, Matthew turned to me and said, “I guess you have your answer.”  Did I ever!  Joel Salatin did not disappoint as a speaker.  I loved hearing about and seeing photos of Mr. Salatin’s sustainably raised livestock right on the heels of this post about E. coli contamination in beef.  Talk about a sharp contrast with factory farms and agribusiness!

We biked to and from the talk, which pushed me over twenty miles for the day.  We rode home in beautiful weather under a full moon, and I could not help thinking how happy I was to be on my bike instead of in a car.