984 miles and I crossed my first bridge. I also crossed into Iowa! Woot!
Interestingly, as soon as I crossed the bridge, the classic rock station changed to a Jesus rock station. To be honest, I would have been disapointed if it didn’t.
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Well, I’m at my first gas station fill up! Total distance traveled: .7 miles!
Forgot to fill the tank up the night before….doh. That, and I also had to take a wicked dump.
More updates later.
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my journey, hopefully without the loop around colorado
I’m moving out to Colorado. For the Greenest Dude Ever, this provides a few problems:
1) How do I move out there while making the least possible environmental impact?
2) How do I make a trip through the mid-west, quite possibly the most boring place in the known universe, entertaining? No offense Indiana.
3) How do I record this whole thing while still making an efficient trip?
4) How do I avoid being lured into stopping to see the worlds largest ball of yarn?
I’ll start with the first problem. Although not the most efficient choice, I’ve decided to drive as I really want to see the midwest and take the journey. Here’s what I’ve done to reduce my impact while driving:
1) Oil Change
2) Air Filter Change
3) Filled Tires
4) Packed all my food so I don’t have to stop when I get hungry and to reduce waste created by fast food.
I’ll track all the gas used and record my milage as to get an accurate reading for my mpg’s. I’ll compare this to my Subaru’s mpg calculator. Alright I’ll need to get to packing I’m leaving tomorrow, August 16th @ 6AM.
Wish me luck!
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My apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days, I’ve been in the process of selling my home and moving out to the grand old state of Colorado.
I’ll be cataloging my journey out there and reporting on any green related news on the way. I hope it will keep me from going mildly insane during the 28 hour drive.
Wish me luck!
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This commercial will be aired later tonight during the Olympics but I got it ahead of time because I’m super cool and know Al Gore personally. Well, that’s not true, but you should check out wecansolveit.org and join the site. It’s a call to America to use all of it’s energy from renewable sources in ten years. It’s a great challenge and could use your support. So, check out the short and join the site its 1.4 million strong.
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To be honest I really didn’t feel like writing anything today. Little did I know that Paris Hilton would actually help me do my work for me. Paris Hilton, or more likely her amazingly ridiculous PR team combined with the wit and hilarity of Adam McKay provides the most cogent and coherent energy policy seen in the presidential race and perhaps ever in American history:
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it's like the car's pooping
Schedule an oil change! Chances are if you’re overdue for an oil change than you’re not getting the most out of you’re engines efficiency due to increased engine friction. And while you’re at it fill up your tires to to correct pressure. Doing both of these things can increase efficiency by about 1.5 mpg. Not too shabby.
Two tips for the price of one!
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Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design or “LEED” certification sucks for two reasons:
1) It’s expensive.
The first platinum certified (platinum being the highest followed by gold and silver) carbon neutral building cost $4 million dollars.
First of all I have a problem with any organization that categorizes the quality of things like Master Card. That aside, $4M dollars is crazy.
LEED can add anywhere from 4-30% to the total cost of new construction. Many of these extra costs provide NO environmental benefit. These “soft” costs are basically greedy designers charging a premium for their “green” services and various administration and compliance fees.
you see right there? yup, that's where you're getting reamed.
2) All LEED points are created equal regardless of their environmental impact.
In a recent building, we received one point for spending an extra $1.3 million for a heat-recovery system that will save about $500,000 in energy costs per year. We also got one point for installing a $395 bicycle rack.
Whaaaaa??? Yes, I think that deserves three question marks. How the hell can a bike rack get the same amount of points as a 1.3 million dollar heat-recovery system. Answer: Because LEED sucks.
Although I’m glad there is a standard for what makes a building green, from what I’m reading about LEED it seems like the USGBC has a ways to go.
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Instead of just posting about green things, I figure I’d post about the most ungreen, unsustainable, unnecessary crap in America. Why just America? Because the Chinese government scares me.
and not in a good way.
Here’s a short history of bottled water in America over the past forty years. Some of the names have been omitted due to lack of research:
“Who would pay for something you could get for free?” -American Businessmen in the 70’s.
“OMG I can’t believe they’re buying it!” -American Businessmen in the 80’s.
***Some time passes***
“Wait, you’re telling me if we don’t spend money on carbonation, coloring, and high-fructose corn syrup and charge the same amount they’ll still buy it?” -Coke and Pepsi in the 90’s.
“Well, you’ll have to put it in a really cool bottle that says your water is uniquely crisp and refreshing.” -Marketing douche.
“And that’s it?” -Coke and Pepsi.
“That’s it.” -Marketing douche.
“And we’ll make, like, a million dollars?” -Coke and Pepsi.
“Our douche analysts say that the US market should allow for about $15 billion in annual sales by 2006.” -Marketing Douche.
“I’m buying a flying car.” -Coke and Pepsi.
I was at a really nice Italian restaurant a while back, waiting for my girlfriend to get back from the bathroom when a waiter came over to the table next to me and asked the young woman sitting there if she would like something to drink. ”Bottled water,” she replied. A minute or so went by and the waiter returned with a bottle of Fiji water inside a chilled silver container. ”Ewww, I HATE Fiji water do you have any Evian?”
“I’m sorry mam, I’ll get something else right away,” said the pity worthy waiter as I sat there in disbelief.
I then had a mini fantasy in my brain in which the waiter said ”I’m sorry bitch from Greenwich CT, are glacial waters that have been untouched by any living creature for hundreds of thousands of years not pure enough for you?”
this girl hates fiji water too. that's why she walks 5 miles to get the good stuff.
People like the Greenwich bitch have lost their perspective. Little do they know that a quarter of all bottled water is little more than hyped tap water. In a four year study covering over 103 brands sold in the US, the NRDC found that 1/3 of all the bottled water tested positive for E. coli, fecal coliform, or arsenic. Why did they find all this crap in bottled water? Because bottled water sold in the US isn’t held to the same safety standards as tap:
Even when bottled waters are covered by the FDA’s rules, they are subject to less rigorous testing and purity standards than those which apply to city tap water (see chart below). For example, bottled water is required to be tested less frequently than city tap water for bacteria and chemical contaminants. In addition, bottled water rules allow for some contamination by E. coli or fecal coliform (which indicate possible contamination with fecal matter), contrary to tap water rules, which prohibit any confirmed contamination with these bacteria. Similarly, there are no requirements for bottled water to be disinfected or tested for parasites such as cryptosporidium or giardia, unlike the rules for big city tap water systems that use surface water sources. This leaves open the possibility that some bottled water may present a health threat to people with weakened immune systems, such as the frail elderly, some infants, transplant or cancer patients, or people with HIV/AIDS.
Wow.
In part, I’m glad that bottled water contains bacteria’s shit. It’s a microscopic middle finger to all the gNoobs who contribute to the 60 million water bottles that are thrown out every day. But it’s not just the bottles themselves that create waste. It’s the thousands of miles some of them travel to get from places like Fiji, to LA (5,500 to be exact). And then the countless trucks used to ship these bottles to their respective vendors. And for what? Shit water? I think I’ll just walk the 10 feet to my kitchen sink.
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Instead of just posting about green things, I figure I’d post about the most ungreen, unsustainable, unnecessary crap in America. Why just America? Because the Chinese government scares me.
If you have an idea for The Biggest Wastes Ever, post it below and take the credit!
hippy waste
Now you may be asking yourself “How can a bunch of hippies in the middle of the dessert doing drugs and running around naked be wasteful?” Well, I’ll be more than happy to tell you. Despite last year’s Burning Man being green themed, it was the most wasteful of all other Burning Man’s in the history of Burning Man. Why? Because it was also the biggest Burning Man ever and, Burning man being inherently wasteful, means the bigger it gets the more waste gets produced. Here’s the basic rundown:
To be fair, you don’t dump all your trash in the desert in a giant pile. Instead, you pile it into your car or trailer and then unload it at the nearest dump (about 50 miles away). My camp (just 10 people) resulted in about fifteen 13-gallon bags of trash. That’s 195 gallons of trash for only ten people! Now imagine 48,000 people consuming, burning, and driving:
i think i can see god crying
And all of these resources are consumed for what? ”Self-expression, self-reliance, and art as the center of community?” What a freaking joke. This is the most egocentric, hedonistic, flashy waste ever imaginable. Want to express yourself? Start a journal. Want self-reliance? Move out of your parents house. Want art to be the center of your community? Then make art that you don’t burn five days later.
Don’t get me wrong, I had an AMAZING time at Burning Man but towards the final days there I realized what Burning Man really was and still is: a self-involved waste. After seeing what a huge waste it all was, I did a little thought experiment that went a little something like this:
Including the cost of the ticket, travel, camp fees and supplies going to Burning Man can conservatively cost anywhere from $800-1500. Instead of using that money to throw a huge party what if 48,000 people got together each year and contributed their talents and $1,000.00 to help end world hunger or revolutionize energy consumption? The real rub is that if you ask 100 people at Burning Man if they care about the environment 99 of them would probably answer yes or give you a light show.
pointless
Yes, the most popular sport in America is also the biggest waste ever. I know this will piss off about half of America, but I could really care less. NASCAR sucks and that half of America sucks. Thirty-five to forty-three cars that get two to three mpg line up and race in a circle, WHOPEE! I’m sure there are some dudes out there that will say “Man, you have clearly never been to a race, you’ve never felt the speeeeeeed.”
this guy should cut back on the speed.
Guess what? I’ve been to a race before and I’ve felt the “speed.” But after lap 12314198019 the speed got boring and all I wanted to see was a fiery wreck of steel and rubber. Let’s be honest here, that’s what most of the people who watch NASCAR want to see. They don’t want to see cars drive in circles for hours, that’s boring. They want to witness a gut-wrenching pileup of flesh and metal. In that case why don’t we just cut to the chase and sponsor a real life MECHWARRIOR battle, the franchise could use a rejuvenating bump anyways.
pew pew
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