I just read a tweet which went “Business, Entrepreneurs, Scientists and Engineers MUST lead us out of our Environmental Challenges.” As you might expect I’m going to have to take exception to this statement and I’m going to do it here since it will most certainly take me many more than 140 characters.

It’s pretty important to understand what “our Environmental Challenges” are when we consider possible solutions. There are a daunting number of them, but almost all of them come back to two essential causes if we exclude the dynamic nature of any environmental system. That is to say, when we take responsibility for the impact our behaviors have levied on these systems.

First, and foremost, consumptive behaviors are often responsible for a great deal of impact on any environmental system. That is, many of us consume way more than we need to and thus have a much larger footprint than is arguably necessary. What’s worse, most of us live our lives within a framework of consumptive behavior. The aforementioned framework is largely the product of business, enterprise, science and design.

For instance, we drive on road ways because this is the transportation infrastructure we collectively inherit when we become members of society. More often than not great efforts are made to keep drastic paradigm shifts at bay in an effort to preserve the functionality of the dominant social framework. General Motors doesn’t import or make Twike style vehicles even though this unconventional alternative mode of transportation has been around and functional for a long time. The National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration has prevented use of these vehicles on public roads in the past. The greater bulk of transportation engineering has been focused on building bigger and fancier vehicles rather than more efficient solutions forever and a day. Even the construction of transportation infrastructure systems has been squarely aimed at expanding the capacity (and thus the footprint) since asphalt was first laid down to connect two points on a map.

Second I contend then that there is an institutional inertia at work here that will make it nearly impossible for “business, entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers” to address anything other than their primary concerns. How then should they lead us anywhere other than exactly where we’re already headed?

Don’t get me wrong, it would be wonderful if someone from any of these disciples would stand up and point the way. But why should they? In fact, if they did would we bother to follow? Science has been validating the realities of these environmental challenges for years. They’ve been pointing out that unless key behaviors are addressed and changed the impacts of these behaviors will persist, accumulate, and eventually result in social and environmental catastrophe. Yet society remains content operating well within the mandates of existing social frameworks and makes no meaningful attempts to alter these constructs.

Nope, in this case there’s no one who will sign up to be the universal scapegoat, mandate the behavioral changes necessary and thus garner the blame that comes with these wholesale alternations in our level of expectation. The tweeter in this case is asking for an extraordinary martyr from a pool of individuals who have no interest in an impending crucifixion. So is it any wonder that no one has yet stepped forward to take personal responsibility for the environmental sins of a whole species?

Here’s an interesting alternative, take as much personal responsibility for *your* environmental footprint as you can handle. Individual consideration of individual impact allows you to make all the right choices or at least the choices you’re ready to make. The principle is pretty straight forward just stop ignoring your individual complacency and happily look for the better way.

I think there are some very important problems that don’t get worked on naturally. That is the market does not drive the scientists, the communicators, the thinkers, the governments to do the right things. And only by paying attention to these things, and having brilliant people who care, and draw other people in can we make as much progress as we need to.

I in particular enjoyed the above quote from BillG’s February TED presentation. I think his socially unconventional approach to problem solving, if studied, might yield a patterned framework that could be applied to many situations to good end.

Highly recommend the presentation, its worth your time.

A recent thread on the carfree list I subscribe to stirred up some discourse and thought. The thread was started with the following post by IanEnvironmental.

In response to those who think that cycling is not possible for many people…. with criterion for cycling includes flat landscapes, good weather and fit, healthy people who are not too old or too young – or so many assume.

I have seen people who do not fit the criteria so many have using cycling for shopping and visiting friends in their community. These include:
A person with severe learning difficulties on a tractor like quadricycle (four-wheeled cycle)

A man who can only walk with the aid of crutches using a tricycle to get to the shops

A blind man cycling on a tandem

A man with one arm cycling on a standard bicycle

Other less able-bodied people are discovering that they can continue to use bicycles for mobility by upgrading to an e-bike, or fitting a small petrol engine.

Young children are already towed in carts behind bikes, ride in cargo bicycles or have their own seats on a bicycle in front and/or behind and adult

Most of Copenhagen’s cyclists continue to cycle through the snow, the Japanese cycle in extremely humid conditions, and people in Africa cycle in high temperatures.

The human body does adapt and what at first appears to be terrain unsuitable for cycling soon becomes relatively easy to cycle.

We should not be agreeing that groups of people, with various abilities or of certain ages, or living in certain climates or on hilly terrain cannot cycle. We should be saying that they can – with a bit of enlightenment, the right equipment and a bit of training.

Yes, these groups CAN cycle and they Do cycle – perhaps not where you are, but where people have tried, they have found that they CAN! Others CAN, but won’t – or don’t know they can… — IanEnvironmental

First, let me say that I agree with IanEnvironmental completely. There are plenty of people worldwide who, at first glance, may appear to lack the ability to cycle yet manage the job day-in and day-out.

Second, let me offer up the observation that it’s not usually the above folks who quash the idea of a shift in transportation so readily. In fact, many of these people view their human powered transportation option as a method to achieve greater freedoms and expanded opportunities. Rather, in my experience, its people who are entirely capable of riding a bicycle, but who lack the motivation which routinely suggest that this mode of travel is “impossible”. And while out right denials of the mode are routinely rare when talking to an avowed cyclist (I just rode where and you wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings, right?) the excuses for straddling the saddle and moving one’s self around are exceptionally abundant.

More often than not these ideas come from a preconceived notion of what is and what is not convenient rather than any limitation of possibility. I would suggest that there are very few adults that recall the freedom that their bikes gave them as children. They understand the liberty that their car offers because they use this mode regularly and any change in that arrangement appears to them difficult. Unlike water, humans choose to take the path that appears to offer the least resistance (regardless of the reality of the situation).

I believe that there are only a couple of possibilities here that will help essentially lazy people choose the more efficient and workable solution and even then adoption won’t be universal. The first is the limiter of physical impossibility. If, for instance, the cost of driving exceeds anyone’s ability to pay then necessity will drive people to adopt a new mode. The bicycle becomes a candidate for widespread adoption in this case. It’s got everything most people are looking for at the cut throat rate of sweat equity. And not very much sweat either.

Changing the criteria of evaluation can have a positive effect on adoptive trends. This recent article

Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo.

Very well done video demonstrating the “Idaho Stop” as well as some basic bicycle principles.

I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this.

It’s about 3:00 PM Sunday afternoon and I’m presently sitting in a very comfy seat aboard the Coast Starlight Amtrak train headed home. I’ve spent a majority of the day with my little netbook working on some process documentation for my job. Periodically taking breaks to look out the window and the rapidly greening spring or to write. I needed to sync a version of a file I had saved on Mesh earlier this week so, as I’ve done periodically since I started this particular venture two weeks ago, I hooked up my phone and got on the network. The Internets must love me.

While I’ve got it all set up and running and we’re running between metropolitan areas of northern Oregon (3G, yeah baby!) I figured I’d update this here blog with a few thoughts regarding this trip.

Bus Travel

Busses are not designed for tall people. This becomes immediately apparent to you if you happen to be one of these people. Leaving from Ellensburg late at night the bus was not very full of people. I started the 1,100 mile journey to Grand Junction seated near the front of the bus heading south through the wet darkness of south central Washington, but I could, because of the lack of riders spread out. All that changed when I changed busses in Oregon. The next leg of the ride was jam packed with people and while the seats are comfortable, I’m much too tall to realize this potential comfort.

It didn’t matter how I sat in my seat, my knees knocked against the seat in front of me. By Idaho my knees were bruised. Utah there was some swelling. And by Colorado, my arrival was at 2:00 AM, I was stiff and having trouble sleeping. Other than that however, the bus was a real bargain and an adventure to boot.

I made new friends and had a great time. There were, from time to time, some creepy folks who tended to the rear of the coach, but mostly everyone was just like you or me … only on the bus.

Connectivity was great! Mostly 3G with periods of EDGE and only a very few outages which meant that while I was getting my butt carted through various and sundry states I was also able to get plenty of work done.

Train Travel

Shortly after I arrived in Colorado the knee thing had me looking for an alternative for the return trip. At least, I figured, I can get up and walk around if the seats are crammed one against the other on Amtrak. Lucky me, they’re not. There’s like a soccer field separating the seat rows on the big western train coaches. That black clad knob on the left is my knee, I could almost lift up my booted feet and stretch them straight before me while seated and not touch the seat ahead of me. This is coach mind you!

Even better the seats really recline. Sleeping was not a problem either night.

Connectivity hasn’t been an issue either. The train coaches are wired for 120 Volt AC (two sockets per row) and I’ve only been in the dark twice that I know of since leaving Grand Junction Friday afternoon. Maybe a little more EDGE than 3G, but all in all I’m getting what I need to get my work and recreation done.

The train takes a little longer to get me where I’m going, but it does so in a style that I couldn’t achieve any other way. Plus the ratio of creepy people to folks-you-wouldn’t-mind-talking-to has been much improved. If Microsoft, Acer, AT&T or Samsung wanted to improve their image on the national theater they would send out more people like me to simply ride around on the train demonstrating these great technologies in action. They’ve gotten this one on the house I suppose.

Getting Sick

Pretty much sucks where ever you happen to be or whatever you happen to be up to. I got sick on this trip and it, somewhat predictably, sucked. First, huge thanks to my parents who took care of me during the 48 hour fever like I was still a child. Being sick would have sucked even more had they not helped me out. I felt like hell for a considerably annoying period of time and I was angry at myself for coming down with the bug right in the middle of when I should have been having a ball. Hell the party was scheduled after all.

Working from Main Street Bagels

Alright, it wasn’t the only place I worked from while I was in the Grand Valley, but it was where I went to most often. I met other tele-workers while I was there and these were people who also tended to frequent the place if that’s any indication of the quality of service which has been achieved at Main Street Bagels. Thanks in particular to Adrian who made me feel like a “regular” right from the start.

So summary, bus is ok, train is way better. Eat bagels and drink coffee at Main Street Bagels if you can. And above all, avoid getting sick. If you can’t, realize that it’s nice to have parents that will take care of your graying, sad, and sorry case despite all the boogers and phlem.