Bikestorming.org

While many saw that Rio+20 a large failure on the part of many in the environmental world, something special came out of that conference. Something special that is now starting to get a notice in America, and being picked up on various outlets through out the web, and something truly special to help fight and reduce our carbon footprints in the whole world.

That something is a website called bikestorming.org.

The idea sprung up from the Buenos-Aires based bicycle advocacy group, La Vida en Bici. The basic idea is that by 2030 to have bicycles be the primary mode of transportation in the urban world. They are running on the the phrase "51% in 2030. Through their website and group they will use their website to facilitate other advocacy groups, artists, social media commentators, and social activists to come together and push this imitative forward through a truly grassroots movement. 

Bikestorming.org is basing their whole movement on three simple facts to gain traction to their argument.

1) THE PLANET IS WARMING

2)THE WORLD IS URBAN

3) BICYCLES ARE A VEHICLE OF CHANGE

With a beautiful blog covering everything to transit maps, subway escalators for bikes, to bike friendly hairstyles, this is a great meeting place to get the word out and inspire true social change. Espeically since they have a very clear goal.

Check out their video below:

[EN] Bikestorming.org launched at Rio+20, intro by Bill McKibben from mati kalwill on Vimeo.

Check out the great work Le Vida En Bici is doing as well!

Tribulations and Local Food

It has been a long long time. Sometimes in life, you get bogged down in unexpected events of sorrow and joy, and projects and pledges take a back seat. I have just went through one of the periods. Loss of a father, supporting my wife finishing grad school, and a multi-state move, brings us to this moment now. It has been a long year, and life has thrown us lemons, oranges, grapes, and whatever other fruit life can throw at you, and we made a lot of "lemonade". Now after everything was said and done, it is time, and there is time to pick-up with conservation and getting Slay Energy Vampires! Moving in the right direction. With all of that said...

...welcome back, I am glad you are still following me. Now, on to some brief information.

A few days ago, the city of Tempe in Arizona, added to their city web page a page dedicated to all of their locally crafted food. Everything from Pasta, to Beer, to Popcorn. It is a long and informative list with direct links and locations to where you can purchase this local food. Local food is still the best and most effective way to cut down on your food's carbon footprint. So, if you are in the Tempe, Arizona area, check out this list. They proudly advertised this list on their Facebook page as well.

Right here for great local food!

---Justin

Ecological Footprint Calculator

...link via Derek Sherwood

Ever wonder how much your carbon and ecological footprint really is? Now from the Center For Sustainability, you can take this quick quiz that asks you questions about daily habits. Everything from food, to housing, to travel. It seems to be a a pretty good estimator of where we stand, and helps to show you where you stack up against the rest of your country.

Here is the link:

Ecological Footprint Quiz

I took the quiz in about ten to fifteen minutes and here are my results:

My carbon footprint is 68.45 global acres and the average American's is 91.43. My food footprint is 38.46 global acres compared to the average American's of 65.74. My housing footprint is 16.61 global acres compared to the average American's of 31.58. My goods and services footprint is 16.98 versus the average American's of 57.66 global acres. I found these numbers to be interesting. Living in a fourplex and my home garden helped a lot with these footprints. Overall my global acres consumption is 140.5 global acres versus the country average of 246.61. Also, for those that are interest in what exactly a global acre is, here is what I found at FootprintNetwork:

global hectare (gha) : A productivity weighted area used to report both the biocapacity of the earth, and the demand on biocapacity (the Ecological Footprint). The global hectare is normalized to the area-weighted average productivity of biologically productive land and water in a given year. Because different land types have different productivity, a global hectare of, for example, cropland, would occupy a smaller physical area than the much less biologically productive pasture land, as more pasture would be needed to provide the same biocapacity as one hectare of cropland. Because world bioproductivity varies slightly from year to year, the value of a gha may change slightly from year to year.

Interesting stuff indeed. What did you score? Share with us and lets see what we can do together to reduce our numbers!

---Justin J. Stewart (link via Derek Sherwood)