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July

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Submitted by chad360 on Mon, 12/17/2007 - 7:25pm.

Hola O-Blog Posse, E&I are out & about for the season, shopping on the bicycles. Our trip from Boulevard & Pacific to Fred Meyer in Lacey took 35min(round-trip...and that includes walking around on the sidewalk to the coffee shop...any time E's cyclo-computer detects movement it records, etc...), along a distance of 5.5 miles(round-trip), at an avg. speed of 9.4MPH (top speed of 18.2MPH during the trip).

This trip is not that much quicker in a car, plus no auto fuel was burned...it is bad enough that all the stuff we bought already has a "petroleum history" to it.

So, it perturbs me to no extent that some wonks on this blog consider ecology to be a fad or cult. Has anybody on this blog heard of the term "peak oil"?

I don't want to trade insult or BS.

--I'm just trying to start a local dialog on oil in American society...I figure that no one wants to pollute & that folks all want to save $$$, so maybe we-all can have a productive/reflective dialog:

Ya know we bicycle, but we also have ideas about a non-profit buyers' club that would offer the delivery of products locally to help folks reduce car trips.

-create local delivery jobs

-use pedestrian & bicycle transpo where appropriate & green vehicles for larger items

-feature online portal for individual & group purchasing

-reduce overall cost across the community for staples & basic commodities (like milk)

-form a transportation collective for trip sharing, community fuel depot, and automotive voc/tech.

I'm also interested in learning more about electric vehicle conversions, but this idea is separate from the nonprofit buyers' club. The buyers' club would be a 501c3/501c12 nonprofit, and offer products/services "at cost" like a coop with quarterly dividends for members.

E wants to start a FlexCar down here. 

any thoughts?

»

Sounds Great

It sounds great - fantastic. Transportation alternatives is one of the most important aspects of making a transition to a sustainable and life-sustaining society.

If people can look at giving up their cars as an opportunity... I think that is what it will take.

»

For years I've been wanting to start

a non-profit messenger service that homeless folks could work for and deliver goods throughout town. A lot of them ride bikes and I think this would draw some interest. It could be combined with training and other supportive services that would help them transition into housed life.
»

I hope I see the day when

I hope I see the day when Electric Cars are a reality and not just a beta-test fad. Bikes are fun and healthy but for many situations just too impractical.

Even though I'm not one to consider ecology a fad, and I believe Global Warming is not made up, I need to suggest that you reconsider calling people on this board Wonks. Especially when your following sentence says you don't wish to insult.

If the fairly mild "claptrap" is enough to turn people off from reading the rest of the article then I would imagine the equally mild "wonk" would be as well.

Please give me a second grace. Please give me a second face. I've fallen far down, the first time around, now I just sit on the ground in your way.
Nick Drake

»

wonk

n. Slang.

1. A student who studies excessively; a grind.
2. One who studies an issue or a topic thoroughly or excessively: “leading a talkathon of policy wonks in a methodical effort to build consensus for his programs” (Michael Kranish).

»

Sounds like I wasn't much of

Sounds like I wasn't much of a Wonk.

My connotation was way off from the denotation. It just sounded off.

Fortunately, since I'm experiencing cold symptoms (AGAIN, I already went through this a couple months ago), I'm all plugged up and can't taste my foot.

Please give me a second grace. Please give me a second face. I've fallen far down, the first time around, now I just sit on the ground in your way.
Nick Drake

»

claptrap

n.

Pretentious, insincere, or empty language: “I hate … that air/Of claptrap, which your recent poets prize” (Byron).

»

electric cars?

Suggest you rent the movie "who killed the electric car?"  I watched it, looks like GM had a viable product.  Ahead of it's time and with great potential. 

I will note that our government passed an energy bill yesterday with a large commitment to ethanol and greatly pared back commitment to clean energy like solar, wind, etc.  As long as the internal combustion industry has control of so much public policy, there will not be an American-made electric car, but I don't think it's because the electric car is a beta-test fad or the technology is not available.  There seems to be some absolute interest in burning fuel for transportation that defies logic or analysis.  It does have a profit margin though. 

»

thanks Mike

Thanks for the suggestion, and I have seen that movie-- --I was bummed they did away with those cars, but I did get a Ford Ranger that is E compatible and I'm looking to refurb it into an electric truck for light-duty yard work & running around town when it is more rainy than I like to ride or walk in-

When I find good info about E conversions I am posting on this 'blog to share...tracking down a lead about a reputable group up in the San Juan Isles, as well as out-of-state options.

»

Wonk and proud.

Your goals are great. If providing some kind of organizational framework helps people make better decisions about how they consume, I'm all for it. Our cult of self-sufficiency makes us all too dependent on energy-heavy commercial solutions rather eachother. There's great power in cooperation.

ps. I think it usually works to just say, "I don't want this to be a debate environmentalism" and just leave out the rest.

»

hey

spoken like a true anarchist!
»

That's

Manarchist! The Ultimate Fighting kind.
»

You may want to rethink that,

In anarcha-feminist circles in the United States, the slang term "manarchist" is sometimes used, pejoratively, to describe a (generally white and heterosexual) male anarchist who is either inattentive or dismissive with regard to (anarcha)feminist concerns.
»

Hmm, interesting.  Racist

Hmm, interesting.  Racist and sexist at the same time.
»

<slap> Bad blog </slap>

<slap> Bad blog </slap>

»

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