yearofplenty

Battle Over World's Coal Supply on Track to Go Right Through Spokane

Photo by Paul K Anderson

It's seems a little strange to be talking about coal as an issue in the clean hydro-and-wind-abundant state of Washington. After all, lawmakers recently passed legislation that will make us the first state to be free from coal-fired energy. But a coal battle is brewing around the potential of Washington ports becoming major outlets for shipping Wyoming's Powder-River-Basin coal to China. According to the Wyoming's Trib:

Peabody Energy has completed a deal to ship Powder River Basin coal to Asia via a planned export terminal in northwest Washington.The deal with Seattle-based SSA Marine will allow St. Louis-based Peabody to ship up to 24 million metric tons of coal per year via the Gateway Pacific Terminal near Ferndale, Wash.The port would be Peabody’s West Coast hub for exporting Powder River Basin coal to Asian markets, Peabody said in a media release Monday.

Another coal export terminal proposed in Longview in southwest Washington has drawn environmental opposition. That Millennium Bulk Logistics terminal would be a joint venture between Australia-based Ambre Energy and St. Louis mining giant Arch Coal Inc.

The problem for Spokane is that our abundance of railroad tracks would serve as the major artery to transport the uncovered coal cars, with their clouds of toxic dust, to the coast.

Leaders in Spokane are mobilizing to keep the coal trains out of Spokane and are hosting a gathering next week:

What:  Spokane Happy Hour event to learn more about Coal Hard Truth
When: Tuesday, August 23^rd 6-8 p.m.
Where:  Rooftop of the Saranac Building, downtown Spokane, 25 W. Main (http://bit.ly/qRP4Y3)

Slow Food, Slow Money, Now Slow Biking

The SFGate has the story on what some people are calling the "Slow Bike Movement." The gist of the trend is that instead of getting suited up in spandex, leaning over your aerodynamic racing bike, and starting the day covered in sweat more bike commuters are taking their time, choosing upright handlebars, and wearing their work clothes.

Slow riding means not arriving at work sweaty or worrying about wearing specific bike-riding shoes or any of the other wardrobe-related concerns that plague would-be commuters. Being a Slow Bike Rider may mean being left behind by the pack of spandex-wearing cyclists in the mornings, but it also means getting to know more about the rest of your community.

"I actually like interacting with the people in my city," Logan says. "And when you're riding slowly, that tends to happen more often."

This is a wonderful development for people like me who have always been slow bikers. Whereas before I was just uncool, with my Clarks and dress slacks biking to work, now I'm part of a cutting edge movement. I still get sweaty though, and it's hard to avoid that weird wind swept odor. It's been awhile since I biked to work but this has inspired me. 

Stunning Aerial Photos - Suburban Neighborhoods Around the World

I came across this amazing collection of photos, Earth from Above, by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French photographer, journalist, and environmentalist. The whole collection is worth taking some time to scan through. I was most struck by the images that portray such a diversity of the ways people around the world live together in neighborhoods. I know I'm straining the definition a suburb by some of the settings that are closer to city centers, but I think it's a helpful designation for taking in the contrasts. Here are my favorites. Some of the questions these photos provoke for me are: What do these images say about the ways we relate? How do they reflect our social networks? What do they say about our relationship to the natural environment? How dependent are these neighborhoods on fossil fuels? 

Denver Suburb, Colorado

 

Copenhagen Suburb, Denmark

Sha Kibbutz, Israel Suburb

 

Egyptian Suburb, Mit Gahmr Delta
(The large cone structures are pigeon homes. Like Egyptian chickens coops?) 

 

Cape Town Suburb, South Africa

 

Lagos Houseboat Suburb, Nigeria

USDOT Report - Biking & Walking Up 25% Since 2001

During our year long experiment we lived with one car and as a result discovered the joy of walking the kids to school and walking to work and biking all over town. We stumbled into these things but it turns out there has been an intentional effort initiated by the Department of Transportation since 1994 to increase walking and biking as an alternative to car trips.

Recognizing the decline in walking and bicycling, and the rise in fatalities, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) adopted the first national transportation policy in 1994 to “increase use of bicycling, and encourage planners and engineers to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian needs in designing transportation facilities for urban and suburban areas, and increase pedestrian safety through public information and improved crosswalk design, signaling, school crossings, and sidewalks.”

They have just issued their 15 year status report that includes the following informative charts;

Here's the money quote from the 15 year report regarding the bottom line success of the initiative;

The first overall goal of the National Bicycling and Walking Study was to double the percentage of trips made by bicycling and walking. At the time of the original study’s publication, results from the 1990 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) showed that only 7.9 percent of all reported trips were taken by foot (7.2 percent) or bike (0.7 percent). Thus, the goal was set to reach the point where 15.8 percent of all reported trips were taken by at least one of these two modes.

According to the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), walking trips accounted for 10.9 percent of all trips reported, while one percent of all trips reported were taken by bike. Together, the two modes account for 11.9 percent of all reported trips. While those percentages do not meet the National goal, they do reflect some progress toward meeting it. Both reported bicycling and walking trips have increased by 25 percent since the 2001 NHTS. The number of reported walking trips has more than doubled since the first survey, from 18 billion in 1990 to 42.5 billion in 2009. Bicycling trips saw a similar increase, from 1.7 billion to 4 billion reported trips during the same time period. However, due to an increase in population, and therefore an increase in the overall number of trips, the percentages of trips by walking and bicycling have not met the original goals.

It looks like real progress is being made but there is a long way to go. Check out Bike to Work Spokane for a local effort to increase the number of bike trips in our region.

Things You See While Walking - Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Walked the kids to school today. On the way home I ventured off the beaten path, onto some mountain bike paths and to the top of the hill where I was greeted by a beautiful meadow of Arrowleaf Balsamroot and an abandoned shed.

Things You See While Walking - Ducks

I walked the girls to school today and walked to work from there. Beautiful morning and it reminded me why I love walking so much as opposed to driving. During our year with one car, we discovered the joy of walking to school and work. It makes available the world of beauty that is all around but mostly missed in the hurry of noise of car travel. I started this series awhile back, "Things You See While Walking" and I'll add this beautiful Spokane River duck from this morning's walk to the list.

Things We Pile Up On Our Doorsteps

I saw the picture directly below connected to an article in the NYTimes about a community in Germany that functions with no cars, and I couldn’t help but think about the picture above from a village we visited in Thailand in January with shoes piled up at the doorstep of a home. In America of course we pile up cars on our doorsteps. No comment other than to say that what we pile up on doorsteps tells you alot about the ways we choose to shape our community life.

Bike to Work Week and the Sudden Decline in American Driving Miles

I guess Bike to Work Week and other such initiatives are making a difference. I suppose fuel prices might have a little something to do with it too. Nate Silver gives us the rundown on the fairly dramatic downturn in American's driving miles. See chart above. This comment in the article caught my attention;

Could it be that there's been some sort of paradigm shift in Americans' attitudes toward their cars? Perhaps, given the exorbitant gas prices of last summer, Americans realized that they weren't quite as dependent on their vehicles as they once thought they were.

Amen to that. Bring on the Bike to Work week challenge. Only problem for me is that it starts on a Sunday. Last year I spent many a Sunday morning riding down to the church at 5 am to get ready for the days worship and it was kind of rough. I'm going to take the car tomorrow but I promise I'll ride some extra miles to make up for it.

Plenty of Links Friday

I'm going to try to offer some interesting links to news and activities in local foods and promising innovations in consumption on Fridays. Here is today's offering:

• Spokane has some work to do to catch up to Seattle in our recycling efforts.
• Some people are adopting the low carbon diet proposed by Bon Appetit Food Management.
• Others are taking a different approach and working on a low carbon cow.
• Folks in Petersborough, N.H. have the novel idea of having the food bank hire farmers to provide food for their constituents.
• The city of Spokane is giving away bikes to Green businesses.
• Master Food Preservers of Spokane County are offering a class on the Essentials of Home Canning on Sunday, April 24 at 4pm. Go here to register.
• Don't forget to "plant a row for the hungry". Take your bounty directly to Second Harvest Food Bank and they will give you a receipt that will get you a $1.50/pound tax deduction.
• Support your local garden centers and greenhouses this year.

Time for me to go build a chicken coop, otherwise Nancy is going to make me move into the laundry room with the fast growing chickies.

Things You See While Walking

 

I'm going to just keep going with this "Things You See While Walking" series. Above are some maple blossoms hanging next to the Argonne Bridge that I encountered on my way to work. The premise is that when you walk instead of drive for transportation there is a world of beauty and intrigue that becomes available to you.

I picked up on this when I was in Thailand and I ventured out from the residence we were staying at with my camera in hand and walked around the taking pictures and looking for the beauty in the place. I returned to our host's house, and showed him my pictures, and he remarked that you should take your pictures of a place soon after you move there, because it will all quickly become veiled in the shroud of familiarity. It was hard for him to see the beauty with familiar eyes, that for me was more obvious because it was so new and strange. I wondered if there might be all kinds of beauty right under my nose in my own neighborhood in Spokane that I was missing because I assumed I already had seen it all.

The monastic communities recognized this reality when they practiced what they called "stability", or staying in one place for life. Instead of moving from place to place, they believed that there are experiences in life and vistas of faith that only opened up to you when you stick around for awhile in one place among one group of people. It's something different than the first blush of new encounters. It's something that only becomes available to you after the superficial shine of newness has worn off and you learn to pay attention in the midst of the rhythms of familiarity.