Greening Our Vacation

It's easy for the Man of Steel: Whenever he's tired of saving the world and needs to retreat to his Fortress of Solitude over on the North Pole, he simply takes off and flies there, on his own power. The rest of us are not superheroes, and for us travel to remote places means we need to board a bird of steel (or, more accurately, some aluminium alloy).

Poster by Hamlet Au Yeung for Do The Green Thing

You can't deny that airplane travel is fast, but it also has a huge carbon footprint. It is true that any given scheduled flight / train / bus will depart whether or not you bought a seat on it. This argument certainly holds for travel on Amtrak trains, which tend to have a low occupation (outside of big travel holidays like Thanksgiving). So the marginal carbon emissions - the emissions due to the extra person travelling on that half-empty train - is quite small.

But airlines have removed from their schedules those flights that tend to be half full, and consolidated them with other flights, so most airplanes are filled near capacity these days. This means that on the aggregate, the more of us are looking to fly a segment (say Boston to San Diego), the more flights the airline will schedule on that segment.

Review: Honda CR-V

Bucking the trend, the very popular Honda CR-V has not grown over the years: since its introduction in 1995, its size has stayed pretty much the same in the length and width directions, and it has actually become less tall, going from about 70 inches for the early SUV to 65 inches for today's crossover.

While in the early days it looked like a utilitarian box on wheels much like the old Jeep, the CR-V has gradually moved its image toward sophistication, to the point that the sides now resemble a Lexus SUV. (There's some poetic justice in this, since the earliest Lexus RX, in my humble opinion, resembled a pregnant Honda Civic: what goes around comes around).

Arctic Sea Ice Visualisations

Arctic sea ice is melting apace, and will soon leave a watery expanse where the earth used to show a white-capped north pole. The diminishing of sea ice at the polar region is already altering the jet stream and making extreme weather events more extreme and of longer duration. There is worrisome evidence of the spread of disease as temperatures are rising around the north pole.

The movie "Chasing Ice" gives a glimpse of the enormity of the melting of the vast Greenland ice sheet. When that ice sheet releases ice into the sea in the process of calving, it does so in chunks the size of Manhattan - only quite a bit taller. The scale of that ice sheet is hard to comprehend.

But the area covered (still, so far) by arctic sea ice is even larger than Greenland. And it looks like all that is melting away as well, at an ever increasing rate since the 1980s.

Andy Lee Robinson, who is at that rare cross-roads between geeky techno-savvy and highly creative artistic talent, has made a movie that shows the total volume of arctic ice as the years go by: basically we're witnessing the melting of a gigantic ice cube.

The graph shows all the data; but it doesn't hit you in the gut like the movie does. Make sure to have sound on.

Arctic Sea Ice minimum volume 1979-2012. (31 secs)

How to Save Water (and Work) When Washing Your Car, Part 2

CelloDad found a way to clean the underside of the car, from the comfort of the driver seat. Told you he's inventive.

 

 

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2. A Non-Toxic Cleaning for your Car Interior
3. All-wheel drive (AWD): not all it's cranked up to be

 

Green Is Frugal! Reducing Car Use and Meat Consumption

In a recent survey, readers of the Reduce Footprints blog said that the toughest challenges in green living are reducing the use of the car and reducing meat in our diet. I totally get that: Like with most people, my mouth starts to water when I catch the smell of a nice steak on the grill (why, even writing about it gets it going). And the car is so convenient. Besides, even if you tried you couldn't get away from it, since many of us live in suburbs or small towns where you don't get anything done (work, play, groceries) without a car.

Photo SpaceMonkey

But while biological imperative and the pressures exerted by an inherited infrastructure can be strong, that doesn't mean that we have to let go all the brakes and jump in our SUVs to drive to the nearest steakhouse. We can put up a resistance.

Ah, you say, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I get that too: personally, I particularly shine at energy conservation when we're talking about physical energy that my body has to exert. On cold or rainy days that car really beckons to me.

So I need a motivation that's stronger than the objections my wily self can put up (and she is wily, my evil twin).

EV Price Slashed: Now Is It Competitive? - a Cost Comparison Tutorial

Electric vehicles are touted as the way to drastically reduce the nation's transportation carbon footprint, especially once we have managed to transition our electricity grid away from fossil-fueled utilities, such as coal-burning plants. But so far sales of EVs have been anemic.

The disappointing sales figures partly stem from the driving public's doubts about the batteries, that are optimised within a narrow temperature range, and which are expensive to replace. But even without this concern, the hefty price premium on most EVs are a real deterrent, even if you take into account the $7,500 support the Federal government offers towards the purchase of an EV.

That is about to change, as several manufacturers of EVs have decided to drastically cut the MSRP of their EV offerings. The Nissan Leaf went from $35,200 to $28,800, and the monthly lease on a Honda Fit EV went from $389 to $259 a month. With these hefty cuts, EVs come into range for a lot more people.

So let us sit down and see if now it makes sense to buy an EV rather than a conventional gasoline-powered car. Obviously, there is some math involved here, but I promise it's nowhere near as bad as, say, your Federal tax return. If you've passed middle school, you can do this.

Like all good tutorials, from building a tool shed to sewing cloth diapers, I will show the finished product up front. (Sorry, no pretty pictures in this post: this is a cost estimate. After all, there are no pretty pictures on your tax return forms, either).

 

	Nissan Leaf	Honda Fit EV
	10-year ownership	3-year lease
Purchase Cost	$ 21,300	$ 9,324
Operation Cost	$ 4,854	$ 1,567
TOTAL	$ 26,154	$ 10,891
Comparison Vehicle (gasoline)	Nissan Versa Hatchback	Honda Fit (1.8S Auto)
Purchase Cost	$ 15,460	$ 7,700
Operation Cost	$ 21, 429	$ 5,806
TOTAL	$ 36,889	$ 13,506
EV Savings	$ 10,735	$ 2,615
Annual Savings	$ 1,074	$ 872

Figuratively speaking, this forms a pretty picture indeed: in the long term, there are big savings to be had from choosing an EV over a conventional car. Read on to see what assumptions go into these numbers, and how to do this estimate for yourself.

How to Save Water (and Work) When Washing Your Car

"Laziness", CelloDad is fond of saying, "is the mother of invention". CelloDad is one of the most inventive people I have ever met. I have learned many tricks from him over the years we have been together.

One effective way to get things done is to hold back the urge to do something, but instead to simply wait until the problem goes away. This approach works particularly well for dusty cars. Is your car covered in mud, or liberally dusted in tree pollen? Take heart: if you wait long enough, a good thunderstorm will eventually visit your parking spot, the heavens will open, and torrential rain will wash away all that dirt and dust, and leave your car sparkling.

I have applied this tactic many times, to great effect, and with satisfyingly little effort.

It saves you from releasing nasty chemicals, that might lurk in your car soap or waxing finish, into the environment. And it saves a lot of water. It also saves you a lot of work of the kind that requires you to take an extra shower: more water savings.

Photo Joost J. Bakker

But once in a while you can't wait for the saving rain.

Review: 2013 Audi Q5

Audi, a relative latecomer to the SUV scene, launched the Q5 in 2008, in the depths of the financial crisis. Despite the unfortunate timing of the introduction, I regularly see Q5's on the road.

Here in the US, the Q5 is classified as a "compact SUV": poor naming. In Germany (and in France also) it is known simply as "SUV". In the Netherlands it is called a "Mid-size SUV". The Dutch logic is impeccable: after all, the Q5 is the middle of Audi's SUV range, between the Q3 and the Q7. The German splash page for the Q3 is obviously directed to younger drivers: "Developed from new demands", while the splash for the seven-seat Q7 is more sedate; "From the inventor of the quattro".

This is What I Call a Parking Garage

Here is a bicycles-only parking garage.
(And why should it not be wider than a hotel? It's full as it is.)

The sign says, "Amsterdam Loves Bikes". From the looks of it, bikes love Amsterdam, too. This is the parking garage at the central railway station with its connections to trains, buses and water transport. Bicycle parking fee: € 1.20 ($1.50) per day. Pretty steep, but hey, this is Amsterdam.

There are a few handicap-access car parking spots close to the Ibis hotel. And the general parking garage for cars is on the other side of the water from the station; rates are €55 ($70) per day. The word "punitive" comes to mind.

 

 

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We Need a Change in Climate News

The past two weeks has seen climate change in the news, or rather, a tiny bit more than the usually pathetic coverage it gets from mainstream news outlets, considering we're talking about the future of our species.

The first noteworthy piece of climate news is that the world has reached a new and ominous milestone: the concentration of carbon dioxide has reached 400 ppm. Lisa Welp and Ralph Keeling of the Scripps Institute write about this in the way scientists write: with an even, almost detached tone.

Review: is smart a smart choice?

Small is beautiful, but pehaps small is not always smart: Smart is certainly small, but is Smart actually also smart?

In case all this makes your brain itch: we're talking about the Smart citycar, or, as their website would have it, the "smart uncar" (note the uncapitalised name). At 106.1 inches (2695mm) length it's shorter by a third than the diminuitive Ford Ka. The Smart ForTwo is basically a sedan cut in half - giving a whole different slant on the word "coupé". (The Smart ForFour was longer, but is no longer in production).

It's hard to get a handle on the Smart: it's half a car, but with all four wheels. But it's still significantly larger than half a car: its 8ft 10in length would fit sideways (just) in an oversized parking spot at a mega-mall, but in most cities you still need a full parking space for it. The only places where it would have an advantage are very cramped cities like ancient Asian and European towns that were built for pedestrians.

CelloMom Voted one of Top 25 Eco-Friendly Mom Blogs

I'm excited to share that CelloMom on Cars has been voted one of the Top 25 Eco-Friendly Mom blogs! Thank you so much for your support and your vote(s): CelloMom came in tied at 25th place, so your every vote made it possible!

The list, compiled by Circle of Moms, has many great blogs by moms who write about their journeys to a more healthy and sustainable life. These blogs have lots of tips and advice, and lots of humour; some bloggers host giveaways. In short, it's well worth browsing through the list.