Biking innovations

Two great ideas in time for "Ride To Work/School" tomorrow in Victoria, Australia

1) Self service bicycle repair station: In the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, a DIY bike repair station called Bike Fixation was recently launched to help stranded cyclists. Open 365 days a year from 6am to midnight, you can come buy tire repair kits, pump your tires for free, and make adjustments with tools available from the kiosk. It's a great way to make use of vacant lots in a way that would help the local bikers and also present new business opportunities.

2) In 2007, Minneapolis built the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge to help route cyclists away from the Hiawatha Avenue lane crossing. Quotes from the article:

The first cable-stayed bridge of any kind in the state, it’s breathtaking, even to the people who have been riding it for years. It provides a safe, continuous crossing and offers up a glorious view of the downtown skyline (especially at sunset!). The sleek Hiawatha light rail line runs beneath it, and there are benches to sit on and take everything in.

Used by an average of 2,500 riders a day, peak use can hit 5,000 to 6,000 per day on some gorgeous summer weekends, according to Shaun Murphy of the Minneapolis Department of Public Works.

Here's a video to check out about the bridge.



Have a great bike ride tomorrow!

Boris Pelcer's Environmental Awareness Illustrations

I just came across Boris Pelcer's ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS © illustrations.



They're a series of illustrations based on the artist's childhood experience as a war refugee from Bosnia & Herzegovina living in Peć, Kosovo | Serbia from 1992 to 1998. Here's the artist's description:

Can you imagine our planet & our way of life in fifty of hundred years from now? Consider this. We live in a profit-driven economy. Great number of decisions are made with this question in mind: "What will bring us the most money?" Those decisions do not consider what is the best for the planet, but what is best for the economy financially. This series of work is to make you realize the quality of life we would create for our children & grandchildren if no action is taken. The problem seems too big to feel as though our efforts will make a difference, so most of us don't even try. However, as long as we put in any kind of effort with patience & persistence, we are doing exactly what we need to be doing to make a difference.

I found the illustrations very powerful - they really capture the despair and wretchedness that comes from living in a place environmentally torn, especially with children as the focal point of the illustrations. It brings the viewer from their comfort zone and forces them to realize what they take for granted, like fresh unpolluted air and enough food to eat. Art can provide ways to imagine the unimaginable and provoke discussion about issues that matter, so just wanted to share these illustrations with you.

Biking and living one's value system

I just finished changing a flat tire on my bike. It's my 4th flat tire in 2.5 months and I'm certainly not getting any faster at changing out the punctured inner tube. It still takes me around 1 hour if I'm lucky to get it all done. Add in the stress of figuring out how to get home on a flat and obtaining new inner tubes and you get a whole lot of frustration. It's days like these I ask myself, why do I put up with this?

Every time it happens, I recall a story an environmental studies professor at Wellesley once told us. She was asked to speak at a conference in Portland, Oregon and the conference hosts had arranged for a taxi to pick her up from the airport. But instead of taking the taxi service, my professor voluntarily looked up the public transport from the airport to her hotel and the conference site. The reason was because taking public transport in lieu of the more carbon footprint heavy taxi was more in-line with her value system as an environmentalist. If one really wants to be true to one's values, one's actions must reflect that.

Ever since I heard that story, I've been inspired to really put my actions where my words are. My decision to become vegetarian, bike to work and school, and buy more environmentally friendly products came from that. It hasn't been easy. My friends have to accommodate my dietary needs every time we have get togethers; it takes me an hour to commute to school each way and it rains a lot in Melbourne; and organic goods tend to be more expensive. But I feel despite all that, I am being true to what I believe.

There are a lot of pluses, of course. Biking every day has greatly improved my overall health (multitasking exercise and commuting, what an idea!) and it's sometimes easier than trying to figure out the fastest route by public transport. Being vegetarian also has contributed to a healthier living style and I've discovered many new delicious dishes I wouldn't necessarily have come across before. And all of this has raised awareness of environmental issues amongst people I interact with because they can see clearly the kinds of choices and impacts it makes.

So how do I feel now, hands covered in dirt and new inner tube back on my bike? I wouldn't change my mind for the world.

Reducing food waste

A recent NY Times article came out about the war against food waste. The statistics about the amount of food that's thrown out uneaten is astounding - quoting from the article

According to the most recent available statistics, more than 30 million tons of food was dumped in landfills in 2009, making food by far the most abundant material there by weight, the federal Environmental Protection Agency says. (That calculation excludes industrial, construction and hazardous waste.) This amounts roughly to 200 pounds a year for every man, woman and child in the United States.

What people don't realize is that much more than just food is wasted when food's thrown away. There are an enormous amount of resources that go into getting the food "from paddock to plate", including picking, processing, storage, transportation, and refrigeration. It's estimated that for every 1 ton of food wasted, 3.8 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions are generated. Reducing the amount of food wasted is an easy way to reduce the carbon footprint.

Supermarkets are a big culprit in generating this food waste. Perfectly good food gets thrown out because of food labeling changes, excess stock, marginally damaged products, slight label inaccuracies, outdated packaging, discontinued products, and expired shelf life. Some people have taken to the "freegan" movement and go dumpster diving for the still-good food thrown out by supermarkets. Before the reader gets too disgusted by this idea, freegan divers take precautions such as wearing rubber gloves, choosing well lit sites, taking items that are packaged, and thoroughly washing fruit and vegetables. I have never personally been dumpster diving, but it has definite appeal, from waste reduction to free food with a tinge of adventure.

Another (slightly less disgusting) way to make the most of food left out is to go foraging for fruit on vacant property. The NY Times article describes several fruit foraging organizations and leaders, who scout out vacant or foreclosed lots with fruit trees to pick the ripened fruit for themselves or charity. One forager, Anna Chan of Clayton, California, is known as the Lemon Lady. Three years ago, she started collecting fruit and donating them to food banks, local farms and grocery store produce departments - since then, she and other volunteers have delivered up over 250 tons of food to the hungry. It's a great way to make the most of what's available, I think. Despite the legal grey area of who owns the property, I think it makes more sense for people to pick the fruit when it's ripening and give it to those who need it than the bank to claim the land and then let everything go to waste.

What wasted food boils down to the end is that people need to be more conscious about what's wasted. It's not just the food itself, but the time and resources needed to produce that food. When food is thrown out, it's contributing a lot of extra, unnecessary CO2 and it's diverting resources away from people who need it. With so many complicated environmental problems out there, this is one that can be easily resolved, so why not start now?

Peru, indigenous communities, and going back to traditions

Dealing with climate change with ancient traditions: Peru is going back to farming traditions that indigenous people living there centuries ago. This includes planting crops that are adapted to the land, temperature, and weather, such as the huaña pink potato which lasts 4 times longer than normal potatoes in storage and which can resist frost, hail, extreme rain and drought. Peruvian farmers are also looking into different techniques of farming, such as level terraces on the mountains and hillsides. It's very promising that organizations are now looking into local traditions that have persisted through the years as a way to combat climate change. While not all traditions are equally efficient or relevant now, there are many benefits from learning from the past, especially if they are traditions that had been honed for that particular environment over many years. Jared Diamond writes of successful (and unsuccessful) societies from the past and present in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, including examples of farming methodology and government structure that may be worthwhile to explore now.

In another article about Peru, Peru is now one of the leading Latin American countries for indigenous communities rights. A new law recognizing land ownership rights has now come into effect, which can help reduce social conflict between locals and companies interested in mining, logging, or other resource extraction. It'll be seen whether the government takes the consultation of such indigenous leaders into consideration when making decisions, as some countries make decisions contrary to the wishes of their indigenous communities despite having consulted them.

The good of community gardens

This article here on community greening is an issue that those involved in community gardening and open space advocating come across often – having to describe the benefits of community gardening. Having just written a review section on urban agriculture in the US and Canada, I wanted to share with you some of the key points I found.

There are a number of benefits from community gardens which fall under three main themes: urban agriculture, community development, and open spaces.

Urban agriculture: One of the crises faced by inner city residents is the food desert and lack of access to fresh healthy produce. This food insecurity problem can be addressed through community gardens in the city itself – vacant lots can be turned into garden plots and its harvest distributed to the neighborhood. The gardens can be owned by municipalities, community organizations, schools, land trusts, or even private owners. This local cultivation of one’s own food comes along with better food security, improvements in nutrition by eating fresh produce, reduced need for food transportation, and less money spent on groceries. Learning to plant and eat with the seasons can bring in a lot of educational opportunities as well. Organizations like Just Food in New York City focuses on developing a sustainable food system including partnerships with community gardens and community supported agriculture (CSA) farms.

Community development: Besides the direct impact on food security, getting a group of people together for a common cause, in this case growing greens, opens up many opportunities for community development. A sense of belonging is cultivated by the members and gardeners who tend the plot as well as a sense of neighborhood. Growing one’s own food, making decisions in what goes into the garden, and becoming self reliant is also hugely empowering, especially for new immigrants or low income people who might not feel as comfortable in formal parks. Relationships can be built across generations, cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic classes through working and playing together in these spaces and certainly it can contribute to reduction of crime and drug use. Some who get involved in gardening find that it helps them reconnect to their cultural or ethnic identity by the types of fruits and vegetables grown. Such empowerment and community participation very much strengthens the community as a whole.

For the especially productive gardens, they can become starting points for teaching entrepreneurship. Food from the 'Hood in South Central Los Angeles was created in October 1992 in response to the race riots and has become a nationally acclaimed program for empowering youth through entrepreneurial training. Students grew fruit and vegetables in an empty lot behind the Crenshaw High football field and developed their own line of salad dressing. Proceeds went to donation and scholarships to student managers; to date, over $250,000 in scholarships has been generated.

Open spaces: The garden itself can be a space for social, cultural, and educational activities. A study by Saldivar-Tanaka and Krasny (2004) on Latino community gardens in New York found that these spaces were used as places for family gatherings, parties, holidays, workshops, school group tours, and educational courses. For residents and families that may not be able to afford visiting public parks or personal backyards, having a green communal area is an inexpensive way to gather and relax. In addition, having a green space contributes to city beautification, improvements in environmental health through ameliorating air pollution and the urban heat effect, and positive reflections of the community identity. It’s a great opportunity for residents to participate and show their culture, creativity, and aesthetics through the plants and structures.

Today, the American Community Gardening Association estimates there are over 18,000 community gardens in the US and Canada, ranging from neighborhood gardens to public housing gardens and school gardens (Kortright and Wakefield, 2011). I think that it’s a great way to reconnect with nature and the community. If you’re interested in starting your own community garden, check out the resources below or contact the People’s Garden Initiative with the US Department of Agriculture to locate your nearest community garden.

RESOURCES

American Community Gardening Association

The Urban Agriculture Network

Community Food Security Coalition

City Farmer

FoodShare Toronto

REFERENCES:

Brown KH, Carter A (2003). Urban agriculture and community food security in the United States: farming from the city center to the urban fringe. Community Food Security Coalition, North American Urban Agriculture Committee.

Kortright R, Wakefield S (2011). Edible backyards: a qualitative study of household food growing and its contributions to food security. Agricultural and Human Values, 28:39-53

Saldivar-Tanaka L, Krasny ME (2004). Culturing community development, neighborhood open space, and civic agriculture: The case of Latino community gardens. Agriculture and Human Values, 21:399-412

DPI Climate Dogs

The Australian Department of Primary Industries made these really cute, but informative videos about the interactions of El Nino and La Nina affecting the weather patterns in Australia. They're one of the reasons why Melbourne had a cold and rainy year. Check them out! More information can be found here at the DPI website