I won’t give too much away but I have to give props to former NYC firefighter Kevin Shea for taking an arm-chair idea and running with it. I find it especially funny that his neighbors just don’t get it and actually detest the idea. You can be sure though they would be the first ones knocking on Shea’s looking for refuge or help. Special thanks to the crew at Science Friday for bringing this story to light! Watch the video below and then share your thoughts. Would you live in a geo-dome? Do you have an unconventional home that is easy on the environment and your pocketbook?

The idea behind rail travel is not a new one. The first examples of rail travel began in Greece around 6 B.C. Grooves embedded into limestone rock provided a guide for wagon wheels pushed by slaves to traverse a 6 kilometer trail without leaving that trail and damaging the surrounding landscape. The idea slowly progressed from wooden rails laid on top of the ground to the current iron rails of today. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed opening up the western United States for settlement. The railroad also greatly reduced the amount of time and cost it took to ship goods from the east coast. Between 1896 and 1910, it’s said that 95% of all inter-city transportation was done by rail. In 1920, rail travel reached it’s pinnacle, transporting 1.2 billion passengers. But a nearly tripling in rail fares that year led more Americans than ever to look at the automobile as a cheaper, more self-sufficient way of travel. Rail travel saw another surge beginning in 1939 but it was still only half of ridership seen in the 20’s. By 1970, airlines were transporting almost 75% of travelers while trains carried a mere 7%. Amtrak was created during this same time period by the U.S. government to balance out transportation options and relieve traffic congestions on roads and highways. But since then, railroads haven’t had a huge impact on travel. It’s just another forgotten way.

Now, that forgotten mode of transportation is coming back to haunt us.  This isn’t a scary haunting but one of those friendly spirits that appears to tell us we messed up writing off rail travel a long time ago.  But, we can change that and some of our lawmakers are hoping to do just that.  On November 6th, the Senate voted 70-22 to fund Amtrak with $11.4 billion for the next 6 years.  That’s a fairly sizable increase to the government run, for-profit, railroad compared to years past.  Is it enough to save passenger rail travel and encourage more to use the service?  Only time will tell and the House still has to put their stamp of approval on the measure.  President Bush and his administration has dallied with the idea of shutting down Amtrak and opening passenger rail travel to privatization.  Under that plan, each railroad would have their own opportunity to provide passenger rail service, just like they did in the old days.

Rail travel requires about 20% less energy than traveling by car or plane making it more environmentally friendly.  Trains can run in bad weather when planes might not be able to fly or when roads might be too hazardous and nerve-wracking to drive.  Trains provide you with more leg room and you don’t have to deal with breathing that stale, recirculated air.  You can get up, stretch your legs and walk around.  Not to mention the fact you can actually see major portions of our country by traveling on a train.  The scenery is always changing!  So, if you plan on flying or driving this holiday season, take time to think about how it would be different boarding a train.  Think about the environmental impacts, saving you headaches of early check-ins and security lines and most of all, the relaxation you’ll experience on your journey and most of all avoiding the $3/gallon gas prices.  If you’re really passionate about it, book a trip on Amtrak or write your local Congressman or Senator a letter to let him/her know your support for rail travel.

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It seems like we will never see prices dip to the levels they were at four or five years ago. I can fondly remember filling up my gas tank in Phoenix with prices hovering around $1.50 a gallon. I can remember when the price climbed to $1.75, people were outraged. But here we are nearly double that amount in a five year period and everyone seems as calm as a Hindu cow. How does that happen? How do we just seemingly ignore the fact that the situation with oil is getting way out of control both with prices and with future supplies? It frustrates my wife and I a lot, so we’re trying to do what we can to limit our demand on oil.

We live about 12 miles away from the city in a small, relatively rural bedroom community. We both commute into town to work but we’re really trying to plan our trips smartly. Before we head to town, we think about where we have to go and what we have to do. Then, we plan our route making one big circuit. Not only does it save you the frustration of having to drive back and forth from one place to the next. It also saves you gas! While 12 miles into town and back hardly seems like a long trip, we’ve programmed ourselves to believe it is. That 24 mile round trip will burn one gallon of gas in our Nissan Maxima. That number makes me cringe, thinking about a 1 gallon container of gas being thrown out the window. When we come up with something we’d like to do in town, we try to think of other things we can accomplish if we’re going to burn the gas to get there. It’s a great, easy technique that we’ve found works really good to make a dent in how much gas we consume.

We’ve also started talking about trying to buy a hybrid car. Our 1999 Nissan Maxima gets about 26 miles per gallon city driving and 31 on the highway. That’s really not bad compared to some other “energy hogs” driving on our roads today. Considering a Toyota Prius hybrid can get 44 miles per gallon, we’ve got a long way to go! We can’t afford to buy a home in our area because prices are way out of line for first time home buyers. So, we’re thinking about investing our money in vehicle that will save us from the pain at the gas pump.

I’ve been doing some research on hybrid cars and I’m just really not impressed with the way auto manufacturers are finding ways to save us money and energy. Chevy has announced a new hybrid Malibu but it’s only rated at 24mpg (miles per gallon) in the city and 32 on the highway. That’s just a 2mpg increase over the normal engine. That hardly seems worth it! Ford’s hybrid Escape SUV get’s about 34mpg in the city, 30 on the highway. That’s pretty decent but the price seems too high starting at $25,075. Buying American would be nice and I’d feel better about supporting some of the last remaining manufacturing that goes on in our country or at least supposedly does. But it seems like once again, the foreign automakers are leading the pack on hybrids. Hopefully American automakers will get their act together or just like our oil reserves, they’ll dry up.

Here’s some cool resources I found on the web while doing my research. The Fed’s fuel economy website gives you details on the current tax credits associated with buying a hybrid car:
Federal Fuel Economy Website

To find rebate and incentive programs offered by your state you can head to the U.S. Department of Energy website:
Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center

And, for those of you that would like to see some side by side comparisons of hybrids, head to the website by the Union of Concerned Scientists:
Hybrid Center

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The first and most obvious way to travel green is by putting some careful thought and consideration into your trip.  This can be as simple as running your daily errands and considering a gas-saving route to complete them.  If you’re going to be hitting the road, heading to Grandma’s house, you can make sure that your tires are inflated to proper pressure, pack a little lighter and make sure to use that cruise control set around 65 or 70mph to get the most out of your gas mileage.  You could also rent a hybrid car for your trip.  Most of the big rental car companies now offer hybrids and will even teach you how to use them if you’re feeling intimidated about the technology on-board.  There’s now one whole rental car company that rents nothing but environmentally friendly cars in California and Phoenix, AZ.

But with the current green movement underway, there’s now all sorts of environmentally friendly ways to travel about.  You could plan to visit green cities.  One city that’s consistently ranked tops for it’s green way of life is Portland, Oregon.  The city is surrounded by nature, has a great mass transportation system, plenty of parks and open space and a host of environmentally responsible hotels and restaurants.  What could be better?  If Portland, Oregon isn’t in your trip planning future you could look for green hotels at any destination.   There’s now a Green Hotels Association, where innkeepers can pledge to make a difference with their property. You can check out a listing of their members by clicking this link to the Green Hotels website.  If you can’t find a listing for a green hotel in the area you’re headed there’s some steps you can personally take at any hotel.  The number one suggestion: don’t have your room serviced every day.  The wastefulness of washing every room’s sheets and towels once a day when the same people are staying in the room is ridiculous.  You don’t wash your stuff at home that much, why let the hotel do it!  Also, take your own bottles of soaps and shampoos so you don’t have to use the ones at the hotel.  If you do use them, take the leftover with you and get the most out of it before throwing away the packaging.

If you’d like to literally lend a helping hand to the environment and have an unforgettable trip, there’s several groups offering ecological experiences.  One based in Flagstaff, Arizona takes on projects for places like the National Park Service.  You volunteer your time to the task at hand and pay a fee that covers food and expenses, usually for a week at a time.  You can log onto the Wilderness Volunteer website to get an idea on what kinds of trips they have to offer.

Last but not least, when you head out of the house for that trip, shut it down!  Lights are essential to make your house look lived in while you’re away.  But, put those lights on timers so you’re not wasting electricity 24/7.  If you haven’t already, change the bulbs to compact fluorescents.  That will also help you save the cost of energy.   You should also unplug electronics that always suck power, no matter what.  These are your VCR’s, DVD players, televisions and most of all…your computer.  If you’re not going to be home to read your email for a week, turn it off!  There’s so many fun, new ways to tread a little lighter when we head out to travel.

I recorded a vlog from the square foot garden just a couple of weeks ago and totally forgot to post it. Better late than never, right? This will help you get caught up to speed on my next garden update, hopefully coming this weekend. Check it out in my featured video box on the right!

The piece of technology Zhang has been toiling away on is called an “anaerobic phased solids digester”.   This type of machine is already in use at wastewater treatment plants and livestock farms around the nation, breaking down the sewage into usable gas.  Zhang has apparently improved the technology to allow the use of more wastes like food scraps, yard clippings and animal manure.  It also apparently cuts the processing time in half and produces hydrogen and methane.  Other systems apparently only produce methane.  That would be a true energy revolution, just like bio-diesel.  Can you imagine the food scraps we don’t eat and animal manure being turned into a fuel for our car?  That would be truly amazing.

UC Davis estimates that about 5 million tons of food scraps go into California landfills every year.  If one ton can produce enough energy for the average day at 10 homes, that year’s worth of food could power 50 million houses for one day or 130,000 houses for the entire year.

If you’d like to read more about Zhang’s system, head over to the website of UC Davis.

It’s fantastic that Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs or CFL’s are becoming so mainstream. You can find the bulbs just about anywhere, helping consumers save 75% or more energy just by switching out their filament based bulbs. But it seems we’ve reached another “cart before the horse” situation with CFL’s: what to do with the bulbs when they burn out?

CFL’s contain a small amount of mercury. Of course, we’ve heard the dangers surrounding mercury for years. That’s why most thermometers gauge temperature using an alcohol solution instead of mercury. It’s toxic and can cause major environmental problems by building up in living organisms over time and eventually work its way up the food chain. So, throwing CFL’s out isn’t a really great option where they just end up in a landfill and release the toxic mercury into the ground. The technology already exists to recycle CFL’s easily and put those chemicals to use in more bulbs. However, there are only a few recycling centers set up at this point. Unless you live in the Pacific Northwest or Minnesota, you’re going to have to pay a premium to recycle those bulbs. In fact the three companies online that offer you a shipping container to mail those CFL’s back for recycling charge between $15 and $75 per container!

Wal-Mart is doing their part to get people into the CFL spirit by selling boat loads of them at stores nationwide. I think they should do their part just like they’ve done with the plastic bag recycling bins seen at most stores. They should setup bins so customers can deposit burned out CFL’s when they go shopping. Here in Flagstaff, our city’s hazardous waste disposal center will take the CFL’s and ship them out but that means driving all the way out to the dump. That’s hardly convenient either. It seems until more people start demanding easier CFL recycling, it’s going to continue to be an cost prohibitive chore.

For more information on properly disposing of CFL’s or what to do if one breaks in your house, head to the Energy Star website. If you’re interested in paying for one of those $15 shipping containers, you can head to Sylvania’s Recyclepak website. What do you do with your CFL’s when they burn out? Does your city or county make it easy to recycle them? Tell me about your experience.