Energy

The Sky in China isn’t Blue

Last November, a colleague from our Shanghai office came to San Francisco and took dozens of pictures of the sky. She said over and over again “your sky is so blue” and I thought “of course it is, blue is the color of the sky.”

I recently returned from my first visit to the red country, touring through Shenzhen factories on the China mainland. The trip was eye-opening in many ways (FB/twitter/gmail didn’t work, lo mein and corn on the cob are served for breakfast and there aren’t toilet seats), but the thing that shocked me most was the color of the sky, which wasn’t blue.

Being in China, I realized what my Shanghai colleague meant – the sky isn’t blue everywhere anymore. In China, on a sunny day, in Shenzhen which has much less smog than Beijing or Shanghai, the sky is gray.

On really bad days, residents living in Northern cities, such as Harbin, can’t see across the street and planes are delayed regularly due to issues landing in the smog. Beijing officials are looking at trying to wash away air pollution with artificial rain or suck it up with large vacuums (seriously), and Shanghai cops have to wear mini-filters in their noses.

This article gives you a good sense of what the air quality in Beijing looks like. Beijing air pollution levels have been recorded at over 400 PM2.5 (the number of harmful particulates larger than 2.5 microns per cubic meter of air). The World Health Organization describes 25 PM2.5 as healthy air and found that air pollution contributed to 7 million deaths worldwide in 2012, 40% of which were in Asia.

I love energy. I love the energy allowing me to write this blog post right now and the energy that allows me to fly home and see my family. But we have a choice. We can continue to rely on fossil fuels as our main source of energy or we can keep pushing for renewable, clean burning options. If we stick with fossil fuels, our skies will not be blue for long.

I’m going to keep biking to work and promoting renewable energy where I can because a blue sky is important to me. I hope you make the same choice.

More China buildings and sky. I don’t think our future should look like this: photo 4 photo 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or like this (photo credit: Alexander F. Yuan/AP):

China_Air_Pollution-0c278

Seeing is believing: GHGs

My husband will tell you I’m a verbal processor. I need to say things out loud, or keep rambling, until I figure out what I mean. But that’s not important today. Today what’s important is that I’m also a visual learner. I love to climb cooling towers to see what those giant fans look like, see the reverse osmosis water filtration system in action at a paper plant, and see for myself where the compost goes in San Francisco.

One thing that’s tough to see: Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). Quick science lesson to make sure we all actually know what those are (because I guarantee you’ve said GHG but might still be a bit fuzzy). We’re talking gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation in the thermal infrared range. Basically these fuckers trap in the sun’s heat and greatly affect the temperature on Earth. They don’t however prevent the solar heat from coming IN.  Solar radiation comes towards the earth and: a small portion is reflected back to space by the clouds (~20%), a large portion portion is absorbed into the earth (~50%), and the remaining bit hits the earth and bounces back towards space. GHGs then capture this heat as it bounces back towards space. The good news is, without them, it’d be super cold so we need them.

GHGs

You may be saying I already knew that, BUT did you know that water vapor (yes good ol H2O) was the most abundant? I know right! The ones we typically focus on (because they’re the ones that we put into the atmosphere in droves) are carbon dioxide and methane (cow farts!). Which brings me to the bad news. Since the Industrial Revolution burning of our beloved fossil fuels has contributed to a 40% increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere from 280 to 397 parts-per-million (ppm) today- and it’s the concentration that screws us because it means more molecules out there to trap more heat in. Check out 350.org to learn more about why the Earth should only be at 350ppm/why we’re screwed.

Just so we’re all on the same page – global warming isn’t up for debate (scientific fact). GHGs contributing to global warming isn’t up for debate (scientific fact). What is still debated (scientist consensus is ‘very likely’ but not fact) is whether humans are causing climate change (anthropogenic climate change if you want to be fancy). Decide for yourself. Here’s a graph from NASA (you’ve heard of them right?) that shows global temp going way way back. My feelings align with the scientific community: we’re definitely causing it and need to cut the shit.

proxy-based_temperature_reconstruction

So back to visual learning (told you, verbal processor). I came across this great visual that shows us what GHGs would look like if we could see them on the street. In 2010 New York City added 54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (equivalent) into the atmosphere. The team at Carbon Visuals made a two minute video of what this would look like (1 ton of CO2 would fill a sphere 33 feet across). Click on the first image to watch the 2 minute film or check out these pics:

What the amount of GHG emissions produced in NYC in ONE DAY looks like:

1 days of NYC emissions

What the amount of GHG emissions produced in NYC in ONE YEAR looks like:

1 year GHG NYC emissions1 year of NYC emissions - 54mil metric tons

Of course we can see the effects of the GHGs we’re releasing (like woah) into the air – increased number and severeness of forest fires, hurricanes, tornados, tropical storms, floods; breathing anywhere in China/India; and the Maldives disappearing just to name a few…

Another Leg-Powered Vacation: Our Patagonian Honeymoon

We did it again. Except this time we hiked (there were some bicycles-through a vineyard and tandem style through Santiago). After a few days touring Santiago, we hiked through the Lake District in the northern part of Patagonia in Chile, for a week. It was so. freaking. amazing.

We were in the Vicente Perez Rosales National Park and we went with a guide through One Seed Expeditions. One Seed was simply the best. They employ all local guides, we stayed with local people, and their basic goal is to eradicate poverty by employing people through tourism. It was also a no-waste trip (the food was made by our local hosts and they make it or killed it themselves). One house had built their own hydro-electric dam, and no one anywhere near us had a car. They had legs, and horses. We ate a lamb a few hours after it was killed (yes I ate a lamb – talk about sustainable meat though!), and they handmade everything (the butter, the honey, the bread). It was some of the most delicious food I have ever eaten…oh take me back. People + Environment, this was my kind of vacation! 

I think the pictures tell the best story but I’ll give you some highlights: dinner in the German inspired village of Puerto Varas before the hike; a motorized row-boat ride across the Emerald Lake (after a 2 hour van ride, this hour boat ride, and 6 hours of hiking we finally reached the first house!); hiking to the top of a mountain up to a volcano – I felt like we were in National Geographic/only humans in the world; our honeymoon suite tent (I almost cried from exhaustion in it one night but took a nap instead); all the unbelievably gorgeous lakes!; the honey, the butter, the bread, the cake; the warm Chilean people; digging our own holes in natural hot springs next to the lake; and a relaxing adventure to Valpariso when we returned!

Luckily Simon and I find intimacy/happiness when we’re supporting each other through things. This may have not been the most relaxing honeymoon (if I did it again I’d add two days at the end to just sit on a beach!), it was the absolute perfect one for us to celebrate the first week of our marriage.

Thank you Chile, and thank you One Seed for the best honeymoon we could have imagined!

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A Leg-Powered Vacation

I’m going to skip the ‘sorry I took a few months off to travel, get engaged, get a new job, get a new apartment, etc post’ and just jump right back in. Here’s hoping you will too!

My (now) fiancee and I have been dating for 3.5 years and until just a few weeks ago, we had never been on vacation. This was primarily due to him starting a company and me going to grad school (thus one of us was always super poor), but also because we did long distance for almost 3 of those years. Since we were always hoping a bus (and then later a plane) to visit each other, going elsewhere wasn’t in the cards. Due to the lack of fun trips together, we knew we had to really kick vacation’s ass, and we wanted it to have an eco-component.

Well, our vacation kicked our ass (literally and otherwise), but it was truly awesome. We decided to bicycle our way through Tuscany Italy for an 8 day leg-powered adventure! We used a company a friend had recommended, EcoRent, who rented us the bicycles, helped plan our route, and even set up hotels, villas, and farmhouses in each destination spot. We started in Calci and made our way to Casciana Terme, Volterra (no vampires encountered), Pomarance, Castagneto Carducci, Pomaia, and Pisa – and lots of towns in between!

We biked about 40 miles per day through medieval villages, vineyards, farmland, 10 person towns, and fell in love with the wine, the pizza, the people, the riding, and even more with each other. Experiencing a country on bike is really beyond words. You don’t have a car window to block out the sounds, the smells, the HEAT, but you can still cover so much ground in a day. You truly get to SEE and FEEL the place you are visiting. We got to stop and do both an olive oil tasting and wine tasting at local farms! Due to the 90 degree days we had to wake up and get on the road by 6am, and were usually finished with the ride by noon. While much of the trip was simply magical, I did have two breakdowns – one of which resulted in a lot of tears and throwing my bike into the woods, and the other resulted in me calling Ecorent to come bring me up the last 9km hill 🙂 I think that’s fair though given the conditions.

I would definitely do it again (although not in the heat of summer!) because it left me feeling so proud of my body. Our legs, lungs, hearts, and attitudes got us so far each day. It was also an incredible team-building activity as we learned the right ways to encourage and push each other; this definitely took a few days to figure out. Each morning it was me, my fiancee, two bikes, and a map and we had to get ourselves from A to B. It really felt like survival training as we had to focus on making sure we had enough food, water, and shelter when it became too hot.

While it wasn’t completely energy-free (a diesel van moved our luggage from point to point along with other bikers’ things doing similar trips), we ate extremely local, reused what we could, used the sun to dry out our laundry, and tried to keep our waste to a minimum. One of the best parts of Tuscany is that everything you find to eat is local. I did end up eating meat (and now I remember how good salami is!), cheese, and bread – three things I don’t normally eat, as there wasn’t much of an option in the small towns (tofu does not exist there ha). But, it was delicious, and fresh, from the butcher down the street, and I felt good to be supporting the local economy. Since returning to SF I have also returned to vegetarianism but it was quite fun to eat like a local, I’ll admit.

Biking through Toscana!

More summer stories coming soon 🙂

More Info on Plastic Bag Bans

For those of you more interested in the plastic bag problem, the BBC just published a recent article explaining the different approaches countries are taking to respond to this issue. While some countries (and US cities) have gone the complete ban route, others (like Ireland) have opted for a heavy levy that is adjusted on per capita plastic bag use, and has raised $99 million for their Environmental Fund. I think both paths have merit and it’s a good study to see the different results.

It’s also worth mentioning that if you’ve switched to ‘compostable bags’ make sure you live in an area that has municipal composting, otherwise the bags won’t break down! If you’re using them to send to landfills or in your own backyard, pick ones that say biodegradable so that they will break down with simple exposure to air and time.

There is also a lifecycle assessment at the end of the report (but be wary, you can often get an LCA to say whatever you want it to), that notes paper bags are often just as damaging if they aren’t reused and recycled (we use ours as recycling bags 4-5 times before sending them with the recycling). I mentioned this in my last post, but make sure you don’t buy more reusable bags than you need, as everything has a footprint!

Happy learning!

 

San Francisco is the coolest.

In addition to municipal composting, vegan options on many a menu, and bike lanes gallore, SF is home to incredible for-good start-ups like Bicycle Coffee Co. They not only serve delicious organic, hand picked (more sustainable than machine ruined), fair-trade coffee from farmers they have met and visited, BCC also only delivers this coffee to grocery stores and retailers by bike! And, because of their super low-overhead / efficient business model, the prices of their coffee bags are the same as the non-organics sitting next to them. Woah, serious changemaker on our hands here.

This is pretty much my dream, and I continue to allow SF to inspire me to find my for-good venture.

If you live in the bay area, consider switching out your regular cup of joe and instantly make a difference. What a wonderful world we live in, where drinking a cup of coffee can truly make change; in the lives of the Central American farmers, in the air as no-CO2 is added, and as a vote towards making all coffee organic, fair-trade, and sustainable.

Amazon Goes Green

Quick Friday post in case anyone’s in an online shopping mood this weekend! Amazon has got with the program and has launched Amazon Green, which let’s you search through baby products, home goods, toys, sports, books, etc and only pulls up ‘green products’.

My first question was, what makes something ‘green’. Amazon is taking a unique approach and actually using customers as the vetting resource. Amazon Green lists products that customers tag as the best green products and they also offer definitions and more information (of organic cotton and soy fiber, or of ENERGY STAR® rating lists), if you click on the right-hand side bar ‘what makes … green’.

I think this approach is interesting and innovative, and I love that they are educating people in the process. After my own quick search I found a great list of organic, low-water, low-energy, cradle to cradle, products. Like all things, you must of course read the description before purchasing, but this is a really great simple step to narrow down your purchasing options.

Happy Friday!

Easy tool to track your energy footprint

WattzOn is a super simple website designed to help you track your energy and carbon footprint. Enter in the square footage of your apartment/home, any appliances (fridge, toaster, dishwasher (I wish)), your lifestyle (flights, car situation, food choices), synch up with your utility bills, and then it calculates what you’re looking at as far as planet-impact goes. It’ll also show you how you compare to the ‘average American home’ so you get a real grasp on what your choices mean. It offers areas for improvement, including $ saving tips (especially if you own/are ok with putting upgrades in).

Here’s our apartment’s actual use. We have pretty inefficient electric baseboard heat (which is also wildly expensive) but try hard not to turn it on. I’ve invested instead in slippers, flannel PJs, and am considering a snuggy. Due to our thrifty eco-minded attempts, we’re a bit lower than the average home our size, do not have a driving footprint, and are also very low on food due to not eating meat. Of course we completely blow it in the travel department however with our cross-country flights. Can’t wait til planes can run on bio-fuel!

Enter your stats and see where you line up!

My first real biking to work experience

I’ve been biking to work since 2008. This was mainly due to necessity- there was no where to park in Cambridge and the T was super overcrowded, and because I only had to bike about 1.5 miles. I kept this up at my next job, biking a whopping 1.2 miles each way. I never even brought a change of clothes because I didn’t get sweaty, and I often wore a skirt. I also rode through the Boston Common for most of it on a sidewalk, and practiced my serious face whenever I ended up next to a ‘real biker’. Not really a commuter biking phenom.

That all changed this week when I started my new job in SF and really biked to work. I love my pink bike and I was ready to put it to the test. It’s 6 miles (EACH WAY!) to work, so it took some preparation and a bit more willpower than I thought it would, given the SF hills. I wore my work pants because they’re pretty durable and my Tom’s shoes because they’re much lighter than my running shoes and work just as well. Of course I had my Giro helmet on, my front light and a rear light, and an ankle reflector. Gloves for me are also a must. My backpack also has reflectors on it, which I’d recommend. I threw my work shoes in my backpack (but then left them at work so I don’t have to carry again), brought a shirt and sweater in my bag, and wore a dry-fit workout top under my jacket. I was lucky in that I didn’t get too sweaty since it’s cooler in the mornings, but I’ve ordered some biodegradable body wipes to handle that issue when it arrises. Luckily my office is pretty low key so I can wear jeans & two others bike to work. I also started using a cool cycling app (Strava), to track how fast I’m going, how far I make it, my top speeds, etc.

The days of blow drying my hair and putting on a business suit each morning seem like a far away world. I’m much happier getting to rock out in sneakers and feel pretty kick-ass when I’m on my bike. It’s a bit of a rush to be flying down Polk Street and I get a little buzz thinking ‘holy shit I’m actually doing this.’ It’s a bit of a ‘I am woman hear me roar’ moment. It’s also a nice way to start the morning. I’m SUCH a last minute person, but now I can’t really be. It helps me wake up and I get a good think in on the way to work. The only bummer news is that I’m currently getting passed by the ‘real’ SF bikers, but every day I go a little faster and a few less people fly by. It’s also going to rain next week so I’ll have to tackle that for the first time. That update to come but I do know that fenders & serious rain gear are a must! I promise if I can do this, you can do this. Start small, get yourself a bike and start with a mile. Start in a park or on a less busy street and work your way up to biking to work. I know you won’t be disappointed.

Making flying a little less damaging

SFO reusable water filling station

For the past year, I lived in New York while I finished up grad school and my boyfriend lived in San Francisco. I like my boyfriend and he’s pretty fun to hang out with so we saw each other about every other week. In October & November due to missing him and visiting with friends, I flew across the country and back 5 times. I tried to release my carbon emissions-guilt by reminding myself that we don’t have a car or use fuel in any other way (we walk or bike) so my total emissions footprint isn’t completely disgusting. There are a few other things I’d do, to help ease my conscience and the stress I was putting on the planet.

Garbage & waste: Airlines LOVE to give you 10 little plastic or styrofoam cups of water/juice/soda/tea. Each of those snackboxes or premade meals (in addition to being just super gross) comes in enough cellophane to wrap 30 christmas presents. To keep things from going bad they basically wrap each cube of cheese or lettuce leaf. So, I bring my own food in my reusable snack bag or reusable containers. In addition to saving me the cash I’d spend on lousy airport food, I know my waste is minimized. I also ALWAYS bring a reusable water bottle (empty of course through the security line!) and fill it at the water fountain before boarding. You can also ask the crew to refill this. SFO and BOS have also recently set up refillable water stations to make this even easier for passengers! Sustainable planet, here we come!

1700 plastic bottles saved!

I also bring a reusable lightweight mug (try this) to keep my nemesis (Styrofoam) out of the ocean and landfills. If you are desperate for a soda ask for the whole can and bring it home with you to recycle or ask the stewardess if they have onboard recycling. You definitely don’t need that dinky logo-ed out napkin either so safe a tree limb and say no to that one.

Remember, every little action counts!

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