Interjecting with Some Sanity in the Gas Price Blame Game

The Oil Drum issued a great post/press release on their site today. My favorite quote:

Right now, governments should be focused on helping us cure our "addiction to oil." The answer does not lie in lowering gas prices, which will only encourage people to drive more and further waste our valuable resources. As the Department of Energy funded Hirsch Report on Peak Oil laid out, the consequences of not taking steps to transition away from oil could be dramatic to our economic system. Appropriate solutions include large-scale research, development, and implementation programs to improve the scalability of alternative sources of energy, other projects geared towards improving mass transit and carpooling programs across the country, providing incentives to buy smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles, and promoting a campaign to increase awareness about conservation.

James Howard Kunstler has a far more pessimistic take on the situation (as is his style), but it was still fun to read nevertheless.

Upcoming Seattle Bike Events

Tuesday May 2--Vulcan Bike to Work Breakfast

The 2006 Vulcan Bike to Work Breakfast will again bring together business leaders across King County, local and state officials, and cycling-focused non-profits in order to raise awareness of the fiscal and health benefits of bike commuting. At the Breakfast you will hear from business and political guest speakers about the full range of benefits available to businesses sponsoring active commuting programs.

So be sure to join our emcee Willie Weir (NPR featured international bicycle essayist) for a fun, informative and inspirational event to kick off national Bike Month! You will leave the breakfast with an eye-opening awareness of what lasting benefits to your employees and your bottom line a small investment of time and leadership can yield.

Wednesday May 17--Ride of Silence

On May 17, at 6:30 p.m., bicyclists will meet at Gasworks Park to participate in a 14-mile silent ride honoring cyclists who've been killed or injured by cars. The ride—called, appropriately enough, the Ride of Silence—is part of a three-year-old nationwide event started in Dallas by the friend of a bicyclist who was struck by a bus and killed. Although cyclists have the legal right to share the road with cars, drivers are frequently reckless or inattentive in their presence; nationwide, about 750 bicyclists are killed in traffic accidents every year. Although the image of hundreds of bicyclists traveling on city streets sparks images of another mass bike ride, the civilly disobedient Critical Mass, ride coorganizer Gary Strauss says it will be "anything but. We're not going to block the streets; we're going to stay single file as best we can. We're going to obey the rules of the road."

Friday May 19--Starbucks Bike to Work Day

Starbucks Bike To Work Day is Friday, May 19. Throughout Puget Sound, riders can stop by Commute Stations to pick up free schwag, snacks, city and county maps, bicycle commuting information and to have bikes checked for free by our fantastic bike shop station sponsors. This is your day to be counted and recognized by the city!

If you're already a seasoned bike commuter then help us spread the word and encourage colleagues to try a bike ride as part of their workday. Stop by one of the 37 Commute Stations located throughout the region; pick up a cool free water bottle, snacks, maps & other useful goodies. Enter the Starbucks Bike To Work Day raffle & have your bike spot-checked by our bike shop station sponsors. Many shops have substantial discount offers for participants throughout the month.

A Boy and His Power Drill

Amy's nesting gene is in hyper drive and she has embarked upon some improvements and renovations to the upstairs (built in book shelves, paint, etc). Liam was, to put it mildly, a very enthusiastic helper. Particularly when he had the opportunity to use a REAL power drill--under Mom's watchful supervision, of course.

Easter

On Saturday we met up with Matt, Heather, and Audrey and headed for the Woodland Park Zoo where we experienced a very wet and cold toddler egg hunt, followed by some equally wet and cold arts & crafts activities, followed by a stroll through the nice warm reptile house. The kids had fun, the grownups had fun, and everybody got to eat a few chocolate eggs. The bottom picture shows the boy sharing some love with the bunny sent by his grandparents Stevenson. He named the bunny "Home."

Completely unrelated to Easter: tonight, as I was helping Liam get ready for bed, he picked up his calculator (yes, he has a calculator and plays with it often) and said "it's 588. I'm going to make an airplane schedule."

True Patriots Ride Bicycles

I've decided to contribute my own meme to the climate change debate. As Al Gore argued rather persuasively in his speech, climate change is a moral issue--and I think we should make it a patriotic issue as well. Personally, I think that as the biggest energy hogs on the planet, it is the responsibility of every American to do everything in his or her power to reduce carbon emissions. My preferred tool for accomplishing this task is the bicycle, so I designed a t-shirt promulgating this viewpoint. And you can buy them here! Any and all profits will be donated to the Cascade Bicycle Club and the Bicycle Alliance of Washington to support the good work they are doing to promote cycling and improve bicycle facilities throughout Washington.

I nicked the conveniently copyright-free bike-riding patriot from the kind folks at the Minuteman Bikeway.

Time to Start Growing Food

Amy and I have always enjoyed cultivating a small garden, mostly to grow food, and this year we decided to expand the one that we inherited when we bought our house. We rented a rototiller, busted some sod, and just this weekend amended with about 300 pounds of organic compost. The boy is starting to get into it too, as you can see. We're planting 12 different crops this year, and I can practically taste the heirloom tomatoes now!

Liam the Boy Model

Our friend Heather Matthews is an amazing photographer and she took some portraits of our family right before Christmas (yes Mom, Dad & Kaplans, they are on the way!). She took one of her favorite shots of Liam and made a promotional postcard, which she is using to advertise at a cool little toystore in Ballard called Clover.

As a sidenote, Heather's husband Matt (no, his name is not Matt Matthews--although that would be cool!--it is Matt Allen) was our connection for Torrented copies of the second half of Battlestar Galactica season 2. BSG is probably the best science fiction show of all time, and it is the only thing that has made me wish (slightly, for about 3.2 nanoseconds) we had a TV since we got rid of it 10 years ago. So thanks Matt! You're a hero!

Even the Saudis Are Calling for Conservation

There is a fascinating article in the Seattle Times this morning, "Saudis worry that oil demand could outstrip vast resources". The Saudis are saying, without any equivocation, that they will not be able to meet world oil demand. My suspicion is that this is because we have, in fact, reached global oil peak. Some choice quotes from the article:

"The current out-of-control demand is not good for us," Ghazi Al-Rawi, head of private equity at Gulf One Investment Bank, said in a recent interview. "When you have this kind of demand, you're forced to supply beyond the optimal rate. That's not a positive thing."

"Can [global consumers] afford to keep increasing demand by almost 2 million barrels a day each year? Is it Saudi Arabia's role to meet that demand?" asked al-Husseini, who retired in 2004 after working 32 years in the kingdom's oil sector. "You're leading yourself to having to find an alternative source of energy very quickly."

When demand for gasoline surges in the U.S. this summer, the effect on prices should prove very interesting, given the Saudis' inability to increase production.

Why We Need to Reduce Our Carbon Emissions

I've been thinking a lot about global warming over the past week and a half, mostly due to Al Gore's speech. It seems like such an intractable problem, and I think many people feel that it is "not a big deal" because it can be difficult to see the downside of a warmer world--particularly when you live in a wet and frequently chilly place like Seattle. So, over the weekend I thought I would do a little experiment and make some quick and dirty maps of how an increase in sea level brought about by global warming would affect my city, my house, and my workplace.

I assumed two different scenarios--first, a relatively conservative 20' (6 m) increase in sea level, and second, a considerably more frightening 200' (60 m) increase. The first three maps show the City of Seattle with the 20' increase, then the 200' increase, then what a "new" Puget Sound would look like.

The next four maps show my neighborhood with a 20' and 200' increase (Fred Meyer is labeled as a landmark, not as an endorsement), then the portion of downtown where CommEn Space is located. In all maps (except the "expanded Puget Sound" map) red indicates the extent of the new sea level. Under the 20' scenario, things aren't so bad near my house--the salt water would flood parts of a few shipyards and a parking lot or two. Under the 200' scenario--which would result from the loss of Greenland's ice sheet and a good chunk of the Antarctic ice sheet--things are very, very bad indeed. Seattle would be reduced to an archipelago, and my house and the first several stories of the building where I work would be under water.

Needless to say, I'm feeling motivated to try even harder to reduce my carbon emissions!

UPDATE: Just read Eric's recent blog posting where he's done much the same thing, using a Google Maps mash-up (of course!) called Flood Maps. I am extremely happy this issue is finally gaining so much visibility.