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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT gmail.com>]

From my home, it is 13.7 miles to DH's workplace-due east, and 28 miles 
to mine, northeast.  We have been carpooling for the last several years 
that I have worked.  It maximizes our net income.  Earlier this Spring, 
DH began tossing his bike into the back of the truck and when we get to 
town, I pull over and let him out.  He rides the last 1.5 mile to work, 
which saves me 3 miles a day or 15 miles a week.(that's three times more 
than you ask, and still not enough for my own liking..lol)  Since my 
truck gets 15/gal, that saves a gallon of gas a week, or 54 gallons a 
year.  You can do the math on how expensive gas is...
He actually gets to work in 7-10 minutes depending on traffic, as fast 
as I could drive it going through four traffic lights in town.  One day, 
he decided to go home early, and rode home, making the trip in 70 
minutes.  Now mind you, this is hilly terrain, much like eastern 
Tennessee or southern Missouri, and he is on a mountain bike, not a road 
bike, so that is actually an accomplishment for a 50+ year old 
Livestrong guy.  :)  We are biking a lot lately.  I woke up with a 
migraine today, but DH rode without me-24 miles down in Rome.  We are 
trying to become fit enough to bike to work.

>  DO WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL RIGHT
>
>  The British Petroleum oil well drilling catastrophe in the Gulf of
>  Mexico could turn out to be for the good. That possibility depends on
>  several giant IFs. IF the enormity of our continued reliance on oil
>  for our energy needs sinks into the collective consciousness and
>  causes many of us to make serious changes, and IF the oil industry
>  finds that there is diminishing profit and increasing liability in
>  drilling deep-water oil wells, and IF the members of the DC
>  Whorehouse and their corporate customers understand that the present
>  course is a calamity, then through seeing the horrendous
>  environmental, economic and social damage we may find the will to do
>  the right thing.
Lots of IFs there.  I'm afraid I am just a bit too pessimistic to 
believe that any lasting good can come out of this, but then again, one 
can make a case that the Bhopal incident in 1984, Chernobyl meltdown in 
1986 and the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 led to the realization that 
there must be international standards for environmental management, 
which led to various national standards and international summits, which 
eventually became the ISO 14001:1996 environmental standard.  The goal 
of 14K1 is to prevent pollution and save natural resources.  Still, many 
corporations and organizations that need to have an environmental 
management system, don't, and IMO, the primary reason is money.  This BP 
spill has cost the company only a few weeks profit, and until companies 
stop looking at it as "the cost of doing business", nothing will 
change.  Do you see protesters lined up with signs at your local BP 
station?  Our own government sees this only as a opportunity for 
speechmaking and 'politiking'; despite ads to the contrary, I haven't 
seen any real Change there, either.


>  Which in this case is reducing our reliance on oil and increasing our
>  use of renewable resources.
>
>  What will that require from each of us? Well, how about pledging to
>  drive twenty fewer miles each month for the rest of this year? And
>  then how about raising the number next year and in each subsequent
>  year? How about making a survey of all our energy usage and pledging
>  to reduce that usage by, say, ten percent the rest of this year, and
>  more next year? How about replacing just one night of television each
>  week with reading and discussing these issues with family?
We just replaced the windows in our house, which is saving energy.  By 
this time next week, I will have a new, energy efficient back door.  As 
you know, I heat with wood, and planted about 70 additional trees this 
Spring, 50 Paulownias and the rest in black walnuts and oaks.  TV and 
reading are both indoor activities and have their place.  I say start an 
exercise program with your family...walk, swim, hike, garden, play 
badmitton or bocce or volleyball or horseshoes...just get outside and 
breathe fresh air!

>  In the end, as with recycling, bicycling, turning down the thermostat
>  in the winter and up in the summer, our actions will be predicated
>  on what makes us feel right. If we don’t take the energy issue
>  seriously on a personal level, if we don’t do these things because if
>  makes us feel right about ourselves, then energy improvement won’t
>  happen and we will end our lives with our grandchildren dealing with
>  the issues that we blamed on others and to which we paid only lip
>  service.
The problem is Gene, I'm sad to say, that what makes you and I feel 
right is not what makes most of Americans feel right.  Despite our 
political differences, you and I both respect nature and strive to do 
the right thing by Gaia, as best as possible in this world of 
consumerism.    Here, you are 'preaching to the choir' .  One of the 
things I enjoy about working off the farm is that I meet people who have 
no concept of homesteading, and who have never given a second thought to 
their own gluttony and greed, or as to how their habits and actions 
affect the planet.    We need to figure out how to reach those people 
and then we can really change the world.


--
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are 
willing to work and give to those who would not.      Thomas Jefferson