I did it! Today I got on my bike in Collingswood, NJ, at 6:46 am and made it to my office door at 7:36 — 50 minutes door to door, a little longer than I thought it would take to travel the seven-mile distance. Highlights: the traffic was light and the potholes were plentiful in Camden, the pedestrian/bike path on the Ben Franklin Bridge was very narrow in spots, there were a lot of traffic lights, and the cobblestones in Philly were a challenge.

There is nothing so adorable as hearing our two-year-old learn to speak. We told him he was born in Minnesota, which he then pronounced “Minnesofa.” This led to some fun with our 6-year-old daughter as we came up with other variants on Minnesota.

Minnesofa inspired Minnefuton. Minnepop followed from the normal pronunciation.

Then the kids came up with tons of silly names, the best of which was Minnedodo.

Can you think of others?

Here’s a hidden gem for parents and kids in Philly: Three Bears Park, in Society Hill, sometimes called Delancey Park. It’s tucked away in Society Hill between 3rd and 4th streets, Cypress and Delancey streets, in one of the most pedestrian-friendly environments in North America.

Our household is very happy that the U.S. House has approved the health care bill. Now we hope it’s finalized and that the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t overturn it some day.

Let’s see… about forty inches of snow in the last few days. That must mean we’re still in Minnesota, right? No, we’re in the Philadelphia area now, actually, and we’ve been hit by two huge storms, one last Friday and Saturday, the other yesterday and today. Philadephia public schools have been closed Monday and Wednesday and will be closed again tomorrow, Thursday.

Thank goodness this didn’t happen as the moving van was unloading our stuff. The move went relatively smoothly, and we’re unpacking our things in a much older and somewhat smaller house than we had in Northfield. We’re in the town of Collingswood, New Jersey. It’s on the PATCO train line, which I take into work. More on Collingswood and Philadelphia in future posts, I’m sure.

I hope to resume posting more regularly, now that the stress of moving is largely over. Still have a lot of unpacking to do, though.

Our Northfield Area Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation is preparing to make some recommendations regarding on-street bikeways, including signage. The photo on the left is from Portland, Oregon (credit: BikePortland.org) and includes distance and time information as well as destination. I took the photo on the right in Duluth, Minnesota, and it includes only the names of destinations. I particularly like the Portland sign.

Although I was driving in Duluth with my family, I was pleased to see they have an extensive bike route network throughout the city. I also saw trails and lots of bikes near the waterfront area of downtown, on Lake Superior. Did not see any bike lanes.

Today is the Capitol Climate Action, a rally that will feature mass civil disobedience and protest at the Capitol Power Plant, the coal-fired power plant that provides electricity to the U.S. Capitol. One thousand college students are expected to participate. Among those who will risk being arrested are Bill McKibben, the climate change activist and author; James Hansen, noted climate scientist; Gus Speth, a Yale University professor and environmental advocate; and Wendell Berry, the author.

Could this possibly be a watershed moment in the climate change movement? It will be interesting to see how many will be there and how the media handle it.

Below is an excerpt from an email about the protest. It was signed by McKibben and sent by 350.org, the climate change action organization that he helped found:

Read the rest of this entry »

I recommend Thomas L. Friedman’s recent book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – And How It Can Renew America. Friedman has done his homework for this book, talking with dozens of scientists, business leaders, policy analysts, and environmentalists. He argues that we face five major problems that have reached a crisis point today. As he writes, “The convergence of global warming, global flattening, and global crowding is driving those five big problems – energy supply and demand, petrodictatorship, climate change, energy poverty, and biodiversity loss – well past their tipping points into new realms we’ve never seen before, as a planet or as a species” (p. 37).

Friedman deserves special praise for highlighting the problems of biodiversity loss, or the extinction of species. Based on my reading of science sources over my years of doing test development work, this is a problem that our leaders have not dealt with effectively, and it is being accelerated by climate change.

The strengths of this book are its detail and its wide-ranging inquiry. It does have some weaknesses: Friedman’s tendency to personalize his analysis, as when we learn about his many visits with the global elite at posh spots throughout the world; occasional overly specific detail, as in the section on the future “Energy Internet” or “smart grid”; and his nearly exclusive focus on technological and business-oriented solutions, a focus that many environmentalists criticize.

I did appreciate the fact that he calls for the development of an “ethic of conservation,” even if he has doubts about whether major lifestyle changes are required in the new “energy-climate era.” Here is an excerpt related to this issue:

To become good stewards and good trustees, [according to MIchael J. Sandel, a political philosopher at Harvard], “we will need to rein in our tendency to regard the earth and its natural resources as wholly at our disposal for present needs, wants, and desires. We have to develop new habits and attitudes towards consumption.”

Otherwise, whatever technologies we devise will simply be used to extend our current habits of profligate consumption to the huge, burgeoning middle classes of a hot, flat, and crowded world…. Does [this] mean that we, as individuals, have to edit our lifestyles down to a bare minimum, or get by with much less than the average American upper- or middle-class family consumes today? There is an anticapitalist, anticonsumerist, back-to-nature wing of the environmental movement that believes we should and almost delights in advocating that. By the way, that may be right, and should not be dismissed. My point is that we don’t know yet, because we have not tried even the obvious stuff that we do know would have real effects and would not involve fundamental changes in our lifestyle.

Telling every individual on the planet who wants or can afford a car that they cannot have one would be changing our lifestyle. But banning cars over a certain weight or engine size, or bringing maximum speed limits back down to 55 miles per hour, or banning taxis that are not hybrids – such efforts do not strike me as fundamentally cramping anyone’s lifestyle…. Forcing everyone to ride a bike to work would involve changing our lifestyle. But requiring municipalities to set aside bike lanes running from suburbs to inner cities doesn’t strike me as cramping anyone’s lifestyle (and might make our whole society healthier). [And Friedman goes through a list of many other examples] (pp. 192-193)

In my interactions with people who live in different parts of the United States, including people from my wife’s side of the family who live in warmer climates, I’m often struck by their visceral reaction at the mention of parts of our world that experience cold temperatures. They shiver when a name such as “Minnesota” is mentioned and say “Cold!” or something like that. Think of the reaction you have when you hear the names “Siberia” “Alaska,” or “Antarctica.” The reaction is milder for a place such as Minnesota, but it is there nonetheless.

Now, I’ve been thinking about the importance of this reaction here in the U.S., where a growing share of the population lives in warmer climates. Demographic shifts have moved the center of the U.S. population in a southwesterly shift for decades now, and it seems unlikely there will be northward shift any time soon (although climate change may affect that). All those people are accustomed to a warm climate and unfamiliar with a cold one. In fact, I would say they have a certain amount of what I call “cold intolerance.”

“Cold intolerance” is a medical term used for a symptom of some illnesses. It’s a severe bodily reaction to cold temperatures. However, I’m using the term here in a cultural sense to describe people’s negative attitude toward cold-climate places.

People who are cold intolerant will not be likely to visit a cold place–certainly not in the winter–nor will they likely want to move there to take a job or attend school. Nor will they be likely to move a company’s headquarters there, nor would they hold a convention there unless it is during a warm time of the year.

I think you see where I’m going with this: in a country (and world?) in which economic and political power is increasingly located in warmer climates, cold-climate regions will likely suffer from more and more cold intolerance, from decisions that are impacted by a lack of experience with living in a cold climate.

I’ve thought about this with regard to the recent merger of Northwest Airlines with Delta Airlines. The former was headquartered in Minneapolis, the latter in Atlanta. There was little discussion of locating the new headquarters in Minneapolis; it seemed to be largely assumed that it would be in Atlanta. To be sure, Delta is larger than Northwest and Atlanta is larger than Minneapolis-St. Paul, but neither are tremendously larger. High-paying jobs will be lost in Minneapolis-St. Paul and gained in Atlanta.

How is this cold intolerance affecting the Snowbelt? I’m open to your insights, particularly if you have facts and figures to back them up.

One further conclusion: I feel that cold intolerance means that northern areas will be more reliant on nurturing their own talent from within, because they will be less likely to import it from outside. Thus strong public education systems and strong government will be needed there. I realize there is currently a lot of migration from impoverished areas of the world to cold-climate regions, so my thesis is less accurate on a global scale than it is on a national scale.

I’m teaching a class called “The Practical Cyclist” at Just Food Co-op here in Northfield on Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 7-8 pm. I welcome anyone who wants to learn more about cycling or wants to share their knowledge with others. Here is a description of the class:

The Practical Cyclist

Designed for those who want to replace car trips with cycling trips or simply travel sustainably and enjoyably, this classroom-based course will examine the advantages of cycling; potential obstacles; equipment and strategies; safety issues; and cycling advocacy. This is not intended to be a road skills course. Taught by Bill Ostrem, who has been a “practical cyclist” for over twenty years.

When: Tuesday, September 9, 7-8 p.m.
Cost: No charge. Donations welcome.
Location: In the Just Food Event Space, 516 Water St. S.

Pre-registration required. Call the co-op  at 650-0106 to register.