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Ireland in a jam
Survey of commuter attitudes (184-KB PDF)
Amárach consulting (Ireland)
…Recent rises in petrol and diesel prices have led many to complain about ‘rip-off charging’ and ‘price gouging’ by petrol retailers and distributors. Yet it would seem that Irish commuters ‘protest too much’, as their attitudes reveal an almost steely indifference to the prospect of rising fuel prices.
We asked commuters to quantify by precisely how much the cost of fuel would have to rise in order to persuade them to change how they get to work. The findings are sobering – the vast majority cannot imagine any price increase that would change their behaviour (i.e.: they either don’t know or they simply refuse to change).
In fact, prices would have to double, triple or even quadruple for significant numbers of drivers to leave their cars at home. Clearly, commuters now feel so dependent on their cars to get to work – and so limited in terms of any viable alternative means to get to work – that they are prepared to spend whatever it takes to keep using their car.
It is in this context that we must consider the potential for the different measures to reduce car usage. Those measures that simply compel commuters to stop using their car (odd/even days etc) will be strongly resisted. However, those measures that allow for continued car usage but demand greater efficiency in usage (e.g.: car pooling, speed limits) will be more likely to gain the support of Irish drivers.
Of course, should oil prices continue to rise, then we may well find ourselves part of a ‘live’ economic experiment to determine the real price sensitivity of Irish drivers. On the evidence of our research,we are still some way away from price levels that will denude our motorways and city streets of cars as commuters get on their bikes. At least for now.
(September 2005)
Survey of Irish drivers and potential for energy savings. From their website: “Amárach is one of Ireland’s most innovative market research agencies. We draw on a range of disciplines to deliver insights that will help you succeed.”
More Solar
Integrated energy generation
Jamais Cascio, WorldChanging
One of the ideas underlying the Bright Green Future is the greater use of radically distributed energy generation. Although this has the most visible manifestation in the development of (for example) micro-wind turbines and gas-optional hybrids as mobile power sources, one of the more intriguing applications will be the greater integration of energy generation materials into the construction of objects and buildings. Although there will undoubtedly be a variety of intrinsic power generation technologies (such as the suspended-load power backpack), the most commonplace form will be integrated photovoltaics.
Widespread adoption of integrated solar power is still a few years off, but this last week saw a two developments bringing that day much closer.
(29 September 2005)
‘This Old Sustainable House’
Closely documented rebuilding project
Jim Regan, Christian Science Monitor
Wouldn’t it be nice to have your own little cabin on a lake, away from man-made noises, powered by wind and sun, and heated by the earth itself? And wouldn’t it be nice to know that the construction of that home had done minimal damage to the surrounding environment? The Tofte Project achieved all these goals – and chronicles the process in a website with a unique look and plenty of inspiration for people trying to reduce their own environmental footprint. Welcome to “This Old Sustainable House.”
Named after a 50-year-old cabin on the north shore of Lake Superior, the Tofte (rhymes with “lofty”) Project follows the redesign and reconstruction of a summer residence as it is turned into a year-round private home – all the while taking the principles of sustainable architecture from theory to practice. The Web side of the enterprise records and illuminates the physical project in more than 50 short Flash-animated presentations, and covers subjects that range from the history of the location, to aspects of sustainable design and specifics about the cabin’s construction, to such details as the five separate ecosystems that surround the building.
…The Tofte Project can be found at www.tofteproject.org/.
(28 September 2005)
Can Americans Eat Locally?
Bon Appetit, press release
190 Restaurants in 26 States Challenged to Use Only Ingredients From Within a 150-Mile Radius
————
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ — Yahoo! Corporation Executive
Chef Robert Hart had a dilemma — a few thousand hungry diners, and the threat
of no sandwich bread.
“I was stuck without a local source for yeast. So I found local apple
cider, fermented it, and made my own sourdough starter,” said Hart. “This is
not just an esoteric exercise — I want to make a terrific meal with what’s
available right here in our backyard.”
Hart is one of 190 chefs participating in the September 29th “Eat Local
Challenge.” Palo Alto-based Bon Appetit Management Company, the national food
service provider which runs all of the restaurants, launched the challenge to
raise awareness about where the food on our plates comes from.
On Eat Local Challenge day 150,000 diners at corporate, university, and
museum restaurants from Seattle to Washington D.C. can choose to eat a 100
percent locally grown meal, made entirely of ingredients from within 150 miles
of the kitchen where they are served.
(29 September 2005)
Bon Appetit has more information on restaurants buying from local producers:
Sustainable food sourcing
Frequently Asked Questions
The Eat Local Challenge
How far does your onion travel?
Froma Harrop, Providence Journal via Seattle Times
An onion grown in Iowa travels an average 35 miles to the Iowa supermarket. An onion from the usual sources in other states treks an average 1,759 miles to the Iowa store. Thought you might want to know.
We’re talking “food miles,” a growing concern of governments, environmentalists and gourmets. Food miles refers to the distance food travels from farm to plate. Locally grown food is generally a good thing.
It used to be that all food was local. New England has lousy soil and a cold climate. But the people there managed to feed themselves 300 years ago, even though there was no state of California. They couldn’t have asparagus in February or bananas ever, but they didn’t starve.
Early in the 20th century, most food was still produced close to home. Urban homemakers canned vegetables and fruits, buying bushels from nearby farms. Nowadays, food consumed in the developed world travels enormous distances.
Rising oil prices give the issue of food miles new importance. Transportation costs account for 6 percent to 10 percent of the retail cost of produce. A study at Iowa State University found that produce trucked to Des Moines from states outside Iowa used four to 17 times more fuel than that grown locally.
The environmental connection is obvious. The farther produce is trucked, the more oil is burned. Fossil-fuel use contributes to global warming. Japan is studying how a reduction in food miles could help it comply with the Kyoto Protocol.
(28 September 2005)
Nature’s Design Workshop
Engineers turn to biology for inspiration
Anne Underwood, Newsweek
If we have Batman and Spider-Man, why don’t we have any mussel superheroes?” asks biochemist Herbert Waite of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Mussels may not be the biggest or the flashiest of sea creatures. But they do one thing exceedingly well. They make a glue that lets them anchor themselves firmly to a rock and remain there—drenched by water, buffeted by the ocean’s waves. “I don’t know any other adhesive that can do that,” says Waite.
In fact, nature can accomplish feats that engineers have only been able to dream of until now. But as scientists peer deeper into the cellular and molecular workings of nature, engineers are starting to find information they can apply to everything from advanced optics to robotics—even a mussel-inspired glue that could one day be used to repair shattered bones. The result is a new field called biomimicry, or biologically inspired design. And though nature’s innovations often need radical adaptation to suit human purposes, the new approach has the potential to improve the way we do everything, from desalinating water to streamlining cars. “If you have a design problem, nature’s probably solved it already,” says Janine Benyus, cofounder of the Biomimicry Guild. “After all, it’s had 3.8 billion years to come up with solutions.”
In fact, nature turns out to be an enormous wellspring of ideas.
(Sept. 26, 2005 issue)
Recommended by Dave Roberts at Gristmill.
