Nate and Eventful remind me that it’s World Carfree Day today. Celebrate!
Ironically, we’re going camping this weekend so we’ll be driving up to the mountains. But no driving for 48 hours after that!
Category Archives: Environment
Covering (Up) Climate Change
Well, seems that there is indeed a conspiracy.
the real cost of gasoline
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this study before, but I finally found a source I can cite. Back in 1998, the International Center for Technology Assessment released a study called “The Real Price of Gasoline.” It showed that if all the costs of gasoline (including subsidies and externalized costs) were included in the price at the pump, gas would actually cost between $5 and $15 a gallon. (At the time, gas was $1 a gallon and we weren’t spending $100 billion per year in Iraq and Afghanistan.) The full report is online (as a PDF), and I strongly recommend it to anyone.
Sex is essential, kids aren’t – Los Angeles Times
I just read a wonderful opinion piece in the LA Times called Sex is essential, kids aren’t:
When it comes to human behavior, there are actually very few genetic dictates. Our hearts insist on beating, our lungs breathing, our kidneys filtering and so forth, but these internal-organ functions are hardly “behavior” in a meaningful sense. As for more complex activities, evolution whispers within us. It does not shout orders.
Odd that it’s in the op-ed section, but that’s probably because the Times doesn’t have a “Common Sense Intro to Science” section.
DIY 100MPG Prius
Have a Prius? Wish it could get 100MPG in the city? Maybe the Prius+ is for you. It’s a PHEV, a plug-in electric hybrid, which lets you recharge the batteries from an outlet as well as from the car’s motor.
The details look a bit daunting, but the folks behind the project are demonstrating that they can convert a Prius in a weekend at this months Maker Faire in the Bay Area.