Nice Long Google Talk On Installing Solar Panels
So can you tell I am trying waste a lot of time on youtube while I wait for my train to get here? Yea I am, but this is an interesting talk about the solar panel installation process. If you are thinking of installing solar panels on your home this might be a good thing to watch for a general overview. I also have been part of the installation of several systems so if you have any questions drop them in the comments.
This Is How It Really Went Down
I am stuck at home, and this made me smile. Happy Christmas, holidays, solstice, etc.
Happy Holidays
Weather you are celebrating the baby Jesus, or like me just trying to make it through alive, happy holidays.
Here is some good news to help you make it all the way till the morning with uncle Bob and aunt Martha.
Traveling By Train
You might have noticed it was a little quiet around here yesterday. That is because I was on a train all day. I have traveled back to the heartland for the season to spend some time with my family and celebrate consumerism on a massive and out of control scale Christmas.
I spent a bit of time thinking about my yearly trip home, one I usually do by car. I wanted to try and find the most convenient and greenest way to travel. Here is a bit of my thought process.
Planes are inconvenient and frankly nerve wracking to be on this time of year. Trains are slower, and don’t offer as direct routes to places you want to go. Car travel can be fun if you have multiple people to help with the drive (I don’t), but it is still slow, still bad for the environment, and very subject to the vagrancies of weather. Or you could take the bus, which for a 1500 mile trip is not fun, trust me.
So basically traveling half way across the country is going to be a pain no matter what. I threw out flying almost right away. I hate flying, I hate the idea of burning kerosene and then placing the resulting mess directly into the atmosphere, I also always seem to get the second stage molestation search when I fly. With that out of the way it was a breakdown between bus, car and train.
I next got rid of bus travel. I had done long distance bus travel before and it was pretty uncomfortable. They are cramped, they don’t offer any amenities, and they often take forever to get places due to the many and frequent stop, both for picking up passengers and for traffic lights. They are also very subjected to weather. If its really bad weather, your bus trip is going to take an eternity.
So it was down to car, and train. Taking a car would take about 12-13 hours of non-stop driving (assuming I went a bit above the speed limit the whole time), and from experience several tanks of gas. Taking the train was going to take 20 hours, mostly because I got my tickets late and couldn’t get the most direct route.
Eco Breakdown:
The map above is by car. It is about 1500 miles round trip. My car gets about 28 mpg on the highway. so thats roughly 54 gallons of gas, or 1080 pounds of co2.
The best numbers I could find for equivalent MPG figures for trains (the one I was on was electric) are about 39 passenger miles per gallon. Our train was fully sold out (people even had to stand in the isles sometimes), so assuming 39 mpg traveling 1500 miles by train would equal about 39 gallons of gas, or 789 pounds of co2.
That was enough to put the train ahead in my opinion.
Comfort breakdown:
I have driven this trip several times, and let me tell you it is brutal. Even if you don’t get any bad traffic, bad weather, or have anything go wrong with your car, it is mentally and physically draining to drive non-stop for 13 hours. Your back hurts, you get sleepy and are in danger of nodding off (with resulting crash), if it snows, or rains, well its a mess.
Having taken the train I have to say it was pretty nice. I had a huge comfy chair that reclined way back into a bed like thing (even had a foot thing that folded up for more comfort). I got up and walked around several times stretching my legs and seeing the sights from the window without worrying about other cars. There was a food cart, and a lounge that sold drinks. I met some cool people and had a great time.
It was very easy to sleep, as the gentle rocking of the train makes you very comfortable. It was quiet, easy to get on and off the train (no one touched me in any place I didn’t want them to) and there was lots and lots of room for my luggage (I didn’t have to check anything and then have it get lost). They even had power plugs along the isles so you could plug in your laptop or dvd player (which many people did). I read almost an entire book, ate well, and slept well. I got to Ohio feeling pretty good.
Money Breakdown:
Car: 54 gallons of gas x $3.30 = $178.20
Train: my tickets cost $291 (I spent 12 extra dollars to have them deliver my tickets to my office, but got a AAA discount of about $24)
Plane: The cheapest tickets I could find were about $300 and due to my lateness in getting them they were significatly higher when I was looking to buy them.
(while technically bus was cheaper, there was no way you were going to get me on that thing for another 24 hour crazy ride)
Summary:
I would have to say, that train travel is hands down the best form of traveling I have done to date. It is better for the environment than traveling by car, and assuming that we someday move over to renewable energy as our main form of energy, electric trains would beat just about any form of travel that burned something in the eco-department. I really liked my journey, it was relaxing, I was very comfortable, and had great service.
I would fully recommend traveling by train for all your holiday (and other) long distance travel needs.
(ps: just as a crazy though I did briefly consider riding my bike home, but quickly got rid of that notion when I saw how long it was going to take, and how cold it was in the midwest)
War – Not Just An Idiotic Waste Of Money And Life
Not only is war a big waste of time, money and most importantly life, it also has this nasty side effect of wreaking havoc on the local environment. Modern warfare tactics, as seen in the American war in Vietnam, the Rwandan and Congolese civil wars, and the current war in Iraq, have greatly increased our capacity to destroy the natural landscape and produce devastating environmental effects on the planet, according to Sarah DeWeerdt, author of “War and the Environment,” featured in the January/February 2008 issue of World Watch.
Wartime destruction of the natural landscape is nothing new, but the scope of destruction seen in more recent conflicts is unprecedented. “For one thing, there is the sheer firepower of current weapons technology, especially its shock-and-awe deployment by modern superpowers. The involvement of guerrilla groups in many recent wars draws that firepower toward the natural ecosystems-often circumscribed and endangered ones-where those groups take cover,” writes DeWeerdt.
The deliberate destruction of the environment as a military strategy, known as “ecocide,” is exemplified by the U.S. response to guerrilla warfare in Vietnam. In an effort to deprive the communist Viet Cong guerrillas of the dense cover they found in the hardwood forests and mangroves that fringed the Mekong Delta, the U.S. military sprayed 79 million liters of herbicides and defoliants (including Agent Orange) over about one-seventh of the land area of southern Vietnam. By some estimates, half of the mangroves and 14 percent of hardwood forests in southern Vietnam were destroyed during Operation Trail Dust, threatening biodiversity and severely altering vegetation.
Less deliberate, but still devastating, were the environmental effects that stemmed from the mass migration of refugees during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Nearly 2 million Hutus fled Rwanda over the course of just a few weeks to refugee camps in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, making it the most massive population movement in history. Approximately 720,000 of these refugees settled in refugee camps on the fringes of Virunga National Park, the first United Nations World Heritage site declared endangered due to an armed conflict. The refugees stripped an estimated 35 square kilometers of forest for firewood and shelter-building materials. The dense forests also suffered as a result of the wide paths clear-cut by the Rwandan and Congolese
armies traveling through the park to reduce the threat of ambush by rebel groups.
The longterm ecological effects of the current war in Iraq remain to be seen. Looking to the effects of the recent Gulf War as a guide, scientists point to the physical damage of the desert, particularly the millimeter-thin layer of microorganisms that forms a crust on the topsoil, protecting it from erosion. Analysis of the area affected by the Gulf War has already shown an increase in sandstorms and dune formation in the region, and one study suggests that desert crusts might take thousands of years to fully recover from the movement of heavy vehicles.
“Warfare is likely to have the most severe, longest-lasting effects on protected areas that harbor endangered species, and slow-to-recover ecosystems such as deserts. Even in the most fragile environments, sometimes nature-and people-can surprise us,” writes DeWeerdt. “But turn and look in another direction and you are likely to see warfare’s enduring scars.”
RSS XML Feed
