Hendobear18’s Blog

YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT . According to the UN, our investment in renewables and other sources of green energy have overtaken investments in fossil fuels.

Suck on it, old timer. We’re finally coming to our senses. Took long enough…

Okay, so the other day NYUnplugged (NYU’s Residential Energy-Reduction Challenge, which ACTUALLY will most likely be in Fall ‘09 instead of Spring ‘10) had its wrap-up party in the University Hall Commons, and I was lucky enough to meet some great people from this organization,Rock the Bike. They were outgoing bikers/musicians/environmental activists who totally are the expression of one of MY ultimate dreams, to generate electricity WITH OUR LEGS! They’ve managed to reclaim bike parts, weld, and wire up their bike fleet to do a variety of things. 

Rock the Bike is also closely associated with the bicycle-touring music scene, especially in California–they definitely ‘rock’ the whole grass-roots, easy-going biking culture scene. (Maybe they should hook up with Times-Up?) They recently opened up a shop in NYC with the help of Central Park Conservancy; so if you’re into great music, awesome people, environmentalism AND biking, I think this is the sort of place to be headed, I’m pretty sure their NYC shop is in Brooklyn, but I’d double check the site. They are working at putting together a fleet of multiple bikes to power speakers for LARGE concerts, so there has to be room for enthusiastic biking volunteers who would be willing to chill on the bike for a concert and be HEAVILY RELIED ON FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT! 

After I helped run the bike-powered sound system for a little bit (and worked up a good sweat), I was beyond inspired–no one at Rock the Bike was a certified mechanical genius (not to say they aren’t brilliant people for the idea!), but they figured it out themselves! There has to be a way to expand man-powered electric technology to operate on larger electric grids…say, buildings? Muahaha.

Okay, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but think about it; the number of gym-goers that are in and out of Palladium Athletic Facility every day from open to close, there has to be enough energy that can be stored in some sort of generator and used as electricity to AT LEAST power the gym itself! Could this work? Stay tuned. I think there needs to be some looking into numbers, grids, and $$prices$$ to figure out whether or not a pilot project could even be launched in a smaller location. 

Regardless, check out Rock the Bike, they are awesome.

Finally, it has been done!

Obama invited representatives from the EPA and leaders of the top automotive industries alike to the White House late May the day that he announced new nationwide mileage standards–35.5 MPG average by 2016, and ‘rules’ that will start to take effect as early as 2012. NYT has a full article.

Obama making the announcement

Yet there is criticism coming from all sides. The government now owns 60% of General Motors and has poured billions of dollars into Chrysler and GM to keep them afloat and avoid the liquidation of the companies. Although Obama has said that he does not want to play a role in managing the company, we hear every news station touting that he is making profound decisions about the design and direction of the auto industry by specifically demanding these standards. 

Honestly, this is revolutionary…

1) The fact that these standards are nation-wide trumps so much opposition from the auto industry, because now their models have to be standardized to have the same mileage wherever (and these models will most likely become international sellers as well–spreading our better MPG standards beyond our boundaries)

Obama and the CEO of General Motors

2) This dramatically cuts our dependence on foreign oil (On a side not, I find it so repulsive that  as we use non-renewable resources and tout the need to reduce our use of them, we use these same resources to transport itself to other places in the world. This just simply needs to be stopped.)

 3) MOST importantly, it saves something like 1.8 billion barrels of oil by 2016, and consequently,will reduce billions of tons of CO2 emissions in our atmosphere. To quote the AP, “Obama’s proposed change in rules would for the first time combine pollution reduction from vehicle tailpipes with increased efficiency on the road. It would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil through 2016 and would be the environmental equivalent of taking 177 million cars off the road, said senior administration officials speaking anonymously, ahead of the announcement. New vehicles would be 30 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by the end of the program, they said.”

This is a TRUE clean air initiative, or should I say, ‘act’ (to spite the previous administrations feeble, unsubstantiated attempts to reduce global warming) We just have to wait and see what happens–i.e. the auto companies need to start turning over a revenue so that they can pay off the billions of dollars in loans and actually dedicate their funds to developing new, fuel-efficient models!

I have no idea where this is, but it's great!