USB = U Should Bike

A quick mathematical comparison illustrating that using my bike to run errands today (in this case, to pick up movie tickets and buy a USB cable) was faster and cheaper than going to the gym for a workout followed by using the car to run errands.

Bottom line is, by electing to take my bike, I saved myself 37 minutes and kept $5.28 in my pocket, never mind the fact that I burned no fossil fuels, and caused no air pollution. Win. WIN. WIN!

Wasps building in ma composter

"Wasps building in ma composter" was the subject line of a recent e-mail message from my brother. The words, "Whaddaya think?" followed.

Pests of all kinds, flying and otherwise, tend to avoid a well-tended compost pile for a few good reasons. First of all, 50 to 60 degrees Celsius in a properly functioning composter is simply too hot for man or beast. Secondly, a human visiting every few days with a pitchfork to completely obliterate the pest's habitat doesn't exactly contribute to comfortable living conditions. And third, well-tended piles generally don't have a food source easily accessible on the surface -- it's normally buried under a layer of soil, grass clippings, or leaves.

Properly maintaining the pile is the key to prevention. For some good info on pest-proofing your compost pin -- check out this link to the City of Toronto website.

The Dirty Dozen

In reading an article about prioritizing purchases of organic produce, I learned that different fruits and vegetables have different levels of chemical uptake from pesticides and herbicides. A dietician friend corroborated the story and introduced me to the term, "The Dirty Dozen," which refers to the 12 nastiest fruits and vegetables. Bottom line is, if you want to start reducing your exposure to potentially harmful food-borne chemicals, buy organic when choosing from the dirty dozen list. Or heck, if you can afford it, buy organic food exclusively.

The dirty dozen list follows. Click here for a full list of 43 fruits and vegetables and their respective pesticide loads.

1. Peaches


2. Apples


3. Sweet Bell Peppers


4. Celery


5. Nectarines


6. Strawberries


7. Cherries


8. Lettuce


9. Grapes - Imported


10. Pears


11. Spinach


12. Potatoes

Why I'm lucky to be cancer-free at 36

Top three reasons:

1. Years of inhaling second-hand smoke from my dad's cigarettes;
2. Two summers in the 1990's spent amidst toxic inks and solvents at a sign-printing shop;
3. Countless Saturdays when, as a kid, I hovered over the burn barrel in my parents' backyard, dutifully making sure every last fragment of trash had completely combusted and inhaling god-only-knows how many different carcinogens.

More about burning garbage in your backyard (and why it's a really, really bad idea): http://grist.org/advice/ask/2007/01/08/burning/.

The Long-Awaited Compost Leaderboard

A funny thing has been developing in my family over the past couple of years: a good-natured pissing match over whose backyard composter is registering the highest temperatures. High temperatures in a composter normally indicate heightened microbial activity, which equates to efficient aerobic decomposition of organic matter. Organic matter in a composter is stuff that might otherwise have been sealed in a landfill site only to kick off methane that wrecks the planet (methane is 20 times more volatile as a greenhouse gas than CO2).

The Compost Temp Leaderboard:

2008-Oct-05 Jeff(PB) ambient=18C, compost=71C, diff=53C
2010-06-06 Jeff ambient=18C, compost=39C, diff=11C
 

2009-Jun-18 Bill(PB) ambient=18C, compost=69C, diff=51C
2010-May-26 Bill ambient=3C, compost=68C, diff=65C

2009-Aug-04 Rod&Laurie (PB) ambient=10C, compost=49C, diff=39C
2007-Aug-26 Rod&Laurie ambient=11C, compost=41C, diff=30C

2009-Jun-07 John (PB) ambient=16C, compost=42C, diff=26C
2010-May-24 John ambient=26C, compost=31C, diff=5C


Got an update for the board? Drop me a note and I'll post it. In this contest, everybody wins.

Shopping around for carbon offsets

What are carbon offsets? Umbra Fisk describes them like this:

"Wouldn't it be great if you could calculate how much carbon you emit, and somehow remove that carbon from the atmosphere? You can't, but you can offset (maybe a better term would be compensate for) your carbon emissions by supporting projects that will reduce overall global carbon emissions. For example, you can give money to an organization building windmills, and the organization in turn guarantees that the wind power generated with your funds will replace your equivalent carbon emissions. You use an emissions calculator provided by the company, and the company has a set fee per ton of "offset" carbon."
(Umbra's full article: http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2007/10/15/index.html).

I recently received a CleanAirPass (one particular carbon offset brand) as a gift. Theoretically, the little sticker inside my windshield means that I have sufficient carbon credits to render our family vehicle 'Carbon Neutral' for one year. Neat idea, but I haven't yet wrapped my head around the exact benefit to the planet. More thinking required on this.

Regardless, it appears to be worthwhile to do some shopping around when considering carbon offsets. Some organizations are better established than others, and it's important to find an organization with a philosophy you can live with. To help you shop, (further from Umbra's article):

"The Voluntary Carbon Offsets Information Portal, of the Tufts Climate Initiative and the Stockholm Environment Institute, is a nice clear compilation of basic information about carbon offsets, their purpose, and when to consider using them. They describe the criteria by which you should judge any company selling offsets, and evaluate and recommend 13 specific companies. Take what you've read in Gristmill and read the VCOIP information, and you may be able to make an offset shopping decision about which you feel solid."

For an additional rating of carbon offset companies (complete with a whole crapload of methodology), check out Clean Air-Cool Planet's Consumer's Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers.

If you really want to make a difference, choose not to own a car at all. But if you're not quite ready to do that and, like me, you need to find a way to mitigate the eco-guilt that comes with owning a car, perhaps carbon neutralizing yourself is the way to go.

833km per tank. Whatever.

A recent Nissan ad campaign claims that the 2008 model of their subcompact can travel 833km on a single tank of gas. Jealous that my car (which I thought was pretty gosh-darned fuel efficient) doesn't even come close to that, I did a little bit of research to assure the comparison of apples to apples.

The EPA and the US Department of Energy run a Web site called fueleconomy.gov, where you can actually compare multiple vehicles side-by-side. I'm trusting that the EPA is a little more impartial than individual manufacturers are. Check it out.

Oh, and for the record, a Toyota Matrix uses 4-6% less fuel than a Nissan Versa. Mwa-ha-ha-haaa! I win.