A Bicycle Built For School
For the first time in 23 years, I have no child attending school. My sadness about this caught me off guard. Believe me, I do not miss those monthly tuition payments, but I do miss how the back-to-school time marks the end of summer and sweet new beginnings. It's the rhythm of parental life.
Melancholy melted away when I saw this school bus over at Inhabitat:
“Attending school everyday has never more eco-friendly and fun! Dutch company De Café Racer developed a pedal-powered school bus that turns going to school into a happy, healthy and cooperative experience. This friendly and bright vehicle can accommodate up to ten kids and an adult driver, and even features a music player to blast all those sweet school bus tunes. The bus also comes equipped with an auxiliary electric motor just in case kids get tired. And if it starts raining, a sailcloth roof can easily be mounted to ensure the kids arrive at school nice and dry.”
Can I just say, I LOVE THIS!
I first uploaded the post onto Econesting’s Facebook page (you all “Like” Econesting’s FB page, right?) and received a comment from FB “Friend” Katja:
“Actually here in the Netherlands there are loads of those things - mostly for adults, there are groupbikes equipped with a bar and fridge, biketrains that you can use in offroad routes trough the woods and more. After all, the distances here are a good deal less then in the USA.”
Hey, do you think we could do this here in the States? I’m game. How cool would it be to grab a few friends and head off-road with that bar and fridge! OK, we could leave the bar and fridge out for the school kids and add helmets. But really, what a fun and ecological idea for areas where climates could accommodate an open-air school bus. Plus, it might wake up a few high schoolers when they hit the pedals at 6 AM.
Credit: Inhabitat via De Cafe Racer
Playing Politics With Irene
She came…She went…
In my neck of the woods, she ushered in a wet basement and a few hours without power. Can we say Good Night, Irene? My family may have been spared, but many in neighboring towns were not so lucky. Along with suffering from the aftermath of the hurricane, they are enduring the type of political storm that arrives when the Tea Party comes to town.
Politics and disasters are strange bedfellows…they separate the humane from the monsters. Please bear with me as I wade into the local political realm and tell you about two Republicans who left an impression in the wake of Irene.
The first one was Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. Given the reports and the facts - the odds of Irene wiping out parts of the city were high. Bloomberg made the right call. He evacuated low-lying areas and shut down the transit system. While the storm didn't hit as directly or devastatingly as expected, that doesn't change the levelheaded choices the Mayor made for his people. Bravo Bloomberg.
On the other end of the GOP spectrum, and a few miles north of NYC, days after Irene ripped through neighboring areas of Orange, Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester Counties, Rep. Nan Hayworth is threatening to withhold disaster money if lawmakers don't cut additional spending from the federal budget. Yes, this is the same Nan Hayworth who outspent and won the election out from under the fabulous Rep. John Hall…and yes, Hayworth was a Tea Party candidate.
Hayworth is saying she would only vote to replenish the federal disaster fund if new spending is offset by budget cuts. According to her, those cuts should come from "non-defense discretionary spending." Hayworth likened her position on bringing more pain and suffering to those affected by Irene, to “a family skipping vacation if it was overwhelmed by bills.”
"We're facing a natural disaster in the middle of an economic disaster. Certainly, the challenges we face with the national budget have not changed."
No they haven’t, but people's lives have changed.
It makes me sick to think an elected official would hold its constituents hostage. It's almost a week after the storm, and as I drive around the area, the devastation is horrifying...so many are left with flooded homes, crumbling roads, no water and no power. What are they supposed to do? These folks have been paying taxes just for an emergency such as this. Will they lose their homes while Hayworth positions the politics in her favor? Disgusting.
If you can stomach more of this type of nonsense, read today's NYTimes op-ed from Paul Krugman, Eric and Irene.
OK, I’ll stop now because you may have just checked in to see my latest, greatest eco-finds. Those are coming, I promise. But, Irene has been on my mind, and it inspired a few non-political posts from me that you may want to check out. This one over on Moms Clean Air Force site, and this one at Care2 discuss the after effects of hurricanes on wildlife, pollution and our stuff. Of course, in both posts I couldn’t repress my deep feeling that climate change is at the root of many of these latest natural disasters. That’s not politics. That’s reality.
Credits: Charles Krupa/AP for New York Times, Charles Dharapak/AP for Guardian
Shelter From The Storm
I was in another lifetime one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness a creature void of form
"Come in" she said
"I'll give you shelter from the storm"
And if I pass this way again you can rest assured I'll always do my best for her on that I give my word In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be warm "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
Not a word was spoke between us there was little risk involved Everything up to that point had been left unresolved Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
Now there's a wall between us something there's been lost I took too much for granted got my signals crossed Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
Well the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount But nothing really matters much it's doom alone that counts And the one-eyed undertaker he blows a flugelhorn "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm" I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove And old men with broken teeth stranded without love Do I understand your question man is it hopeless and forlorn "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
In a little hilltop village they gambled for my clothes I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"
Well I'm living in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line Beauty walks a razor's edge someday I'll make it mine If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born "Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm" ~ Bob Dylan
Irene's coming. Stay safe.
Credit: Ben Scott
Mother Love Is A Force Of Nature
We launched! It's been a busy time for the folks at Moms Clean Air Force. We've been writing, designing, developing, and finally launching a shiny new website!
While I've been holed up with my computer for hours on end, the collaborative effort has been incredibly inspiring. Working with a team is something I've missed being a freelance writer/editor/blogger these past four years.
Once I corral the talented team of writers, and teach them how to use all the nifty new tools, I will have time to write again. Yay!
In the meantime, do you want to learn more about MCAF? Of course you do!
Below is the MCAF welcome note from founder, Dominique Browning. After you check out the website (just beautiful, huh?), please come back and tell me what your thoughts are about the site and our mission to clean up the air. Thank you!
Mother Love Is A Force of Nature
Moms Clean Air Force has a newly designed website, and I’m delighted to welcome you to our community. We’re creating a movement for people who see air pollution as a straightforward, urgently important health issue.
Our goals are simple: educate people about why air pollution is still a big problem; raise awareness about what’s at stake politically; inspire people to take simple, fast action to send Washington a message.
We know moms are busy. But moms are also extraordinarily protective of their children’s health. We specialize in Naptime Activism.
Our bloggers take our message into their communities, reaching millions of readers. We network on Facebook and Twitter. Our growing community includes nurses, doctors, scientists, politicians, novelists, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, knitters and bakers–concerned moms, dads, sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons. Air pollution is harmful to everyone with a beating heart.
Air pollution contains toxins that harm people’s brains, lungs, and hearts. It is affecting our food and water. Children are especially vulnerable to toxic pollutants; Latino and African American babies suffer disproportionately from poisoned air. While there are lots of things we can do, as individuals, to keep our children safe at home, no one can control the air they breathe. We need regulations for that.
We’re all for respecting reasonable, efficient government budgets. But we don’t want our babies thrown out with the bathwater.
President Nixon’s Clean Air Act of 1970, and the agency he founded, the Environmental Protection Agency, have accomplished a great deal in cleaning American air and water. But the work isn’t done. The sky might be blue, but that doesn’t mean it is clean. In forty years, we’ve learned much more about invisible pollutants that wreak havoc on our health, causing neurological and developmental problems. Asthma rates among children are skyrocketing.
Air pollution isn’t just dirty. It is poisonous. Polluters are fighting for the right to pollute!
The Clean Air Act and the EPA are facing an unprecedented attack by some politicians and coal and oil industry lobbyists. That’s because emissions from coal-fired power plants are the single largest contributor to mercury toxins in our air.
Many responsible coal plant owners have done the right thing and cleaned up their toxic air emissions. It hasn’t hurt their bottom lines at all–they’re making record profits. The EPA has created thousands of jobs for Americans in the last forty years–in sectors from research to enforcement to engineering to new technology development.
Air pollution can be cleaned up. Please join Moms Clean Air Force to make our voices loud and clear. Send politicians a forceful message: Strengthen and enforce pollution regulations!
Polluters have power, money and political influence. But moms have love. And that’s the strongest force of all. Now we have to use it.