Living Car Free - Earth Day: what are you doing April 22?

Earth Day is next week and there must be something we're doing to celebrate the fact that our planet isn't Mars or Venus.

http://www.earthday.org/earthday2010

(I see StarBucks is offering a free cup of coffee if you bring in your reusable mug today (Apr. 15).)

What will you do?

Ride my bike to work.

What she said.

Nothing new or extraordinary. Maybe, weather permitting, take an extra-long loop home in the evening....

Not much on the 22nd, but I will be helping the local bike advocacy group with their booth at the city's Earth Day celebration on the 24th.

I am going to take my son to the Earth Day parade then take him out for ice cream. :)

I have 2 older commodes, I am not sure if they are 3.5 gal flush or 5 gal. flush. I've seen a new product (at least new to me) that will convert any toilet to a dual flush toilet. It requires replacing the flapper unit and the fill valve. It is supposed to be a "do it yourself" job. In liquid only mode it uses half the water. Since 80% of the usage is for liquid waste I can save a substantial amount of water with out having to replace the old commodes. The cost is about $50 - $60 a commode. This really isn't for earth day but my decision to do this coincides with the celebration so what the heck.

http://www.smarterflush.com/

I've got nothing special planned to mark Earth Day.

The special Earth Day events in April and Earth Hour in March are good ways to raise awareness. I'm more interested in finding ways to live an environmentally responsible life the rest of the year.

Help my sister locate her apartment complex's recycle bins. She swears up and down she can't find them. Yeah right!!!!:rolleyes:

Strange. Des Moines had some big celebrations last year, but I haven't heard of anything. They should shoot to celebrate Earth Day on weekends, preferably Saturday. Lots of cyclists looking for an event.

I figure after commuting to work all week, I'll probably shoot for a nap on Earth Day.

I'm going to mow my lawn with a push mower and throw some cow **** on it.

Just another normal work day, jump on the bike, and commute to and from work. After work, I might throw in an errand or two for good measure.

Sadly, ride my bike 13 miles to work, get in an 18 wheeler and drive 340miles (~48 gallons of fuel) for work. No other work around.

I've been laid off from work for about a month and a half, they need me for one week, next week, to cover a route. 340 miles per day. Loading and unloading too. I need to get into a more environmentally friendly job. Being unemployed is bad for economic environment.

I guess it will just be another day not starting my car (battery disconnected too). Which has been driven less then 20 miles in the last few months. Works great, but I live in Portland and have 3 bikes, what do I need a car for?

Sadly, ride my bike 13 miles to work, get in an 18 wheeler and drive 340miles (~48 gallons of fuel) for work.



I wouldn't feel too sad, if your load is 20,000 pounds(probably closer to 40,000), that's 416 pounds of goods moved 340 miles on one gallon of fuel.

I have to visit a field office about 3-4 mi away. We have 6 bicycles in the the enterprise fleet (for business or personal use during business hours) but my boss has to go too so that probably won't fly. Probably will take a 3/4 ton pickup instead.

That's a positive way of looking at it, dynodonn. It must feel funny (good) not having to do anything different for 'earth day', and' ride you bike to work day'.

I don't think most people do anything different.

Apr 21, I'll be working with the sister-in-law on more bike basics. Stuff her on the Breezer this time, and help her work on basic balance/handling skills. She's pretty sedentary, and she's not got the greatest grasp on rules of the road, so biking will help her out a lot.

Apr 24 I'll be biking to the local alpaca festival. Most fiber festivals I go to involve a bus or carpool. This one is close enough to walk to at less than 2 miles away. I'm gonna bike tho, because it's a bit lower energy so I'll be up for more social time and demo time. Locally produced fiber and fabric is always neat.

I'll be on the second day of a 4 week bike tour around southern Utah. Only fossil fuel involved will be white gas for the MSR stove. And chain lube.

Driving my truck to Florida ironically:innocent:. At least once I am there my xtra-cycle will tote me and my girlfriend around the beach.

Its for a good cause at least...were gonna visit my grandma while down there...

Every day is an Earth Day

Nothing special for me. Perhaps I'll ask others at work if they know about it.

Riding my bike to work, same as I have every day since March 5th. Going on a first date with a gal after work; bonus points for her in my book if she also rides a bike there. My biggest worry is which bike to ride: the fixie, the touring bike or the cargo bike (the cargo bike has a passenger handlebar, seat cushion & foot platforms). :-D

Oddly enough, I'll have to use the car to attend a commitment this evening. Because of the time and distance involved, I can't reasonably bike there and we don't have a public transportation system available. I'm going to piggyback some other errands onto that trip, including stopping at the bike shop.

The Earth Day celebration on the 24th in North Little Rock was interesting. Mother Nature was in evidence. It started out with thunderstorms, and then as a front passed through, the rest of the day was winds in the 25 mph range. What that meant was that about 70% of the vendors cancelled out, and the rest of us waited through the rain and met with the visitors later.

A lot of people came to our booth for advice on trails, how and where to ride, where to get their bikes fixed etc. We noticed that almost all the people who told us "I just moved here..." were from California. I could empathize with them about their shock on the conditions here. Hopefully, we will get some new activists from them. My Hard Rock with its shopping panniers was on display, and BACA's president's new Long Haul Trucker went up on the Central Arkansas Transit's bike rack on the bus to show how it worked.

Turned out to be a very beautiful day by the Arkansas River. One fellow was riding around on a tall bike decorated with porpoises on one side and people doing green things on the other side.

I could empathize with them about their shock on the conditions here.
What conditions? As you describe it, Little Rocket sounds pleasant enough.

What conditions? As you describe it, Little Rocket sounds pleasant enough.

Thanks, and actually North Little Rock got a bronze level bicycle friendly city this year. But Little Rock itself has a number of problems.

For the most part, the roads are old, narrow without shoulders, heavily traveled and hilly. The motorists mostly subscribe to the doctrine of the divine right of cars, and they love their trucks and SUVs. Little Rock is famous for its half-block long sidewalks that end in nothing. The roads are laid out so that there are no back roads when trying to go east/west. And the city is not well motivated to improve things.

So you have a bad mix of bad roads, no room and drivers who feel that you are encroaching on their turf, and no alternatives. North Little Rock also has similar problems and indeed we lost a cyclist this weekend there.

Markham St., the main east west corridor, made me into a bicycle advocate. Something had to be done.

Thanks, and actually North Little Rock got a bronze level bicycle friendly city this year. But Little Rock itself has a number of problems.

For the most part, the roads are old, narrow without shoulders, heavily traveled and hilly. The motorists mostly subscribe to the doctrine of the divine right of cars, and they love their trucks and SUVs. Little Rock is famous for its half-block long sidewalks that end in nothing. The roads are laid out so that there are no back roads when trying to go east/west. And the city is not well motivated to improve things.

So you have a bad mix of bad roads, no room and drivers who feel that you are encroaching on their turf, and no alternatives. North Little Rock also has similar problems and indeed we lost a cyclist this weekend there.

Markham St., the main east west corridor, made me into a bicycle advocate. Something had to be done.

Similar issues around here, but there may be some hop (http://www.fampo.org/PDF/BikeandPedWorkshop.pdf)e...I am actually home for the next couple of weeks and am planning on making it to the workshop. I am a realist and realize that it will be a long hard road from the workshop to the actual infrastructure and it will be an uphill battle regardless. But I want to see who the players are and if people that can make a difference ie; the DOT reps and local government reps are actually paying attention or doing the usual lip service.

Aaron :)

Earth Day is next week and there must be something we're doing to celebrate the fact that our planet isn't Mars or Venus.


It's the Rolls Royce of planets, and we treat it like a beater Yugo. ;)

I went to earthfest at the Cleveland metroparks zoo on the 18th. I didn't do too much on Apr 22. But I did celibrate Apr 23 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDhoaXZGJHM).