Biking For Food... And Energy Efficiency

Bike ready for a 15km round trip to the grocery store. Van? Not so much.

Gas engine cars where never a very good idea. I can see them pulling a dinosaur act soon, dieing in our driveways and being fossilized over the coming eons. 

Why? Because they are notoriously energy inefficient and nature does not reward inefficiency. 

An internal combustion gas engine offers a pathetic 20 - 30% efficiency. The remaining 70 to 80% of the gas in the tank is wasted as exhaust heat, mechanical sound energy, and friction loss, rather than moving the car from point A to point B.

An electric car does better, operating at between 50 and 85% efficiency, but that still does not make it anywhere as efficient as a bicycle.

A bike is the most efficient method of travel in the known Universe. It can be up to 5 times more efficient than walking, and is impressively more efficient than a car.

100 calories of energy will power a bicycle 5 km, while those same calories will only take a car 85 meters. A car is a more efficient mechanism for wasting energy than it is as a method of transportation.

Getting ready for the trip home with my groceries.

A 2015 survey of 44 countries found that only 1/3 of total respondents reported owning a car. That's about the same fraction of Americans over the age of 3 that rode a bike at least once over the last year. 

As part of my experiment in joining that 65% segment of car-free respondents, I have been doing bike-supported grocery shopping trips since our van broke down.

The distance to the store is 7.5 km. Along the way the route descends from 500 ft to sea level. 

On my first trip, I used my travel backpack that has about a 55 L capacity. I carried home 7 kg of food, which got us nicely stocked up.

The entire trip took me 1.5 hours, and it was much more enjoyable than driving. I was freed from the metal cage of the car.

On a bike you are out there, in there, immersed in the scene and part of it all. I saw things I have never seen before while driving, even though I have blasted up and down this road a few times over the past 5 years. 

As I pumped uphill I revelled in the essence of trees and flowers and grass and soil and a million other things organic. I listened to several species of birds singing their songs. 

People greeted me as I pedalled by.

Home is up in the hills in the background. I was the only bike in the lot on this day.

After shopping it felt good to go outside to a waiting bike instead of our van. 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy driving cars and vans, trucks and tractors. I have also driven limousines, the most insane, idiotic and inefficient vehicles on the planet. 

Yes, for a short while I did personal research on the rich of Edmonton, Alberta while working as a chauffeur. Brushing shoulders with the upper crust was interesting and strange.

I have always enjoyed motor vehicles. Thing is, I love bicycles, too. And when I ride, it is amazing. Just not as fast. Which is good.

On my first grocery ride I was so excited about my hill climb back home with all my food that I rode off like a kid returning home after a visit to the candy store. 

So excited that I forgot my bike helmet outside where my bike was locked up. It's gone.

Other than that, biking for food has been a success. So far it is a viable method that is efficient, effective, and a whole lot of fun.

I am going to have to buy a new helmet. Safety first.

Back To The 1800s

Transportation in New York 1800s style.

Experts say that if we were ever to lose our electrical grid, even if "only" for a year, our standard of living would soon resemble that of the 1800s. That sounds like an adventure one should be prepared for ahead of time.

I take that scenario as approximating living conditions as we make the transition to a drastically lower energy/renewable future.

Curious to see just what conditions were like back then, I did a search. 

"What could we be in store for?", I wanted to know as I entered "living conditions 1800s".

This is how one of the first links I looked at summed the period up:

"Living was hard work. It lasted from sunrise to sunset. Daily life was so difficult that when it came time to die, many felt relief."

At first I laughed, unsure if the author's purpose was to entertain with an overly dramatic exaggerated story, or inform us of actual facts of the time.

Then I was sobered by the thought that it basically did a good job of describing conditions for many people in 2019 already.

On the other hand, cheap, plentiful energy has made life very easy for a small portion of the world's population. Shielded from the realities of their low energy counterparts, making changes could be particularly difficult for them. 

Or is it "us"?

I do think that life in the coming decades will be more difficult, but I also believe it will ultimately be an improvement over the days of thinking that everybody could have everything if we just let selfish capitalism do its thing unhindered and unregulated.

We can see that dream is now in its death throes, and that it was a lie from the start. 

What they didn't tell us is that we would need several more planets to destroy to make their selfish dream happen, and that even then there would be many left out and waiting for the ultimate relief of death.

Now, at this late stage, we will be lucky if we only have to wind things down to the energy level of the 1800s, and not the Stone Age. 

“We still have the possibility to redesign our societies for a huge decrease in energy use. It will upset some people, of course, but the window is still open.”

- Raul Ilargi Meijer

Our Beds Are Burning

An 86,000 hectare wildfire raging in record high temperatures burns the Alberta oil sands town of Fort McMurray. Over one thousand homes burned to the ground. Almost 100,000 people evacuated and probably not returning any time in the near future.

Is there a message here for us?

"How do we sleep when our beds are burning?", asked the band Midnight Oil. In Fort Mac they are literally burning. Something is going on, although it is too complex to say exactly what. Of course, theories abound. Some are more blamey than others.

Some people are saying it is karma for helping produce some of the largest concentrations of greenhouse gases in the country. Their compassion chip might be disengaged mentioning this while so many are in so much pain, but again I ask myself what the take away from this apocalyptic disaster is going to be.

What is the lesson here? Is there one? I don't know.

If it is karma, it is karma that anyone that uses fossil fuels to drive their cars, or heat their homes, or provide them with electricity must share equally. Our beds may not be burning, but they are definitely smouldering.

If it is karma, it is karma for all of us, not just those working the oil sands while trying to provide for their families.

Thankfully, most people do have their compassion chip engaged by viewing the horror of what is going on up north. Folks are coming together to help out with basic needs, ease the pain, and help those affected rebuild their lives.

There are many, many helpers showing us a better way of responding to this tragedy that we have all created. Soon though, we should probably take a look at what this awful event is trying to tell us. All of us.

Or maybe it is just a forest fire of catastrophic proportions.

The Price Of Power

"The average American or Canadian household in 2010 used about twenty times more than the typical Nigerian household, and two to three times more than a typical European home."

The cost of electricity is going up and it is a trend that is likely to continue. Such increases will be universal as we try to continue to feed the electricity pig-out that powers our excessive lifestyles.

Before leaving British Columbia we saw our power rate go up, and another 10% increase will take effect April 1 of this year. Even after this year's increase BC will still have some of the least expensive power in Canada (Quebec pays half the rate of BC).

Upon arriving in Nova Scotia we started paying twice the amount for power as we were paying on the coast.

But what if we could get electricity at half the price? While not an option in BC, that situation was on offer here with a change over to Time Of Day (TOD) electric metering. A TOD meter has the ability to measure electricity usage at different rates and times.

Now we continue to do what we can to eliminate power usage, and try to shift as much of our powered activities to low peak times/rates. That means shifting usage to an 11:00 pm to 7:00 am time slot on weekdays (not the most convenient), weekend days and holidays. We have seen our schedule change to take advantage of the half price power.

Our home has a hot water in-floor heating system that uses an efficient tankless electric heater. It is on a timer so we can set it to heat the house's concrete slab at night during off peak rates. Then the system shuts off while the slab radiates heat into the house slowly throughout the day when electric rates are higher.

But in spite of the advances that allow us to pay less for power, conservation is still the best way to go. It doesn't matter how much it costs, we need to reduce our demand for power to a reasonable level that can be supported with sustainable sources such as tidal, wind, micro-hydro, biogas and solar.

"While the US and Canada are up around 4,500 kWh per person (per year), the UK and Germany are below 2,000 kWh.  In Brazil, Mexico and China per person use is just 500 kWh, but growth is very different.  In Brazil residential use per person has been stable over the last 20 years, whereas in Mexico it is up 50% and in China it has increased 600%." - Shrink That Footprint

World Water Day 2014

In 2011, 768 million people did not have an improved source of drinking-water,
and 2.5 billion people did not have access to improved sanitation.

World Water Day - How You Can Help

• Capture rainfall in a cistern or rain barrel and use it to water your garden.
• You can save water by conserving electricity, which accounts for 55% of all water use.
• Install a low-flow toilet and plumbing fixtures.
• Lessen stress on your local water system by minimizing use during peak daytime hours.
• Dispose of prescription medicine and other toxic materials through local collection programs, not down the drain.
• If you have to water lawn, do it early in the morning or after the sun has set to reduce water lost to evaporation.
• Landscape with local drought-tolerant species.
• Eat less meat.
• Donate to NGOs working to improve access to clean water and sanitation.
• Shower with a friend.

"Tell Them To Live Simply"

Consumer capitalism has far reaching effects, as the Hopi and Navajo
have discovered on their resource rich lands.

In the book Radical Simplicity Jim Merkel describes the forced relocation of 12,000 Dineh (Navajo) people from the area known as Big Mountain, Arizona. Their ancestral homeland was too resource rich to 'allow' the people to stay.

Unfortunately for them, their land contains some of the largest coal deposits in the US, and in the 1960s  the Peabody Coal Company was determined to get their hands on the black gold. It is estimated that there are 21 billion tons of coal, valued at $100 billion dollars lying just underground. Even worse, uranium is also found in the area.

The people were offered new land as compensation for leaving their sheep, corn, medicinal plants, and the bones of their ancestors. They were being forced to leave the land they had continuously occupied for 9,000 years. There was no word for "relocation" in their native language.

The new land offered to the people was the site of a major spill of millions of gallons of radioactive waste by United Nuclear. The 1979 disaster contaminated 68 miles of the Rio Puerco River. Relocating the Dineh (starting in 1974) was the largest forced removal of Native Americans since the 1880s.

By 1990 the Dineh that remained were desperate and under siege by rapacious resource companies. Merkel was becoming interested in sustainable living, and visited the people to see what he could learn, and how he could help.

He spoke to a woman who told him of the crazy capitalists trying to seize their land and destroy their ancient way of life.

"For seventeen years they slaughtered our sheep and put cement in our wells. If we fix our roof or fence, they drag us into court. Here, look at these papers they give us. 

Now they blast Mother Earth apart. Look at the cracks in my home. They drop a bomb on the Japanese people with uranium from our mountain. We are a peaceful people. 

They pump the aquifer to slurry coal. Now the plants are dying. Who is this Peabody Coal Company anyway? They make some marks on a piece of paper and come out here and push us around. 

This is our altar - we will never leave."

The people were forced off the land and the coal and uranium industries took over. Merkel saw what was happening as a "silent genocide".

He asked the woman he was interviewing, "What can I do to help?"

She responded by saying,

"Go back to your people and tell them to live simply. Then they wouldn't be out here digging up Mother Earth for coal and uranium." 

We can reduce the impact of the negative, and often unintended, side effects of our lifestyle choices by learning to live with less and be satisfied with an outwardly simple, but inwardly rich life. Perhaps we will find that we enjoy this way of life more than our past consumer-oriented focus.

We won't know until we try.

Consumerism Infographic