As demonstrated, it’s also less “messy” in terms of environmental impact. A couple of related ideas are shown but the major efficiencies shown here are related to the trip.

This is the the value of the sustainability movement. I only see one major lifestyle change here: giving up the idea of using a car to get everywhere.

Of course, realizing this idea will mean a big change for a country where car addiction isn’t just tolerated, but celebrated. But it’s the kind of thing I look forward to anyway. Most of the technology for this already exists, and development of the infrastructure is technologically possible. (It’s also partially done.)

Who wouldn’t want less stress and less mess?

Do you believe in global warming? Do you think the sustainability concept is undervalued, valid, or taken too far?

I don’t “believe” in global warming; I accept the scientific evidence that it is fact. The cause of it, however, is somewhat in question. My personal opinion is that human behavior has accelerated a climatological trend that already existed.

As such, I think it does behoove us as a society to be mindful of those actions that affect the environment. There’s no need to accelerate the trend any further. At the same time, I applaud the idea of finding technological solutions to the problem. We have minds for a reason.

So I do think that action is necessary. I’m not sure whether we even should attempt to reverse it given that at least part of global warming is a normal environmental cycle. There’s no reason, however, to simply allow it to devastate human society.

That’s where I see the sustainability movement coming in.

It will improve humanity’s overall health to eliminate air pollution, and one very significant way to do that is to explore alternative fuel sources for cars. It will improve humanity’s health to eliminate preservatives and similar chemicals from our body, and a significant way to do that is to eat more locally and lower on the food chain. It will improve humanity’s health to have better built indoor spaces, and a significant way to do that is to build “green.”

But it can be taken too far.

There’s no reason to eliminate cars or forbid the eating of meat altogether. There’s no reason to live “off the grid” and use no prepared materials of any kind to build your house (though I don’t object to either concept). There’s nothing wrong with wearing clothing made from synthetic materials; and truthfully, “organic” has become something of a business concept anyway.

In general, I do think that our society would benefit from moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle. But I don’t think we need to go to extremes. Global warming isn’t entirely humanity’s fault so there should be no blame; but at the same time, we shouldn’t stick our heads in the sand.

Regardless of cause, we’ll have to deal with the effects sooner or later, and it benefits everyone to be prepared.

Yet nobody has really opposed turning the air conditioning off. Down, perhaps, but not off. Part of this is justified as we do have a rather large server farm in the building. But part of it is because air conditioning has become something we consider a necessity.

The Washington Post recently printed an opinion article opposing the use of air conditioning, and as someone who lived in a house without air conditioning (in the South!) for a few years while growing up, I agree that it’s not a necessity. It’s a luxury, and a relatively recent one at that¹.

I’ll admit that I do use my air conditioning, but my use is definitely in line with Georgia Power’s recommendations for saving money². Even in the midst of this heat wave, my central air is set on 80°. Most people shudder at that thought. I shrug and turn my fans on.

So the backlash against Mr. Cox’ comments is pretty startling to me. Apparently the “right” to air conditioning is something that many people hold near and dear to their hearts.

I’m not particularly sure that’s a good thing.

“We found that going in and out of air conditioning always made you feel like it was too hot outside, so you ended up sitting in your easy chair eating pretzels,” he said. But being uncomfortable indoors forces them out [...]

“When it’s too hot to just sit here we might go swimming or ride our bikes or walk along the canal path,” said Mr. Focazio, who noted that he usually loses about six or seven pounds each summer, which he attributes to an appetite diminished by the heat, and an increase in exercise³.

The interesting thing is that so many people pine for the “easier times” of the 1950s and 1960s. Air conditioning certainly wasn’t universal then, and houses were often built to account for that. These days, high ceilings and large porches are considered quaint, old fashioned — and luxurious. Many people don’t stop to think that they might have been practical.

After all, there was still plenty of living possible without locking ourselves into refrigerators just because it was hot. Sometimes I actually even send up a little prayer of thanks that I had to “suffer” without air conditioning for a few years; and yes, I do plan to turn my air conditioning off next week while I’m out of town.

1. http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/mvigeant/therm_1/ac_final/bg.htm
2. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/electricity_sav.php (Georgia Power’s site has the recommendation, but it’s embedded in a rather bandwidth-heavy flash application.)
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/garden/23air.html?pagewanted=2&fta=y

That’s because I support, and practice, the subsidiary principle. It wasn’t hard for me to figure out what to do, because it all came back to the local community. Since I don’t have a family that’s my lowest level for decision-making.

Most BP stores are franchises owned by local or regional operators. They have contracts that require them to still buy their gas from BP. Given that a convenience store’s major product is gas, if the operator broke their contract it would mean financial disaster.

I’m not going to insist that my local convenience store owner cut off their nose to spite their face.

At the same time, I do believe that BP bears the responsibility for addressing the oil spill. They are the ones who create the gas that the convenience store owners purchase. They’re the lowest economic player that can handle the situation as a whole.

They owe it to their convenience store contract holders, who are vital parts of our gasoline-dependent community.

As far as government intervention, I don’t believe it should be necessary. However, I do support the Obama Administration’s decision to interfere. Economic factors have not prevented BP from acting irresponsibly. Since the role of government is to protect the common good, it was correct for them to step in and make them do it.

This doesn’t help my opinion of BP, but again, I’m not going to hurt my local convenience store owners by boycotting them.

Many people insist that subsidiarity isn’t practical and only affects political decisions anyway. Really? Then why is applying it to the Deepwater Horizon situation so very straightforward? The whole point of Catholic Social Teaching is to support the family and the community.

This place had fantastic variety but I’m sorry, when I hear “farmers market” I expect local produce. I’m not sure that a 20-mile round trip to buy carrots from Mexico reduces my carbon footprint all that much, and I saw no evidence of true organics, quality control or fair-labor requirements. I might as well just go to the grocery store.

One of the most important reasons to shop at a farmer’s market instead of a grocery store is because the food is local and you have a chance to interact directly with the farmer¹. This usually means better quality as well, and you can do a lot of useful quality control simply by asking the right kinds of questions.

It also reduces carbon footprint dramatically given that most produce travels thousands of miles before it’s sold². Having the food travel only a few miles is a significant difference of the kind that adds up over time. In addition, it supports the local economy and infrastructure³. Not to be isolationist, but right now, our economy can use all the support it can get.

There’s one additional benefit that I often don’t hear cited, and that’s the fact that local produce is only available in season. It’s not a big hobby of mine and I’m not a “foodie,” but I do like to cook. I find that limiting myself to in-season produce is a useful way to keep it interesting. It forces me to find ways to innovate, try new things, and thus expand my horizons a little bit — without introducing exotic ingredients that may be expensive or hard to find.

A “world market” such as YDFM⁴ isn’t a bad thing, but I don’t consider it to be a farmer’s market. Their idea and premise run completely counter to all of the benefits I list above.

They weren’t exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately, that has left me still at the first step of my search for a proper, local and useful farmer’s market in the Atlanta area.

I think I got pretty spoiled by the NCDA&CS’ North Carolina State Farmer’s Market when I lived in Raleigh. Their requirements bias heavily in favor of in-state growers who represent themselves⁵. As a result, it’s a true local market where you buy direct from — and thus, can talk to — the farmer. It’s also huge, and I sometimes have to stop at an ATM on the way over and then tell myself that whatever cash I take out is my limit.

The Atlanta Farmers Market, on the other hand, sounds like it’s mostly wholesalers selling to local grocers; given that it’s in Forest Park I’ve not made the trek down there yet. I’ve already discussed Your Dekalb Farmers Market, and a long-ago visit to the Green Market at Piedmont Park was a bit of a disappointment (it was mostly locally processed goods such as jams and jellies).

That’s 0 for 3 in terms of batting average.

I’m not giving up, though. This is Georgia: we’re in the South. The agriculture-based economy in this region isn’t yet gone, and that means there are good farmer’s markets somewhere. I can’t believe that no Georgia farmers would take advantage the opportunities inherent in an urban area like Atlanta. I just need to figure out where they are.

1. http://quincyfarmersmarket.com/shopfarmersmarkets.aspx
2. http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/
3. http://www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org/index.php?page=why-buy-local
4. This is the tag line on their web site, and their conformance to this ideal is outstanding. So YDFM is exactly what it sets out to be, and they deserve kudos for that.
5. http://www.agr.state.nc.us/markets/facilities/markets/raleigh/2009-2010rfmGuidelines.pdf (PDF file)

Cars cover and suffocate our lives but somehow their dominance is also strangely invisible. Our unique adaptability as a species has enabled us to acclimatize to their staggering “everywhereness,” and not see it as odd. Were the car a disease it would be an epidemic. Yet, spellbound, we embrace the great destroyer and design our lives, communities and countryside around it. We welcome cars into our lives when, rationally, we should be emblazoning them with public health warnings in the same style as cigarette packets. Driving can seriously damage your health, or Driving Kills.

In the century since the first recorded fatal traffic accident, the car has claimed 30 million lives. Traffic accidents are now predicted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to become the world’s third most significant cause of death and disability by 2020. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.2 million people die on roads each year: similar to total fatalities caused by malaria.

I’ve often wondered if the increasing alienation present in today’s American society isn’t related to the increasing use of cars. It’s true that the car has rewritten our landscape; suburbs, for example, generally couldn’t happen without cars, and urban decay was largely unknown prior to the automobile age. This article also cites some startling (if anecdotal) evidence about asthma rates in the presence of motor vehicle emissions.

1. It’s a long story involving family politics, but the short version is that, functionally, I only own and operate one car — and I intend for car title records to reflect that by next summer.
2. Most of that hour is spent idling on I-40, which is one of the area’s larger rush-hour parking lots. All the 50 mpg cars in the world won’t change the fact that this has a serious negative impact on local air quality.

Advocates of alternative forms of transportation threw down the gauntlet Monday, challenging area commuters to find other ways to get to work.

SmartCommute@RTP, which coordinates transportation for companies in Research Triangle Park to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, launched the SmartCommute Challenge to get people thinking about more fuel-efficient ways to get to work. Through the end of September, area workers can sign a pledge to telecommute, ride a bike, form a carpool or take mass transit for at least one day during the challenge period.

“It’s all on the honor system, but with the price of gas, taking an alternate route is an easy thing to do, and it saves you money,” said Amy Armbruster, of the Triangle Transit Authority, a member of SmartCommute@RTP.

Scott Dunn sat behind the wheel of a sport utility vehicle for years before ditching it because of high gas prices. “I don’t see how people can afford (gas) right now. I just saw $2.50 a gallon,” Dunn said. “I don’t think there is a true solution, but we have to figure out something.”

Aneal Artis also stopped commuting by car and started taking the bus to work. “It’s a lot cheaper to take the bus,” Artis said. “You have a lot of options around you. It’s just whether or not you want to choose those avenues or not.”

To encourage participation, the SmartCommute Challenge is offering prizes like a week’s vacation anywhere in the continental U.S., laptop computers, iPods and bikes.

“I think just being able to save some money is prize enough,” Dunn said.

In late 2001, my car developed a mechanical problem that required a rather expensive repair. It took me six months to save the money. During that time, I occasionally risked driving the car, but since it wasn’t reliable or safe I spent a considerable amount of time and energy into looking for transportation alternatives. I found them. In fact, I found many of them. Although I did eventually get my car fixed, I’ve never forgotten those six months and how it felt to not have to worry about where I left my car or whether I’d have to go back for it if I decided to go somewhere with a friend. I also lost nearly twenty pounds just from walking everywhere instead of driving. In retrospect, I’m glad those six months happened. I’d never give up my driver’s license, but there’s a certain amount of freedom in knowing that my vehicular status has no bearing on my ability to live my life.

The URL for the SmartCommute Challenge is http://www.smartcommute.org. Considerable information about transit alternatives in the Triangle is available at http://www.gotriangle.org. Triangle Transit Authority and Share the Ride NC offer information about carpooling, vanpooling and transit.

The Greenland ice sheet is all but doomed to melt away to nothing, according to a new modelling study. If it does melt, global sea levels will rise by seven metres, flooding most of the world’s coastal regions.

Jonathan Gregory, a climatologist at the University of Reading, UK, says global warming could start runaway melting on Greenland within 50 years, and it will “probably be irreversible this side of a new ice age”. The only good news is that it a total meltdown is likely to take at least 1000 years. [Text continued at site.]

The article mentions that an average temperature increase of three degrees Celsius will trigger the meltdown. If I’ve remembered the conversion factor right, that’s the rough equivalent of fourteen and a half degrees Fahrenheit. In the area I live, the average daily temperature differential is higher than that and there has been a noticeable change in climate during my lifetime.

In short, there is ample time to prepare for the ice cap meltdown. There is also ample time to take measures to slow the process back to something more approximating normal. The problem is that the measures need to be started now if we want our descendants to reap the benefits. It is hard to convince people that our actions can cause impact a thousand years later — even in light of a rather obvious but frequently overlooked historical example: the rise of Christianity. I hope we can collectively come to our senses before it is too late.