Environmentally-relevant CAR articles from NY Times

Yesterday the NY Times put out a special Auto section - so here's a selection of the environmentally-relevant articles (as well as some older articles gleaned from the Auto section of their website).

- Road test: author takes director of Sierra Club's global warming program on a test drive of the new Hummer H3...around his own neighborhood!

- Inner conflict: love of muscle cars with big engines Vs. green feelings and techie admiration for the hybrid

- Update on plug-in hybrid technology: increasing fuel-efficiency by running engine on battery power alone for first 40 miles.

- Biodiesel industry taking off; supported by Barack Obama; Renewable Energy Group receives largest to date equity investment in biofuels, at $100 million.

- New high-efficiency/low-emissions diesel engines (already available in Europe) set for US debut in 07/08 (Mercedes...several SUVs) and within the next 3 yrs (Honda).

- Want to fuel up with E-85, the corn-based fuel blend used in FlexFuel vehicles? Better live in the Midwest!

- What's a PZEV? Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle. Your parked car, engine not running, emits more pollution than driving around in a PZEV, thanks to the improved pollution control system. These specially-equipped models from Chevy, Ford, Honda and Volvo are already for sale in CA, soon in the Northeast (though hardly marketed, suprise).

Business world is catching on to sustainability

Team sponsors CLIF BAR, Patagonia, and Equal Exchange have long been associated with thoughtful, sustainable corporate philosophies. Most companies in the natural living industry adhere to these principles as well, in both product development and production, and day to day business operations.

A more recent development has been the attention paid to sustainability by major corporations, like Vail Resorts (offsetting 100% of their energy usage with wind energy credits) and Wal-Mart pledging $500 million towards sustainability initiatives.

Interesting article commenting on this trend in the business world, from Denver Post columnist Gail Shoettler.

BK Gettin' It Done!

Congrats to TIAA-CREF/CLIF BAR Cross Team veteran Brady Kappius!!! At the Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in Angel Fire, NM, Brady followed his awesome 2nd place in the Division II Short Track with an excellent 3rd place in the Cross Country.

Brady will be recovering this week from Collegiate MTB Nats, catching up on his homework, and getting back into cross with this Sunday's Boulder Racing UCI event...then it is on to the US Gran Prix of Cyclo-Cross weekend in Colorado.

Saturday Nov. 4 is the 3rd race in the USGP Series, called the Xilinx Cup thanks to cycling-friendly software company Xilinx. The race is put on by none other than Brady's dad, Rus, and is at the Xilinx campus in Longmont.

See you there to watch some fast, technical cross racing!

Tejay Time

Hey there cyclo-cross fans,

So I have been kind of easing into the cross season this year due to a long road season and my first semester of college. I took a much needed break after Junior Road Worlds, I've been riding now for about three weeks. As soon as I got back on the bike I got sick and had to skip Gloucester.

Now everything is fine, and hopefully it stays that way. Im starting to feel good on the bike again, the legs seem to be comming back slowly but surely. I just raced a Boulder cyclo-cross series race last weekend and got 7th (not too bad for a roadie). This was a vast improvement to my first race of the season where I was almost lapped. Hopefully I can continue to progress and bring some good form into the Boulder USGP races, perhaps I can be in the mix with the rest of the U-23 folks.

Aside from racing, Petrov the Panther (aka Peter Stetina) and I are going to try and set up a visit to Preston Junior High in Fort Collins. We are hoping to talk about global cooling, Clif Bar, and cycling as an alternate mode of transportation. Stay tuned for an update on how that goes.

Until next time,

Tejay

Let's bring it to the US: slow cities

Most of us are familiar with the idea of slow food, if not check out: www.slowfood.com for more info.

Philosophy: "Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work. We consider ourselves co-producers, not consumers, because by being informed about how our food is produced and actively supporting those who produce it, we become a part of and a partner in the production process."
Source: http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/philosophy.lasso

Many of us however, may NOT be familiar with a similar idea, that of "slow cities".

The slow city movement strives to maintain local culture, keep a "relaxed" pace of life, insure good "hospitality", and promote "local distinctivenes and sense of place".

Check out: http://www.mi.vt.edu/uploads/Slow%20City%20Presentation_Vancouver.pdf

The presentation by Mayer and Knox was given at the World planners congress, Vancouver June '06.

Within the presentation criteria are given with which communities can move toward becoming slow cities, including: environmental protection, urban design and form, urban quality, local products, hospitality, and awareness.

Take the time to look through their presentation, I think you will find it very interesting, and perhaps we can start to build our own communities around these principles. Of course the responsibility is with us, so we might as well start somewhere!

--bryan

Colorado School of Mines Environmental Club

I took part in the CSM Environmental Club meeting last week. The club is doing some really great stuff for the environment. To start off, all year the club organizes on campus recycling. All types of materials can be recycled including Aluminum, Automotive Fluids, Compost, Newsprint, Office Paper, Plastic, and Steel. One of the coolest things they are doing is collecting used printer cartridges and donating them to a local museum who recycles them as a part of their fund raising processes. Other activities the club organizes are a plant sale in the spring as well as an Earth Day celebration. Once a year the club also organizes a highway cleanup project. I am excited to be a part of the club and to help out the environment.

Brady

Since I'm one of the few guys that doesn't live in CO, I have to drive up from NM for the USGP weekend in a couple weeks. Nothing I can really do about it, so I went and bought some Cool Tags (10 of them) to try and offset the emissions from my car.

Blatant plug here: It could not have been easier to buy the Cool Tags. I started at the Clif website, clicked the Start Global Cooling logo, probably took less than a minute. Also was able to sign up for email updates on how the wind farms are progressing.

You don't have to just buy Cool Tags, there are a number of options at the Native Energy site. I think I'm going to offset my wife's driving CO2 emissions for her birthday as well, using this. Don't worry, I got her other stuff too...

-JBV

Sunday 10/22 Results

The team's finest performances of the season in Elite/Open men's races were turned in yesterday by Troy Wells and Tejay van Garderen.

At the Boulder Racing event in Colorado, Tejay van Garderen showed he is quickly progressing his form upwards from his early-fall time off and sickness...faring well against a top Colorado Pro/1/2 cross field:

1 Alan Obye - Unattached
2 Jonathan Baker - Harshman Wealth/Primus Mootry
3 Colby Pearce - TIAA-CREF/5280 Magazine
4 Peter Webber - Unattached
5 Taylor Carrington - Unattached
6 Chris Case - Mystic Velo
7 Tejay van Garderen - TIAA-CREF/CLIF BAR

Troy notched his best result of this young season, with a solid 9th place finish amidst a stacked field in the UCI-ranked Wissahickon Cross in Pennsylvania:

Elite Men

1 Ryan Trebon (USA) KONA                                     
2 Tim Johnson (USA) Cannondale/cyclocrossworld.com              
3 Barry Wicks (USA) KONA                                        
4 Todd Wells (USA) Team GT                                         
5 Jeremy Powers (USA) Jelly Belly                               
6 Matt White (USA) FiordiFrutta                                 
7 Davide Frattini (Ita) Colavita Oil/Sutter Home                
8 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) cyclocrossworld.com/SRAM             
9 Troy Wells (USA) TIAA-CREF                                    

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First look at 2006 team kit

A little lighter blue, more CLIF BAR red, and 5280 Magazine back on the shoulders in full effect.

Check out these pics from yesterday's Boulder Racing cross at Interlocken - rookie Taylor Phinney and team staff member Cody Oates mixing it up in the Cat. 4 race.

Nice work Cody on another podium finish...time for an upgrade man!!!

West to be major hotspot with climate change

Read an article in today's Denver Post summarizing a recent NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research - based in Boulder) study. This study looked at the predictions of 9 different climate change models through the year 2099.

Well, it doesn't look good, unless you think a "wild ride," as the lead author called it, sounds fun.

The Western US was earmarked as a hotspot that will get the worst of weather extremes: more extended droughts, heavier rainfalls, and longer heat waves.

For more specifics about these alarming extremes, see the predicted data from some other models and studies presented at the Conference to Look at Climate Change in Durango earlier this month, as reported in this Denver Post article.

Another article notes that according to a Pew Center on Global Climate Change study, Colorado is a trigger state - having emerged as a leader in renewable energy development, and introducing ballot initiatives to support renewable energy - meaning other states will follow our lead.

Start with your own small community, bike racing here in Colorado...do your part, START LOCAL COOLING. Making up a significant portion of Colorado voters, cyclists can make a difference in supporting renewable energy ballot initiatives...START COLORADO COOLING! this will help Colorado remain a leader in renewable energy development, and influence other states to fight climate change as well...START AMERICA COOLING...once the White House finally realizes that the entire country cares about global warming, we can catch up to the rest of the world and pitch in to START GLOBAL COOLING!

Granogue

Tdub update @ www.Troywells.blogspot.com