- Don’t plant trees; just paint stuff green. “A mountain quarry in the county of Fumin, China, has been “artificially painted green by the local forestry bureau” as a way “to simulate planted trees.” Doing this apparently cost $51,000.”
- Organic T’s from Australia. Decent designs, very hefty price — currently USD $59 including shipping. I’m sticking to T.S. Designs.
- Recycled glass wine pitchers. Cool, but not actually useful if you always finish the bottle at first opening.
- Grist’s new brokeass advice column (sidenote: Is Umbra not enough?) tackles a Q from Rex, a Wisconsin reader who wants to green his travel but has crappy public transport, no Flexcar, and only $2000 to put toward the cause. A chipper response from Brokeass names all the great resources that’re out there — but nowhere near Wisconsin or Rex’s budget. Dude, that’s not advice — that’s teasing. My advice: Be honest and say options are dire at the moment, then push Rex toward more political engagement to help improve the situation.
Here in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the only practical solutions to greener travel involve “park and ride” public transportation for work (or any other frequent trip) and, perhaps, biking for short errands during the summer months. Even that, though, is problematic as surface routes don’t include bike lanes, thus making safety a big issue.
Right now, politically, we’re struggling on how to finance light rail extensions to the metro area’s south side, thereby deepening options for greener travel between Milwaukee and Chicago. Proposals for that, though, almost always are framed in development terms (how many new jobs will be created by the new tracks and stations, etc.) and rarely in green terms.
Making suburbanites pay for light rail extensions into Waukesha County – to the west of Milwaukee – is bitterly contested and remains a constant source of city vs. suburbs tension. Almost every elected official here is a rock-ribbed conservative and, therefore, squeals about higher taxes when anything like light rail comes up.
Probably the most that can be hoped for from my local politicians on greener travel is an extension (or at least full-funding) of the area’s bike trails and parks – to the extent they have that authority, and, perhaps, development of bike lanes in town. We here in the ‘sha also support sidewalks, which makes for safer and easier walking. It’s shocking how many area suburbs were planned with only surface streets in mind.
Comment by Fletch — February 19, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I wonder if there’s anything like a bike coalition over there, that might help with the bike lane issue? It sounds rough over there in Wisconsin — Hope you get more sidewalks –
Comment by Siel — February 19, 2007 @ 7:38 pm