More drilling anyone?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/23/mississippi.spill/index.html
As an environmental engineer, accidents like this keep the profession prospering. If we begin more domestic oil production, there will more jobs for environmental professionals...

The timing of this accident could not be better (or worse) depending on you political persuasion regarding opening ANWR or other coastal areas for "exploration" for oil. This is an exclamation point on why alternatives should be the next step in energy evolutions.
Wood--->Coal--->Fuel Oil--->Natural Gas--->...the Next Step??

No more carbon density can be obtained and the next step should not be adding more oil to the mix. Oil is a FINITE RESOURCE and more drilling postpones the inevitable. The transition from carbon based fuels to alternatives must be acted on while there are enough resources to limit the burden of cost of that transition.

Incentive Enough?

That's Right - $4.49/gallon I took this photo on July 8th. There really isn't much more incentive than that to begin chosing other forms of transporation...even at $3.50 a gallon, it makes sense to commute by bicycle.

Recently, while I have been commuting to work, I have been noticing significantly more cyclists on the road that in the past. Whereas, I would see maybe on or two cyclists (if any), I am now seeing five to ten a day.

The amount of money that I save because I now drive a gas sucking manly-van (...aka mini-van) has increased substantially from my former and beloved hybrid.

Each day I commute to work, I save more than a gallon of gas (1.136 gallons to be precise). At the current gas price, I have saved over $35 during my last two weeks of commuting to work. At least it defrays the increased cost of groceries.

Bikes on Sidewalks

When I first began communiting by bike to work at Gander Mountain, I would take the side walk. That was because riding with traffic was initially intimidating. I had more close calls while riding on sidewalks for a period of a few months than I have had in the eight (plus) years since while riding on the right side of the lane of traffic.

This is an excerpt from of an email from a member of my cycling group in reponse to a local article suggesting bicycles are best used on sidewalks for the cyclist safety. I think it is rather funny, and in many instances true.

You live in a nation populated by the subspecies Homo Automobilus. Members of this particular subspecies are characterized by the inability to conceive of any mode of personal transport other than private automobile, or to a much lesser extent such mechanized conveyances as airplanes or trains. Traveling the way humanity did for 99.999% of its existence - by foot - simply does not occur to Homo Automobilus. People on foot or bicycle are regarded by Homo Automobilus as recreating, ("outdoor exercise activities"), and as such have a lesser right to the public roads. Further these users, by their very presence, are an inconvenience to Homo Automobilus. And this, I believe, is the heart of the issue. Public safety is a red herring thrown up to mask the displeasure of Homo Automobilus at having to: 1) scan the road looking for cyclists or pedestrians, 2) rotate the steering wheel a few degrees to avoid them, or 3) (God forbid) remove his foot from the accelerator pedal.

From the League of Illinois Bicyclists:

...bikes getting hit from behind...are a small fraction of urban car-bike crashes - most crashes occur at intersections due to turning motions and lack of visibility. In fact, two often cited studies show that riding on sidewalks in places where there are side streets, driveways,entrances, etc. is considerably more dangerous than riding on the right side of the road (the side which the law prescribes). Check out the "SidepathBicycling" panel of http://bikelib.org/guides/illinoisbicyclistguide.pdf, or page 7 of http://bikelib.org/enforcement/policetrainingppt.pdf, for illustrations of the visibility problems of riding on sidewalks.