Better MPG Through Hypermiling

There are common sense tips for saving gas–slow down, down make “jack rabbit” starts after stopping, etc. Hypermilers are people who know all the tricks for saving gas and make a game of seeing how high they can boost their MPG by applying them.

As some people quoted in the article point out, however, a few of these techniques can be dangerous. For instance, not everyone has the skill or reflexes to draft safely behind a tractor-trailer. Bottom line–always use common sense.

Think Globally, Drink Locally

Some restaurants are taking bottled water off the menu, in favor of tap water, in an effort to reduce waste and the pollution associated with transporting bottled water.

This trend reportedly started in California, but is moving to other areas, as well. In fact, the elegant restaurant Del Posto, owned by Joseph Bastianich and “Molto” Mario Batali, will be joining in.

“Filling cargo ships with water and sending it hundreds and thousands of miles to get it around the world seems ridiculous,” Bastianich says. “With all the other things we do for sustainability, it makes sense.”

Bottled water is a complete triumph of marketing and our desire for convenience foods. According to a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, there’s no basis for believing bottled water is safer than tap water and, in fact, both types of water can have problems.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates public water supplies more strictly than the Food and Drug Administration does bottled water. So, since Aquafina and Dasani are actually Detroit tap water in bottles, does it make them better or worse than the others?

Getting Testy About Education

Janet Ewell, a high school teacher in Orange County, CA, bemoans the current fixation on standardized tests in schools–all the way down to the kindergarten level (??!!), according to this.

It’s astonishing and mortifying that it could reach the point where a school system would forbid English teachers from teaching novels, because novels don’t adequately prepare students to take tests. (That strangled sound you hear is me suppressing a scream.) The fact that Ewell’s school district relented and allowed its English teachers to include one–count ‘em, one–novel in their lesson plans doesn’t make things much better. The school district has decreed that the novel can’t be taught in its entirety, but only used to “reinforce content standards” (whatever that means) and must not replace test preparation.

Ewell writes: “In a crescendo of circular logic, ‘high-achieving schools’ have become those whose students are successful test-takers, without asking if they are prepared for work, for college, for citizenship or for a meaningful life.

“The National Center on Education and the Economy reports that we lack workers who are ‘creative and innovative, self-disciplined and well-organized.’ Colleges complain that freshmen cannot think critically or write lucidly. As the center points out, ‘What gets measured is what gets taught.’”

We reap what we sow, folks.

The Evolving American Identity

As immigration reform legislation makes its way through the Senate, history repeats itself in terms of opinions generated by the prospect of an estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants (mostly Latino) becoming immediately eligible for citizenship.

At the turn of the previous century, the influx of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe had people wringing their hands over the possibility that the high number of Catholics among them would lead to a papal order in the U.S., destroying American democracy and “contaminat[ing] the American gene pool.”

That didn’t happen. And this commentator makes the point that immigrants haven’t destroyed our culture, but have renewed it and given it variety.

He goes on to say: “[The immigrants'] capacity to refresh what is essential to American identity depends a great deal on our ability to stay true to its essence–to be a land of opportunity. This means that we should be, above all, concerned that the rungs on the ladder of economic mobility are sturdy and closely spaced.

“If we are going to take on the formidable challenge of further integrating 12 million mostly poor immigrants, we have to provide better public schools, a more affordable college education, healthcare and jobs that offer a decent wage and benefits so that they and their children are able to rejuvenate the American dream. The real threat is not that immigrants will fail to buy into what’s essential to American identity, but that we will fall short in providing them the tools to do so.”

Modern Medicine and the Rare Disorder

The U.K. had its dystonia awareness week this month, and the U.S. will “observe” it from June 3-10, or at least dystonia sufferers will. Most of the rest of the country will remain blissfully unaware of this painful and debilitating movement disorder.

The thing about rare disorders is that they can be hard to diagnose and treat, and this is true for a lot more than just dystonia. This victim of celiac disease learned the hard way that doctors don’t always make the correct call and all too frequently rely on pills to treat symptoms.

Under Bush, Enforcement Lawsuits and Penalties Against Polluters Drop

During the Bush administration, the Justice Department has filed a substantially lower number of lawsuits against polluters than the previous administration–fewer than 16 lawsuits per year, compared with an average of 52 per year during the last three years of the Clinton administration, according to a report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington, DC-based environmental advocacy group.

The group also says civil penalties for polluters have fallen by 24 percent, to $81 million a year between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, compared with $107 million a year from 1996 to 2000.

The good news is that settlements requiring industries to add pollution-control equipment have come to a larger total amount under the Bush administration than those reached under Clinton. However, many of the settlements under Bush arose from lawsuits filed during the Clinton years, according to Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the group and a former top official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Driving Down the High Price of Gasoline

Summer is coming and, along with higher temperatures, we can expect higher gas prices. Instead of just grousing about it, this LA Times editorial says we should cut back on consumption, by driving less or in more energy-efficient vehicles.

We should also be encouraging our local politicians to put more resources into mass transit and not just building more and bigger roads to accommodate yet more vehicles, as well as discouraging sprawl development. In any event, we do have some control over this issue–it’s up to us to exercise it.

The Greening of the Yellow Cab

There are 13,000 cabs in New York City, and only one of them pays you (the Cash Cab). But all of them will become hybrid vehicles in the next five years.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Tuesday that the NYC taxi fleet will bring on 1,000 hybrid cars by October 2008, as part of a plan to make all the cabs hybrids by 2012.

“New Yorkers are exposed to some of the dirtiest air in the nation,” said Louise Vetter, president of the American Lung Association of the City of New York, at a news conference. “Putting more clean cabs on New York City streets is an important step in our fight to improve air quality, especially for the 1 million asthmatics in our city.”

Revisionist Natural History?

A former Smithsonian Institution administrator claims an exhibit on Arctic climate change was revised for political reasons to enhance the alleged uncertainty about the relationship between human activity and global warming.

Robert Sullivan, who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, alleged this was done to keep from angering Congress or the Bush administration.

“It just became tooth-pulling to get solid science out without toning it down,” said Sullivan, who resigned last fall after 16 years at the museum. He said he left after his supervisors tried to reassign him.

Smithsonian officials denied that political concerns influenced the exhibit, claiming the changes were made for reasons of objectivity. Some consulting scientists on the project say nothing major was omitted.

However, one consultant, University of Maryland scientist Louis Codispoti, said, “I’ve been going to the Arctic since 1963, and I find some of the changes alarming.”

Working Less to Save the World

Americans are working more hours than ever–more than anyone else in the industrialized world. And, according to this article, we’re destroying our planet in the process.

“Longer hours plus labor-saving technology equals ever-increasing productivity. Without high annual growth to match productivity, there’s unemployment. Maintaining growth means using more energy and resources, both in manpower and raw materials, which results in increased waste and pollution.”

Working more creates a vicious cycle of consumption as well. Lack of free time forces us to rely increasingly on disposable convenience items, creating more trash for our landfills. “Earning more often means spending money in ways that are environmentally detrimental. We’re finding that to compensate for lack of time, you actually need more money to work those extra hours,” according to Monique Tilford, acting executive director of the Centre for a New American Dream, a Maryland group promoting environmentally and socially responsible consumption.

One scary thing is that, rather than changing our ways, the rest of the world seems to stepping up to match our work-a-holic schedules. You only go around once, and we need to value our free time while we have it. Even George W. Bush took five weeks off to visit his Texas ranch in 2005–the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years, according to this source. I don’t normally consider the man a role model and I doubt that he was thinking of the environment or sustainability when he did it, but he might have the right idea here.