Hybrid Taxis for NYC

Mayor Bloomberg announced that NYC is going to replace its current fleet of 13,000 taxis, now mostly Ford Crown Victorias, with hybrids. The Fords get a pitiful 10-15 mpg in city driving. This change would be the equivalent of removing 32,000 regular cars from the road. The move must be approved by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Reported in the New York Times, May 23, 2007

One advantage, I suppose, is that the hybrids are more tailored to the driving styles of most NYC cab drivers, which could be characterized as “stop and go” on steroids.

Fellow New Yorkers: how many times have you been in a cab that violently accelerated to go 40 feet towards an already red light and then slammed on the brakes?

In moments of my usual mode of do-nothing environmental reverie, I wondered about trying to estimate the fuel costs of violent stop-and-go driving for the average cab shift in order to make the case for more stomach- and environmentally-friendly driving. Hybrids, with their regenerative breaking, will lessen the environmental and financial costs of cab-style driving—so I guess I will try to be more philosophical about living with the lurches.

CFL lightbulbs: Make The Energy Star Pledge

Energy Star is encouraging people to try out compact fluorescent bulbs by inviting them to pledge to replace just one regular bulb with an energy-efficient CFL bulb. Throughout the country, more than 523,000 people have pledged to change more than 1 million bulbs, which will prevent more than 484 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Use the link below to make the pledge and then see how well your state has done. As of today, more than 17,000 New Yorkers have pledged to change almost 45,000 bulbs, saving more than 19 million pounds of emissions and $1 million in energy costs.


Take the Energy Star Pledge

Is there a Green Factoids philosophy?

Fear and guilt cloud thinking. Arguably, much of our anxiety about global warming reflects guilt over our consumption, guilt which grows out of any decision we make to gratify some desire instead of virtuously going without—not different in kind from the dieter’s guilt over a box of glazed donuts. The fact that our anxiety over climate damage (or donuts) is justified exacerbates the psychological dynamic without necessarily producing anything like clarity on what we should be doing to “help.” The multiplying lists of ‘things we can do to save the planet’ rarely state clearly the relative impact of any of the changes, even as they implicitly suggest that refusing to take these actions aligns one with strip miners, whalers, and makers of dioxin.

Those who have been pregnant may recognize this mind-set. It’s the one epitomized by the “What To Expect” books, which redefine maternal virtue as avoiding every product or activity that carries even a theoretical risk, since “you never know.” The orientation is moral rather than scientific: as a good mother shouldn’t you be willing to give up sushi, coffee, diet coke, highlights, and whatever else, to protect your baby? The frame itself is a set-up: the only other alternative is that you are not willing to make sacrifices for the good of your unborn child. The actual, documented risk of any of these activities is easily trumped by its “possible risk,” which can and need never be refuted. These multiplying rules (can I eat chocolate? get a manicure? microwave in plastic?) are of course impossible to remember for the average dysfunctional person, so they offer wide latitude for righteous superiority from those willing to research the ingredients in baby wipes.

This mindset, arguably, has found a perfect home in the “green living” movement, offering virtually limitless scope for little rules, now framed as “choices,” with the added benefit of having the whole planet rather than one baby as its focus, and all of eternity rather than nine months as its time frame.

The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices cuts through the moralizing clutter with the simple observation that some activities and choices have a much greater impact than others. Just as there is a difference between the effect of smoking crack and that of drinking coffee on an unborn child, there is a difference between the effect of commuting 60 miles a day to your job (whatever the car) and that of using plastic grocery bags. It is thus extremely helpful to have actual numbers on the impact of each of these green moves. By all means, change the sleep function of your computer to save 250 pounds of emissions in one year, as long as you keep in mind that it amounts to less than that produced by one week’s driving.

Here at Green Factoids, we do not believe that guilt or fear are secure foundations for adopting a green lifestyle, any more than they are for a successful diet. Rather, we strive for a spirit of curious inquiry into the ways we can adapt our lifestyles to lessen the harm to the environment. Our main goal is to search out and eliminate pockets of waste, that is, time, money and resources we spend which bring no value to our lives. Success stamping out true waste creates a surge of satisfaction and energy and motivates us to search for more ways to save.

Recycled Paper Towels

If every American household replaced 1 regular roll with 1 roll of recycled paper towels, we could save:
933,000 trees
2.4 million cubic feet of landfill space=to 3700 garbage trucks
350 Million gallons of water
59,600 tons of greenhouse emissions
From Seventh Generation

Product Review:
We made the switch. We are not heavy users of paper towels, relying more on dish cloths, but the recyled ones work fine. In a completely unscientific comparison, I wiped down all of my kitchen counters with a dampened Seventh Generation paper towel and a regular one from the proverbial "leading brand." They both handled the counters, stove, microwave, and even some scrubbing of a mysterious dried-on substance; even after I ripped them apart, they both continued to clean without deteriorating into those horrible frayed-paper balls. Also, I find the paper-pulp brown color of the recycled towels to be oddly soothing. I doubt that the recycled ones are as absorbent, but assuming you don't own a new puppy, I think you will find the recycled towels more than adequate.

Favorite Factoid

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.

From the Energy Star Web Site.

I went crazy and changed 17 bulbs in my apartment. More later on changes in my electricity bills.

Stop Idling Your Car

From Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency:

Canada estimates that if every driver avoided idling for five minutes a day, they would prevent more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and save 1.8 million litres of fuel per day.

Idling your car for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting your engine.

Comment: Canada has led the way in the fight against engine idling.