I am absolutely thrilled by the number of heart-felt responses I received to
my provocative email about dumping our addiction to oil in favour of biking
and public transportation. I do have a slight advantage, I must admit,
having served in Ecuador as a Peace Corps volunteer and seeing how it is
possible to do without a internal combustible engine vehicle, despite
irregular (at best) public transportation. I remember seeing whole families
(4 people) riding on a single bicycle and students walking 6+ km to school.
why did they conserve? well, not because they WANTED to but because they
HAD to. so maybe that has something to do with it, believing that you have
no other options. the bus in my area runs every 1.75 hours and it is
0.5miles to the bus stop, so I most often choose to ride my bike the
14 miles
to work, additionally I have been hit 3 times by cars while riding my
bike. Do I think because I can do it everyone else can, well not really, am
I a martyr, no; stubborn, definitely. I think it comes down to just
convincing yourself that there IS no other option, you will be amazed at the
power of innovation of the human brain when it believes that it can't just
jump in the car to run that errand or get that instrument forgotten. Sure,
it requires A LOT of forethought and planning. Ultimately I choose to
criticize fellow scientists because with the exception of the few elite
politicians and oil industry employees that know the hard truth, scientists
SHOULD know better. All the rationalizing in the world about the quality of
research that vehicles enable us to do and practical arguments about
families and distance traveled to work really comes down to the fact that we
are a pampered and lazy nation. Above and beyond "lead by example" and
slow-moving litigation change arguments, the easiest way to just say no is
to quit buying gasoline. or at least quit buying so much, like is it really
necessary for my colleagues to drive only themselves somewhere for lunch and
back? is carpooling really that much of a loss of independence? take a
step outside the whole system that our economy is based upon and feel the
wind in your face, you will not be disappointed.
thank you for tempering my less than discreet ranting
Adam Herbert
