Visit this great Web site for some cool gear to send a great message while cycling.  Want to show people what you pay for gas while on a bike?  Get one of these cool patches and brag away while they stare at your lycra-clad self while burning gas that costs $4 (and soon maybe more) per gallon!

All 270 Whole Foods stores throughout the U.S., Canada, and U.K. will stop using plastic bags at the checkout counters beginning Earth Day (April 22) 2008.  Single use plastic bags do not degrade in landfills, litter the environment, and pose a serious threat to wildlife all over the world.  Plastic bags used in the U.S. can end up in the ocean thousands of miles away.

The personal vehicle is one of the primary culprits of global warming.  It is also one of the primary culprits of traffic, pollution, energy consumption, and obesity.  Every time we get in our cars, no matter for how long, we are spewing carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.  We are also just sitting there, burning few calories and thus causing our waist lines (and our health care expenditures to grow).

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Plastic bags are bad, bad, bad for the environment!  They never biodegrade and the microscopic plastic particles infiltrate every corner of our environment, from the stomachs of Arctic animals to all our deep forests.  We MUST stop using plastic bags.  I have done this myself and, while it was hard at first, it proved to be very easy with a few minor changes.  I have invested in a set of reusable bags.  I take a pocket-sized one with me everywhere I go.  Visit Reusablebags.com (click on image below) to get your own reusable bags.  It’s one of those small efforts that we can take collectively to improve our planet. 

"The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman provides a fascinating look at our planet and what humans have done to the environment during their existence.  While this author’s main premise is to examine what would happen to the world if humans suddenly disappeared, the book is really examining what humans have done to the planet, through agriculture, development, and the chemical insults we have released on the environment.  The best part of this book is that Weisman successfully ties in the interconnectivity of our ecosystem, how plastic bags dumped in one part of the world go on to create havoc thousands of miles away.  It is a must-read for understanding the environmental impacts we are unleashing and the drastic measures we are going to have to undertake to stop them. 

To increase the number of people traveling on two wheels instead of four, Canada has eliminated retail sales tax on any bicycles under $1,000 until November 30th, 2008.  This exemption also applies to most safety equipment and accessories, such as helmets and lights.  It would be great to see America do the same thing!

http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/notices/rst/61.html

  This guy has some great t-shirts and patches that really send a message.  Click on the picture to visit his site. 

It’s amazing to see the press really starting to pay attention to these grass-roots efforts, especially as it pertains to cycling.  Click here for a great article in the NY Times about the cycling community in Portland, OR.  I was in Portland last year and I can attest that the efforts this city has taken to make cycling a viable form of daily transportation is amazing.  It is still far from perfect, but I saw hundreds of people cycling to work and stores in the town.  Every road seemed to have sharrows or bike lanes, and there was ample sheltered parking opportunities for cyclists.  All cities should be following this model. 

Everyday, most of us use some form of transportation to get to and from work.  Whether it’s using a car, bus, subway, plane, or train, most of us have commutes that use some form of energy.  An estimated 40 percent of American automobile use is associated with daily commuting.  While we want to think that getting on the subway to go to work is better for the environment, the bottom line is that subways too lead to environmental damage.  The electricity used to operate subways and trains often comes from coal-burning power plants, yet another source of CO2 and these subways were often built at great costs to the natural environment. Read the rest of this entry »