Oil Spill: The Urgency of Doing
We can boycott and punish BP for their crimes… and it is a crime. And on election day we can hold the government accountable for it’s dereliction of duty in this disaster, but the next set of derelicts we elect may be no better. In between we can day-dream of a future when all of our cars are electric and run on sunshine and windmills.
But time is short, and we can “do better” sooner. We can take meaningful action now, every day, starting today.
Leonardo da Vinci inspires me with this quote:
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
We must do.
I day-dream about the impact of 3/4 million people waking up tomorrow, starting to work, and quietly deciding that today they will not compete with the other drivers on the road for position. Today they will not race to the next stoplight. Today they will try to maintain more distance in front of them to allow a little coasting before braking. Today they will move to the middle or the right on the highway and slow down 5 or 10 MPH. This week those people will go an additional 25 or 50 miles on a single tank of gas – possibly more, maybe enough to skip a fill-up for a day or two.
If all 750,000 squeezed another 50 miles from a full tank of gas this week, that’s 37,500,000 “carbon-free” miles traveled. At $0.12/mile avg. cost that’s $4.5 million dollars saved – ($6/ea) to be saved or spent elsewhere. Repeat that process each week, and you see it can add up to significant numbers very quickly. And that’s ONLY considering 750,000 people – imagine what would happen if each of them told two friends about what they are doing and impressed them to try.
It’s easy to do. You can track your personal per-tank mileage by setting your trip odometer at each fillup. If you want better data, keep your receipts and use a notepad, a spreadsheet, or a free website like FuelClinic to track your MPG over time, and look for ways to improve your score (see links below for additional techniques).
We all feel the urgency. We know what to do. The only questions is – are we willing? If you are willing, then you must DO.
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Learn more fuel-efficient driving techniques here:
http://www.fuelclinic.com
http://www.ecodrivingusa.com
http://www.fueleconomy.gov
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Video: Together We Are More Powerful Than Oil
Pensacola Beach – Before and After…
A few days ago I asked “The Big Oil Spill: Is it enough to change consumer behavior?” At the time most of the evidence of the scope of this disaster was still well hidden. Now it’s reaching a point where it can no longer be hidden, it’s rolling up on beaches everywhere, along with dead fish and birds.
People are taking photos, and sharing them online on pages like “Boycott BP” at Facebook (now with over 710,000 members). I took two images from one photographer (with permission to redistribute freely), cropped one to make the waterline match the other, and made this simple before-and-after .gif animation.
Photos courtesy of Diana Serden Stephens via Facebook – used with permission.
(If the animation isn’t working for you, click on the image to see it.)
So what do you say? Enough yet to convince you to try and reduce your oil consumption 10% to 20% by changing a few simple driving habits? It’s free.
More information here:
http://www.ecodrivingusa.com
http://www.fueleconomy.gov
http://www.drivingskillsforlife.com
Add your comments below, or at our Facebook page (click “Like” it once you get there).
Set These Road Rules With Your Teen Driver Today
Every year nearly 5,000 young drivers are killed in automobile accidents in the US, and a staggering 300,000 more are injured or maimed. Car accidents account for nearly 40% of the total number of deaths for teens ages 15 to 19, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
With summer starting, it’s a great time to set or reinforce some basic safety skills and guidelines for your teen driver:
Source: Ford Driving Skills for Life
School is almost out, summer will soon be here, and teens have a license to drive. Unfortunately, with the arrival of summer comes riskier teen driving behavior. No school means more time for cruising, piling lots of friends into Mom’s car, and later nights.
Parents! Talk to your teen about summer driving and set some rules. Here are a few to get you started.
- Buckle up! – Remind your teenager again and again how important that single little click can be. Statistics show that seat belt usage is lowest among teenagers, even though seat belts continue to be proven as the No. 1 life-saving device in accidents.
.- Don’t drink and drive – You may assume your teen knows this, but it’s worth a sit-down talk. Make sure your teen knows the dangers of driving under the influence – or getting into a vehicle with someone who’s been drinking.
.- No text zone – Remind your teen driver to avoid distractions such as texting, loud music and any activities that take their eyes away from the road for extended periods of time.
.- Passenger Limit – Always set a limit on the number of passengers allowed in the car.
.- Set a curfew – Make sure your teens know when you expect them home, and make sure they know it’s not debatable.
Parent-Teen Driving Contracts
Consider creating a Parent-Teen Driving Contract with your teen drivers. Parent-Teen Driving Contracts help establish your expectations with your teen driver, where driving privledges are dependant on safe driving behaviors you designate as important to your family. Research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (PDF) indicates that parents are the key to enforcing good driving behavior in young drivers.
“Parents are big influencers of their kids’ behavior. The more involved they are, the less likely kids are to engage in all types of risky activities associated with the teen years.“
The Success of Graduated Drivers’ Licensing Laws
Graduated Drivers’ Licensing (GDL) is becoming law in many states. GDL’s generally restricts nighttime, expressway, and unsupervised driving during initial stages, but lifts these restrictions with time and further testing of the individual, eventually concluding with the individual attaining a full drivers’ license. In states where GDL’s are required, accident fatalities for teen drivers has dropped by up to 30%. Even if you do not live in a state with a current GDL law, you can create your own Parent-Teen Driving Contract based on the same principles that make GDL’s successful.
It’s important to talk to your teen about the rules of the road, to clearly set your expectations of them, and outline the consequences of failing to meet your expectations.
Weaning America off of Middle Eastern oil is a four-decade long unkept presidential promise.
Seminole Voice: FuelClinic and CarChip Pro help create smarter, safer, fuel efficient drivers.
A very nice article yesterday in the local Seminole Voice paper regarding FuelClinic and the use of the CarChip Pro to monitor and improve driver behavior.
Daniel White’s truck is its own back seat driver. When he jabs the gas too harshly or brakes too abruptly, it tells him to take it easy. Now he says he’s a better, more efficient driver, all because of a little box that watches how he drives, then beeps when he’s driving too aggressively.
“It’s a nagging beep that teaches me to be a better driver; I call it my paradigm shift,” White said. “To me it’s just one of those ah-ha (moments); I get better gas mileage just by driving better?”
White is speaking about the CarChip Pro, a new Zippo lighter-size device that plugs into his truck’s on-board diagnostic port to record information about that way he drives, directly from the truck’s ECM computer.
The device can be set to a certain speed, and alerts drivers when the speed is reached, as well when they are accelerating too quickly or braking too harshly. The chip helps drivers become aware of their driving habits and trains them to become better drivers, while saving money on fuel, and decreasing carbon emissions.
Click over to read the rest.
FleetOwner: Counting carbon bears careful watching
Source: FleetOwner Magazine
A new report on this issue by ATRI – dubbed “The Synthesis of Carbon Accounting Tools” – involved the collection and analysis of carbon models and formulas, and interviews with environmental assessment and reporting organizations.
According to the report, there is a growing need for data and model standardization and identified areas where inconsistencies in the quantification tools and models exist.
“For many motor carriers, the U.S. EPA SmartWay Partnership truck model is the most widely recognized tool for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions,” said Tunnell. “This model calculates emissions generated from a company’s on-road vehicle fleet. However, an individual company’s carbon footprint encompasses more than just its on-road vehicle fleet.”
For example, quantifying the carbon emissions generated by office space and terminals, through metrics such as electricity use, could be misleading. “Although emission factors for the purchase of electricity are available for locations throughout the U.S., the greenhouse gas emissions generated from electricity purchased in one part of the country can be twice as high as the same amount of electricity purchased in another,” the report noted.
Facebook “LIKE” Buttons Now Active
A quick note to mention that a few days ago I added the Facebook “LIKE” button to the blog (you’ll see it between the title of the post, and the content), and will be adding it to other parts of FuelClinic sites over the next few weeks.
It’s a terrific way to share things you like with your friends on Facebook. When you click “Like” there will be a short note added to your wall so your friends can link over to read the blog or page you liked.
While you are at it, please become a fan of the FuelClinic Facebook community of eco-drivers.
Something Different: Patriotic Car Commercial
The Big Oil Spill: Is it enough to change consumer behavior?
I’ve been checking the ROV “spill cams” several times a day for a few weeks now. I think I need to stop. It’s too painful to watch and realize that 20″ diameter pipe is spilling enough oil and gas to be seen from space, and would cover an area from DC to New York.
Click to see live feed from BP
Searching for good news in all of this, I found a poll released about a month ago by a green-marketing firm The Shelton Group which indicates 1 in 5 consumers say they have decided to cut back on oil consumption due to the BP disaster in the Gulf.
May 6th: So when oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico we wondered: is this tangible and real enough to make Americans adopt conservation behaviors? Can we connect what’s happening in the sea now to our own demand for energy and daily consumption of it? If so, will we change our ways?
…50% of Americans said they plan to do nothing in response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 20% said they planned to reduce their gas consumption in light of the accident and 14% said they planned to reduce their consumption of plastic products and products sold in plastic containers.
I wonder if those numbers are any different today, after a month of “spill cams”, growing oil slicks, and news reports of repeated failures at estimating the flow.
Every poll I’ve seen indicates that “saving money” is always a key motivator for American consumers to make a “green” purchase. In these economically challenging times, it’s even more understandable.
What about an ecological disaster on a scale we’ve not seen before this close to home? Is it enough to motivate you to want to reduce your oil consumption?
Add your comments below, or at our Facebook page (click “Like” it once you get there).
Together We Are Stronger than Oil
I can assure you one thing about eco-driving – that it DOES work. Eco-driving is the only sure-fire way you can reduce your fuel consumption without altering your lifestyle (aka: stop driving, ride a bike, ride the bus, etc) or buying a more fuel efficient vehicle. And if you had the means to buy a more efficient vehicle, or even a hybrid, eco-driving will help you go further on less fuel in that car too. It works on any vehicle, and it works immediately – it will only require that you pay attention to your driving, and you relax.
Learn more about eco-driving here:
- http://www.fuelclinic.com/
- http://www.ecodrivingusa.com/
- http://www.fuelclinic.com/library/
- https://www.drivingskillsforlife.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3
Free Clean-Fleet & Vehicle Expo next Tuesday
NIRPC is sponsoring a ONE day expo. Valuable information is available to transportation professional regarding the latest clean fuels and engine technologies that will improve air quality in Northern Indiana.
Where: Porter County Expo Center – 215 East Division Road Valparaiso, IN 46383 ( Get Directions )
When: Tuesday June 8th (10 am- 3 pm) Lunch will be severed at noon.
This event is FREE however advanced registration is requested by Friday June 4th.
Please contact SSCC at 219-365-4289 or southscc@comcast.net
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