Al Gore: “Junkies find veins in their toes”

Check out the July 13 edition of Rolling Stone, where Al Gore concludes that the real energy issue is not whether we will "run out" of fossil fuels.  Rather, the question is whether we will burn so much of the existing supply to make the entire planet uninhabitable before rethinking our…

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Don’t buy gasoline-powered lawn mowers

Unless you really and truly need one, that is. 

The lack of respect given to the push reel mower is a good example of how mindset affects consumer behavior.  I’m referring to the type of mower with a rotating cylinder of blades that is powered by your muscles.  This post is not really about saving energy.  Small residential lawn mowers use very little gasoline compared to our transportation and heating uses of oil.  Rather, I find choice of lawn mowers revealing about the nature of consumer choices, specifically about the American love affair with engines, noise and power (NASCAR, anyone?).

In the past week, we’ve spent some time discussing things people might be willing to do to conserve energy.  Here’s a no-brainer for those with small-to-medium sized yards.  Push mowers are far superior to gasoline powered mowers.  Most people simply don’t consider this choice, however. Thanks to sales hype regarding the much more expensive gasoline-burning models, buying a non-gasoline powered mower never ever occurs to most people. Major hardware stores relegate such mowers to the back shelf.  Consumer Reports gives little attention to these wonderful machines, year after year.

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I speak from experience. I’ve used a push-reel non-engine lawn mowers for 12 years. They are as easy to operate as those powerful roaring gas-powered mowers. Here are seven solid reasons to chose a no-gasoline model next time you buy a mower:

  1. Push-reel mowers cost only $100 brand new. The mower I bought was manufactured by American Lawn Mower Company,
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Bicycle Commuting: Consider joining in!

Grumpypilgrim and I are both big advocates of bicycle use, including bicycle commuting. In my own case, I started using bicycle to commute to work in 1999 (I live in St. Louis). I’ve accrued more than 10,000 miles bicycle commuting since that time. I’m about five miles from my place…

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President Bush: 1) Good things just happen; 2) We don’t need to know whether fossil fuels cause global warming.

President Bush recently expressed doubt that he will be viewing Al Gore's documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." In the course of this same interview (reported by the Associated Press), Mr. Bush also made two extraordinary statements: 1) "New technologies will change how we live and how we drive…

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Pump up your tires to save Alaska

"HOW ALASKA CAN HELP MEET AMERICA'S ENERGY NEEDS" is an article to which Republican Senator Jim Talent of Missouri refers his constituents.  That article argues that we need to start drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) of Alaska, because it holds 10 billion barrels of economically…

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