Joel.Simone

Gas prices are climbing – who doesn’t know, right? The biggest down side, beyond the monetary price of fuel, is the vicious burning of CO2 into the atmosphere. Humankind could very well be rushing into a run away greenhouse effect; think Venus’s atmosphere here on earth, e.g., if 105° Fahrenheit feels hot, imagine 860° Fahrenheit!

How to Make a Difference

One can take action by reducing their carbon foot print, and for me, this is directly related to the usage of gas. Following I will share how I’m reducing my carbon footprint and earning free drinks. This starts with my beloved and happening business, camping, and entertaining cargo van; it really is cool, seriously.

My Chevy Cargo Van isn’t exactly fuel or climate friendly, fueleconomy.gov. I can’t quite justify purchasing a Tesla Dark Star; so limiting my vehicle usage is the next best thing.

These reductions started with my weekend trips to San Francisco. I’m currently staying in the far East Bay, and this travel clocks in at about 36 miles one way. All together, including driving around in the city, I was traveling about 77 miles. According to my Astro Van’s estimate of 16 miles per gallon (MPG), it costs me 4.8 gallons in gas to make the trip. Gas prices around here are currently around $4.50 per/gallon, so I was spending $22 dollars on gas. In addition, the San Francisco Bay Bridge toll costs $4; so my total travel costs were approximately $26.

So what’s the solution?

A round trip ride on BART to San Francisco runs at $10.50. Once in SF, I typically use SF MUNI to visit different cafés before meeting up with friends in the evening – total MUNI cost are $3 ($1.50 for two 2 hour time slots). The gross cost of my weekend travels were now $13.50. That’s $12.50 saved, approximately 2 manhattans earned, in comparison to driving. I love the idea that using public transportation is paying for drinks.

However, regardless of the free drinks, at first I was turned off by the possibility of extra time needed for public transportation. I could usually travel to the city in about 45 minutes when driving, compared to the roughly one hour train ride – this doesn’t include waiting time for trains and buses, but I found a work around associated with my studies.

I recently refined my studying technique, and I’m working with an interval style requiring a certain amount of studies per day. Rather then driving for 45 minutes and zoning out to NPR or music, I am now studing while using public transportation. There is a great program called iFlash that helps with managing the intervals, and I wrote a little about it here New Ways of Learning. Soon there will be similar applications for mobile devices, such as the iPhone, and this will make it even easier to block distractions with music while learning a new language, preparing for executive presentations, memorizing your loved ones birthdays, or mastering trigonometry all the while earning free drinks and preserving humankind here on earth (note: I originally said while “saving the earth,” but saving humankind makes more sense – the greenhouse effect would likely runaway for some time, possibly long enough to wipe out the human race on earth. However, the natural CO2 cycle, along with a similar present atmosphere, would eventually return; feel free to correct me with more precise info).

More free drinks!

With this in mind, I was inspired to find additional ways to reduce my carbon footprint. There are two other places I regularly travel to by car, (1) the gym and (2) school.

I go to the Gym four times a week. Using Google maps, I figured it’s 5 miles one way, so that’s a 10 mile round trip and 40 miles per week, costing approximately 2.5 gallons or $11.25 per week. Each time I go to the gym, I do about 30-45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise. Running 10 miles each workout would take a little too much time; but hanging on a rack in my garage I found the answer, a practically brand new 10 speed mountain bike. I could replace my cardiovascular time peddling or running in place at the gym with riding my bike to and from the gym, that saves me approximately $11.25 per week, that’s two more manhattans.

In regards to school, I’m doing my best to schedule two days a week, preferably Tuesdays and Thursdays. Cal State Easy Bay (CSUEB) is about 11 miles from Dublin, roughly a 20 minute ride. This makes for 22 miles round trip, 44 miles a week and a total cost $12.40. I found a route that uses both BART, $3 round trip, and AC Transit, $4 round trip including transfers – so that a total cost of $7 round trip. My total savings are $5.40, i.e., one drink for a friend (I had a little too much at this point).

Here is a map of the transfer I will make from Castro Valley Bart to CSU East Bay:

The only down side is time, approximately 50 minutes each way using public transportation, i.e., 30 additional minutes compared to driving (most of this time will take place on the bus). However, there is a great benefit in being able to study when I ride, so it is easily justified!

That summarizes my personal effort to reduce my carbon foot print. I hope others will find the same inspiration and free drinks I found in saving the earth. Lets hope it’s not to late – if it is, I’m going down swinging…with a buzz. Cheers!