Low Impact Thursday

Ahhh. There's nothing like reading Barbara Kingsolver on the problem of cheap food over breakfast and Bill McKibbin on the field of Hedonics on my bus ride to get the big questions rolling around in the hopper. Am I happier when I ride the bus?

Of course that's a chicken-and-egg question. This week I've ridden on the three days that I woke up happier. In addition, I know I am happier after exercising. Since I have planned for my commute to include a 1.5 mile walk, I start my work day after half an hour of moderate exercise, and I am happier. I have also observed that as much as I like driving my sound system and arriving at my destination with my favorite tunes filling the air around me... I am actually less stressed when I ride.

I think those things add up to a kind of happiness. There's also the enjoyment of being connected to bigger things -- my goal to use my resources better, my goal to reduce my carbon footprint, my goal to be less of a consumer and more of a citizen.

I have been developing a theory for several years now. It started with an observation about food. A friend of mine spent a few years at a Benedictine monastery and over breakfast one morning she told me about the feasts they would have on St. Benedict's day. It struck me that what she was describing happened several times a year in my life. And then reading about historical food patterns, I realized that I eat (ate) what was traditionally "Sunday Dinner" pretty near every day of the week. So my theory is that in the US we have a trend of making the historically special things completely common.

Daniel Gilbert, in his book Stumbling on Happiness, suggests a biological reason for this. Since our brains have developed to anticipate the future based on past experience, we can fall into repeating the events that led to an emotion in pursuit of the emotion.

When I was young, going to Disneyland was a once-in-a-childhood trip. It was something I dreamt about. I finally went during my Junior year on a youth group trip, and it more than lived up to my dreams... In part because I was with friends who shared my wonder and delight. But now I have a friend who is a single mom who always feels strapped for cash and yet takes her 4-year-old on a Disney trip every year. I wonder whether there will be anything for Emily to feel delighted and surprised and grateful about when she gets to be a Junior in high school.

So I think there's a trick to determining whether I am actually happier. It could be that I am experiencing something unique and new and those feelings are contributing to my happiness. Or it may be that riding the bus and walking every day is a way for me to get in touch with my creativity and passion in a really grounded way, and so it may lead to a fundamental improvement in happiness.

At any rate, I think it's an experiment worth continuing.

It's also the last day of low impact week, so I want to post some final numbers.

Driving: on pace for 90 miles instead of my usual 150. At 22 mpg, that's a 2.77 gallons of gas, which translates to 54.5 fewer lbs of carbon in the air this week (using the factor of 20lbs/gallon given at fueleconomy.gov).
Eating: I've had three meals out this week, all around spending time with others and 2 of the 3 at small, family-owned eateries. So no mindless food-grabbing.
Appliances: Washed one load of laundry this week instead of my usual two. Still used the dryer.
Community: I've taken more walks in my community, had more conversations, and met some new neighbors by going to church locally.


When I started this project, all indications were that my impact, according to the ClimateCrisis.net calculator, was about "average" at 7.5 tons per year.

Today I am doing "smaller than average" at 5.7 tons, mostly as a result of driving 8,000 miles a year instead of 12,000. If I keep up the bus commuting and the 90 miles per week of driving, that drops to 4680 miles per year and a carbon contribution of 4.25 tons.

Low Impact Tuesday

I woke up this morning crabby and depressed. I think my body needs a recovery day after suddenly being called on to walk 5+ miles a day instead of my usual 2-ish. So I drove in to work. After several glasses of water, a couple glasses of tea, some extra vitamin C and a recovery drink, I'm feeling better.

I'm also enjoying a CD I apparently downloaded from iTunes and never listened to. Better than discovering a $5 in my pocket. ;-) This is Verve Remixed 2. I really enjoy being able to buy music with practically zero packaging and re-using equipment I already have to listen to it. When I subscribed to my local NPR station last month, they were offering the Eaton hand-cranked emergency radio as a premium and I eagerly signed up. I was enjoying listening to the radio carbon-free while chopping for stir fry earlier this week.

Speaking of carbon-free music, I want to pass along a band I got to see a couple times last summer. The Ditty Bops completed a continent-crossing tour last year on bike. When I think it is impossible to have a satisfying life that is also low impact, I remember their creativity and innovation. Perhaps it is a form of passing to try to have a conventional life on the carbon cheap and perhaps there is a radical re-thinking of life in store. What would my life look like with no need to commute to work or to keep up a huge house payment? What would I do if by doing it I knew I could barter for food and/or supplies?

And today's closing thought... I was poking around the David Suzuki Foundation's site today looking for information on what the Kyoto Protocol limits would look like on a per capita basis for a North American individual and found this interesting report(pdf) on what it would take to cut Canada's 2002 emissions in *half*. As the authors note, that's more than Kyoto asks for, but bigger cuts while maintaining satisfying lives can only help the overall situation.

Low Impact Monday

I took the plunge and got a bus pass for the month of June. I also made an appointment to ride this morning with a friend who works at a neighboring building to keep both of us to our good intentions. She travels for work, so I won't always have her company, but I'll take it when I can get it. My roommate also offered to drop me and my bike off on her way to work when I want to do something different. And another friend would take the same bus to her work, so she may join us at times. It's fun when talking about something sparks creativity in other people.

This weekend I was really conscious about not using the TV or the computer for entertainment. Instead I played miniature golf with a friend, took a walk along a trail I've been meaning to check out, and had a cookout with friends -- over wood and charcoal instead of natural gas. I meant to take the bus to church, but I woke up late on Sunday; so I drove to a new, local, church -- for five driving miles instead of 40.

One of the books I was reading this weekend is Simply in Season, one of the Mennonite Church's World Community Cookbook. I had to smile at the introduction of one of the authors, who noted that while she and her husband were raised to be frugal, eating local, organic, and seasonal sometimes isn't the absolutely cheapest option, so it was a shift for them. I also enjoyed a chat I had with a farmer this week who runs the Abbodanza Farm in Boulder. He had the last of his 2006 beans out on the table at $4 a pound. I realized as we were talking that he was arguing for his price... since the beans are all hand-picked, etc. He was comparing his price to what I might get at Wal-mart. I told him I knew that on a per-calorie basis, his beans were the cheapest thing at the whole farmer's market. I think he put some extra beans in the bag for me. ;-)

Low Impact Week

In the manner of time in my life, Low Impact Week snuck up on me. I guess that's appropriate in a way, it keeps me from making this week easier by doing extra work last week to prepare for it.

I have been meaning to ride the bus to work from my local park-n-ride, I have the coupons and everything. And for the last week my cat has been waking me up about 5. So this morning I grabbed the opportunity and headed out of the house with a full lunch bag and no delays to check the schedule. My bus left about 5 minutes after I got to the plaza, I had a lovely 20 minute ride through farms and great vistas (and I got to enjoy them since I wasn't driving), and then a 30 min. walk. All kinds of things I've been wanting more of in my life.

I even got to chat with a friend who was on her way to work.

I went to a commuter college for my bachelors and spent those years riding the bus and walking a lot. There's a part of me that knows *most* of the time, the weather's going to be fine. The walking part isn't too far. If I need more food than I have, I can find it. But in spite of all kinds of really positive, self-sufficient experiences with bus-aided mobility, when I get away from it for a while, shadows creep in. I think, "I can't take the bus today... it might rain/snow/be too hot." And yet I've taken the bus in those conditions, and learned that the really uncomfortable times are out at the margins.

There is a pocket of my poverty consciousness that gets triggered when I ride the bus. I did it because I was broke so much of the time, and now when I get on, I often feel broke in spite of the richness in my life.

I also feel a kind of defensiveness. I feel like people I know would only take the bus if they didn't have gas money, a friend to ride with, or if their cars were in the shop. So the joy in chatting with my friend today was that none of those questions came up. It seemed completely normal that I was walking to work. I would like more of those experiences.

And then there's the quote that was in my inbox when I fired up my computer:

Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.

-- Richard Branson (Virgin Founder)

I love that Richard Branson, who in many ways represents a "cool" I find appealing, knows about buses, and knows about them with a familiarity that gives him a point of grounding when it comes to the business game. It certainly challenges my poverty trigger.

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is sponsoring their 2nd Annual Dump the Pump day on June 21. It's an invitation to pick a day to go without using gas (or diesel); but also a day to try public transportation. Look for events near you.