The engineers and technologists who designed and built the giant Airbus A380 may well be proud of their accomplishments in attempting to reduce this huge aircraft’s environmental impact. As their web site says “[they took] a fresh approach to its environmental impact, too. With a new wing design and composite materials accounting for 25% of its structural weight, the A380 is a much more efficient aircraft all round. And by producing only about 75g of CO2 per passenger kilometre, the A380 is contributing to the aviation industry’s commitment to constraining greenhouse gas emissions.”

So, a full A380 carrying 525 passengers between London and Los Angeles, a distance of 8750km, will produce 344,531,250gms of CO2. Yes that’s 344 million - I’m just saying…hat’s off to the marketers for using grams instead of pounds. They’re European, so they can.

The site also mentions that “The A380 burns fuel per passenger at a rate comparable to that of an economical family car.” All I can picture here is 525 cars driving 8750km. And what is an “economical” family car?

They go on - “There’s the extra space per passenger afforded by its twin, full-length, wide-bodied cabins. The cabin air, recycled every three minutes to keep the atmosphere fresh. The natural light provided by 220 cabin windows. And while the A380 feels more natural inside, the environment outside benefits too. From the dramatically reduced external noise levels. From the lower fuel consumption and significantly improved CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre. From the increased capacity at airports and the reduced need for expansion.”

I love that phrase natural light provided by 220 cabin windows because every flight that I’ve been on the attendants can’t wait to tell the passengers to please lower your window shades as the “entertainment” i.e bad movie or TV, is about to begin. Whether you like it or not you are forced to sit in a dark stuffy tube while people with headphones on guffaw at lame jokes. Good use of “natural” though.

And this is a good one - “From the increased capacity at airports and the reduced need for expansion.” The boast here is that the ‘planes are so big they can deliver more folks to be packed into your airport’s long lines at immigration reducing the need for the airport authorities to expand their airports. Brilliant! What a relief for those in charge of our comfort while we struggle through their over-crowded airports, they don’t need to do anything but allow Airbus A380’s to land.

It gets better - “Some operators might, for example, choose to seat their First and Business class passengers on the upper deck –providing a corporate jet-like environment for these clients – while configuring the A380’s main deck for an all-Economy layout.”

Dear Airlines, when you configure the ‘planes for your fleet, why not put the great unwashed underneath with the freight and be done with it?

An oil rig off the coast of California

Here in Portland I am seeing signs that the price of gas is making a difference in how people get around the city. Bus ridership has spiked, there are less cars on the road during the commuting hours and bicyclists seem to be everywhere. Yesterday as I walked my dog along the banks of the Willamette River, I noticed far more sailboats than the motorized variety. Maybe the price of gas is making Americans think twice before getting into the car? Maybe.

I carpool to the Nemo warehouse and it’s still a drag to see that of those cars that are on the road I’d guess that 95% of them are occupied by only the driver. And don’t get me started on the hypocritical Prius owners who fly past at speeds that exceed the legal limits. And on Sunday’s the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market is filled with people buying fresh, locally-produced organic food while the parking lot and the surrounding streets are crammed with their cars. None of this makes sense. If you’re concerned perhaps you can leave a comment on their blog.

It seemed that once gas went through $4 a gallon and the $100 fill up entered the public’s economic equation we’d see a marked change in the way we would use our energy. Unfortunately that’s really not the case.

Portland is one of the more environmentally-friendly and green cities in North America. If we can’t break the automobiles stranglehold on our city then what hope for other cities that are less friendly toward buses and bicyclists? Portland has also shown strong support for ending the war in Iraq. If we disagree with the Iraq war, and the inevitable future Middle East wars that will be fought over oil and water resources, what will we Portlanders do at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?

I argue that if we are unwilling to drastically reduce our gasoline use then it is hypocritical of us to oppose off-shore drilling in California and drilling and exploration in Alaska. We simply can’t have our cake and eat it.

Today, President George W. Bush plans to lift a presidential ban on offshore drilling to combat soaring energy prices, a largely symbolic move unlikely to have any short-term impact on the high cost of gasoline.

Who will stand in his way this time?

Related Post: I’m Sick of the Co-Opting of Green

Well not exactly. Portland, Or, the home of Nemo and thousands of cyclists has a problem it seems. The price of gas, the economic slump and the fact that Portland is a cyclists dream city has led to an uptick in the amount of folks biking everywhere. Inevitably they run into vehicles, and I’m speaking both literally and figuratively.

It’s causing a lot of friction. Case in point being this video of a fracas, that took place outside our offices here at Nemo, between a motorist and a cyclist caused, according to the driver, by the cyclist not obeying traffic lights. The biker literally attacks the guys car with his bike.

On the local blogs both sides have weighed in about who’s right and who’s wrong but there is only one solution - car-free streets for cyclists and pedestrians [who are treated worse than cyclists by drivers if you ask me.]

Being green isn’t easy. Wired magazine appeared in my mailbox again this month with some bold headlines on the cover - ‘Keep your SUV’ ‘Forget Organics’ ‘Go Nuclear’ and ‘Screw the Spotted Owl.’ Sure, they have to sell magazines and controversy sells magazines but those statements seemed a bit heavy-handed. [As for selling magazines, you will easily recall for example the Vanity Fair/Miley Cyrus debacle right?]

The story behind the eye-catching headlines brings us some fun-filled facts about our carbon footprints as we go about our daily lives… e.g. Live in Cities - the suburbs have created edge-cities which in turn create super-commuters who spend more than 3 hours a day in transit. Also those lawns need mowing out there - 40 million lawn mowers each spew 11 cars worth of pollutants every hour. A/C is OK - it’s cheaper to cool a house than it is to heat it so living in Arizona is better than living in the Pacific Northwest as less energy is used in AZ and there are less pollutants created by cooling. Carbon Trading doesn’t work - where’s the guarantee that the tree planted in Bolivia to offset $10 worth of air travel, won’t be chopped down before it absorbs the requisite carbon? [Sorry, you'll have to sell that Range Rover now.]

But, what grabbed my attention immediately is the Hummer vs Prius match-up - pound for pound, making a Prius contributes more carbon into the atmosphere than making a Hummer. The Prius is actually not a good investment if you are thinking about buying one to save money according to the Hybrid Cars web site:

“Don’t buy a hybrid because you want to make back an investment. That will take between five and twenty years, depending on gas prices, the amount you drive, and how good of a deal you got on the car. Buy a hybrid because it’s the most fuel-efficient car on the road, because the tailpipe emissions are very low, because it uses great technology, or because it’s fun to drive. If gas prices keep going up, then you might get your return on investment. For now, it’s not a good enough reason alone to choose a hybrid version over exactly the same size and kind of conventional car.”

And Omninerd lays out the cost vs value proposition of owning a Prius over a regular used Toyota Corolla. Also let’s not forget that running the Hummer is a different story re its emissions than the amount of energy required to build it.

Final fun fact: All the so-called clean development mechanisms authorized by the Kyoto Protocol, designed to keep 175 million tons of CO 2 out of the atmosphere by 2012, will slow the rise of carbon emissions by…. 6.5 days.

We need a different strategy. Buying a Prius might make us feel good but selling our cars and hopping on the bus will actually make a difference.

Let’s give Radiohead credit for trying. As they point out on their blog, for a modern rock band touring is highly inefficient - 125,000lb / 55,000kg of Sound, Lighting, Video, Band Gear, Office and Catering equipment needs to be moved between every show. They have looked into alternative methods of transportation such as rail but that didn’t work out. They have managed to find a way for their truck drivers to cool their cabs while they sleep without running their diesel engines all night which helps. What they seem to have overlooked is the geographical position of where their shows are taking place.

An article in Billboard points this out - Adding fuel to the fire is Radiohead’s self-stated intention of making its summer tour as environmentally friendly as possible. According to one fan post, “One-third of the concert-goers that night were driving around in circles, burning fossil fuels all the while. This is your save the Earth tour … and yet you play in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation leading there. You owe us!”

And from another, “If you gave even one tiny llama turd about environmental impact, you would never have scheduled a show at a venue 40 miles away from downtown D.C., nowhere near public transportation of any kind.”

Here in the Northwest the band is skipping Portland and Seattle to play the White River Amphitheatre which is located in Auburn, Washington, on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation 15 miles northeast of Tacoma and 35 miles southeast of Seattle. So for Portlanders or folks from say Idaho, Montana and even Washington, it means jumping in the car and driving for hours not to mention that gas is now $4 a gallon….time for a rethink I reckon.

Here’s one of those moments where modern culture and history collide very nicely. The modern part being the simple viral nature of YouTube, an email from my friend Maf who is traveling around his birthplace, Wales and the old Llanfrynach Church organ. And like anything to do with UK history it comes with a simple tale. This one is about gaining access to the church - “Here’s a little video of the old pump organ in the church next door to my Brothers house in Cowbridge, Wales, UK (yes near England). To get into the Church you must got to the pub across the road and ask at the bar for the key. It feels impolite to ask for the key without getting a drink. I think a lot of people may be drunk when they visit the Church… awesome.”

Find more at Maf and Tara’s blog.