Concept of Sustainability

Sustainability is usually associated with using renewable sources of energy for fulfilling our electricity needs. Sustainability is about being amazingly capable and self-sufficient. Sustainability is some thing very close to human nature and desire of being self-governing and independent, yet sustainability is not arrogant like autonomy as it possesses the remedial humbleness of sharing and dignity of freedom.

Just yesterday during an interview a discussion on sustainability and renewable energy started and I was asked/complained that solar panels worth $xxx are not efficient enough to be run X-number of air-cons. Now a simpler answer could have been an advice to increase the number of solar panels or the storage capacity. Once again this was a case of not understanding the concept of sustainability and environment friendliness. To a lot of us it environment friendly to keep the central cooling on 24/7 as long as the electricity is being generated through renewable sources of energy, just the way its quite satisfying for many to pull there super expensive hybrids out to grab eggs & cheese. Sustainability is about insulating walls to avoid the need of an air-con, and introducing sky light instead of expensive chandlers.
My last statement of the interview was a simple definition of sustainability being the art of utmost consciousness not only environmentally but also personally as humans are responsible for mega cities and their carbon feet print. I’ve been told to join this new job from Monday July 21st 08 and I plan to ride my bicycle to work, hoping to adopt a bit of sustainable life style.

A bicycle Ride Dilemma.

Couple of weeks back I got my self a bicycle [Brand name Chicago], and the plan is to ride it to work every day but the burning afternoons of Lahore and my mum both have been very de-motivating, and I have been commuting either on rickshaw (Three wheeler LPG devils) or the diesel beast NO.39 metro bus. Every time I see the birds being scared away by the scary horn of the bus by the road side green, this makes me think about my bicycle more and more, but much recent thoughts have been how environment friendly will I become after riding it to work and how healthy will I get and how green my life style would become.

On June 11, 2008 I rode my bicycle to work, my 30 minutes of journey, started with a serried of calculations, about how many calories I’m going to burn during this journey and how many pounds of carbon dioxide emissions I saved on. Now they say that biking for about 60 minutes at 10 miles per hour should be able to burn 408 calories in a person weighing 160 pounds, now if 4 such trips are made in a week then this should save on 54 gallons of gas per year thus saving 1140 pounds of carbon from entering the environment.

Thus my Green trip to work on a bicycle should help me burn 204 calories one way, while I should be saving on approximately 27 gallons of diesel and LPG along with CNG combined, and this should result into 570 pounds lesser carbon emissions.

Now friends lets enter the black part of the journey while crossing the railway cuttings my thoughts deflected towards the steel used in rail way tracks and a very gloomy realization cropped up and I realized that my own bicycle is made out of steel, rubber and plastic. The production of these materials along with titanium and carbon fiber are a great cause of CO2 emissions to the environment.

Now where do I get a bicycle made out of Bamboos or reclaimed wood?

OR

Keeping the bicycle functional for 20 years might make me eco friendly.

So is riding a bicycle to work is environment friendly or not!

Wee weeeee weeee wa weeee!

Ride a bicycle for producing electricity.

Motivation for fitness and environment friendliness with a different approach, now ride a bicycle and charge your cell phone, or a battery that can power your laptop. Motorola and another group of individuals developed the technology, and made it public during the Coachella Music & arts Festival energy factory, a three-day event visited by almost 60000 people every day. Some 24 bikes were setup at the festival and visitors were provoked to paddle the bicycles for generating electricity directly using human power input.
The design at the Festival included a bike, trainer stand, an alternator and a 12V battery.Human energy is directly being harnessed on bicycles, from the early age of cycling, inform of the mini dynamo motor attached to the rare wheel of the cycles, that powered the torch placed on the handle of the bicycle. Who knows some day we might as well start using the good old flour and water mills.

Read more: http://www.scienceshareware.com/articles/diy-byo-bike-generator-coachella/human-powered-bike-generator-cell-phone-charger-alternator.htm#News_Links