So I have become a bit of a boring evangelist on the subject of sustainability. A tree-hugger
But hey. I ride bikes. I sail dinghies. I ski. I keep the car in the garage. I bring a shopping bag to the superidermarket. I rarely print to hard copy. I use the best dryer ever invented - the sun. I buy locally grown produce. I mail my 25 dollars to www.greenseat.com when I fly to offset the emisions. I work for a high-tech venture developing really low-emissions solid-state LED lighting systems, some of which we want to give away, and co-producing a really cool conference on corporate sustainability design and planning.
But enough preachiing. Those things just scratch the tip of the consumer lifestyle. I still make too much garbage, forget to turn off the appliances, buy bottled water from Seattle, and get the Asahi Shimbun with all those inserts.
I just want to show a couple of things they are doing over in Europe. We spent a week in Berlin with the kids and among many discoveries such as the fact the city has trees everywhere, beer stops everywhere, bicycle paths everywhere and curry wieners just about everywhere, they also have a couple of other urban innovations. Like Japan and other EU countries, the mailman always rings twice - haha, no he rides his bike, this one with a little bit of energy boost below the saddle-bags, ie. battery power. The other is the rent-a-bike on-the-spot with your credit card system. Good ideas, though somewhat idealistic. In Amsterdam many of the "free" bikes end up in the canal. Another smart idea in Berlin (other than busting down the wall for good riddance) was the notion to use yellow on traffic lights AFTER RED not just before red. That allows drivers to slow but not stop as they approach, saving time and saving fuel and reducing smog from traffic jams and accidents.
Viele danke. Ich bin auch ein Berliiner, one might be tempted to say.
A Freistadt like no other.
Your humble tourist, N. Cyclo und Pedia
