Go Green

By John Sutter

If you’re lonely and live in Oklahoma, don’t join a dating service, buy a Smart Car.

There’s no better way to get noticed or make a friend than to drive one of these cutesy micro-cars through the herd of mammoth SUV’s in Oklahoma City, according to employees at Crafton Tull Sparks, an architecture and engineering firm that in November will give one of the cars away to an employee.

Some of the firm’s architects at a northwest Oklahoma City office have been trading turns driving the fuel-efficient car. One said he was followed home by a family in a Lexus who wanted to inquire about the car’s gas mileage. Another was approached in a store parking lot by a person who almost demanded to be given a chance to sit in the Smart Car.

“You pull up to a stoplight and you notice people are looking at you,” said Nate Baker, a vice president at the company.

Omar Khoury, another VP, said the car is so small “you could almost pick it up and put it in the trunk” of a sport utility vehicle.

“Your rear is almost on the back wall and your feet are almost on the front wheel,” Baker said.

Underlying all the attention is a sense that fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly cars seem out of place or awkward in Oklahoma, which is a state that’s thrived on an oil and gas economy. But the employees who’ve been given a chance to test out the Smart Car say things are changing. People are gawking, sure, but only because they’re interested, they say.

I took a quick ride in the car (to shoot the video above), and the only difference you notice between the tiny Smart Car and any other compact car is the fact that, if you look behind you, the road is right there. Such close quarters leads some people to consider the Smart Car unsafe, Baker said, but that opinion’s not based on testing. Crash tests indicate that the car’s cage-like design stands up well to impact, earing the car top crash scores, according to the National Safety Commission.

The Crafton Tull Sparks give-away is intended to promote the company’s focus on sustainability. The firm is working on more building projects that use “green” methods, Baker said, and will offer the car raffle only to employees who have passed a certification exam on green building techniques.

[Do you drive a Smart Car? Know someone who does? Have an opinion on them? Feel free to e-mail me at jsutter [at] oklahoman.com or post comments below.]

By John Sutter

Yesterday, an SUV from New Jersey almost ran me over on the Broadway Extension access road — while I was on my bike.

The heart-racing encounter reminded me of some funny incidents I’ve had while riding my bike in Oklahoma City the past couple of years. By land area, this is the third largest city in the nation, and drivers aren’t quite used to having non-motored two-wheeled counterparts on the road.

In 2005, when I had just started with The Oklahoman, I was riding on Hefner Road when a silver SUV whizzed past my shoulder. I found this odd, since there were two lanes, and the other one was completely empty. Anyway, a woman in the passenger seat stuck her head out the window to yell: “Get a car (non-blog-appropriate-word here)!”

At first I was irritated. That lasted like a half-second, and then I just died laughing. I have a car, thanks lady.

After almost being run over earlier in the day, I rode home from work last night at about 9:30. The streets were nearly empty, and I had a light on the front and back of my bike so cars could see me in the dark. Still, I thought back to a video I did (posted below) with a woman whose motto about biking in OKC is this: ride as if none of the cars see you, because they don’t. That advice saved me another near-wreck with a car pulling up to a neighborhood stop sign.

I guess it’s worth asking, why put yourself through such peril to ride your bike around town. Well, for starters, I don’t do it all of the time because it’s not always practical, and I have a habit of slapping the snooze button a few too many times. But when I do ride my bike to work, I usually feel better. Getting my heart rate up seems to melt some stress away at the end of a long day.

By John Sutter

Here’s a bit of what I’m following this week, or found interesting in recent environment news:

Energy: The Economist’s cover story this week is about the need for innovation in the energy sector. As their charts show, changes in the energy sector have been slow, but major economic booms have occurred when new types of energy are discovered and used. Oil has been cheap, so there’s been little incentive for change until recently, the magazine writes. But those times are over. Wind and solar can compete with coal, and, in California, groups like google.org are searching for further alternatives. Oklahoma is situated to be a top-10 wind producer, but most of that potential hasn’t been realized.

Climate: James E. Hansen spoke on Capitol Hill yesterday, 20 years after the scientist testified before Congress that global warming is real and caused by humans. As The New York Times notes on its “Dot Earth” blog, Monday’s talk and Hansen’s previous comments have stirred discussion on this question: Are the leaders of big oil companies committing crimes by knowingly emitting pollutants known to alter the climate and cause extinctions? What do you think?

Sewers: The News-Leader, in Missouri, found that municipal sewers are leaking and fouling up rivers, despite fines from the government. Oklahoma sewer systems paid some of the biggest fines, according to the story:

- States where sewer systems paid the largest amounts in fines, both federal and state, were: California ($7.8 million), Tennessee ($3.4 million), New York ($3 million), Kentucky ($2.9 million), Maryland ($2 million), Florida ($1.5 million), Pennsylvania ($1.4 million), Indiana ($1.4 million), North Carolina ($1.2 million), and Oklahoma ($1.1 million).

Buses: As John A. Williams reports in The Oklahoman, some Edmond residents think riding the local bus sounds nice, but they won’t actually do it.

Climate: If you missed it last week, the U.S. government came out with its broadest report yet detailing the effects of climate change on extreme weather patterns. The report, issued by the Climate Change Science Program, says extreme weather “could seriously effect” agriculture, health and water, according to Reuters. Tying specific weather events to climate change is tricky, but in the long term, trends become more clear, according to scientists. In a center for severe weather like Oklahoma, I wonder what you all think of this report.

Drilling: George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain favor lifting a ban on offshore drilling to cut gas prices. Some have called that proposition disingenuous since the oil could take 10 years to actually hit the market. The Chicago Tribune looks at what offshore drilling could mean for Lake Michigan, and includes this bit from Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe:

America’s outer continental shelf holds some 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which according to Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is more than 25 years of Saudi Arabian imports. That’s in addition to the uncounted billions of barrels in North American oil shale, which, of course, is being extracted by Canada, but not by the United States.

Corn: NYT: Floods in the Midwest are leading the government to consider reducing ethanol mandates and planting conservation land with corn. That would off-set the crops that have drowned in floods. About a quarter of U.S. corn goes into ethanol, which has gained criticism from environmentalists.

Frogs: British scientists examine how Costa Rican tree frogs stave off a deadly fungus by sunbathing. Their skin absorbs and reflects the suns heat, so they don’t dry out. This video is cool, too.

Dish soap: Grist tests four green kitchen soaps. Most still contain potential carcinogens, the environment magazine writes, but read more to decide for yourself what’s safe, and what will tackle the grease on your pots and pans.

What would the world look like if everyone lived like me?  

This is the question that American Public Media is asking visitors to its sustainability page at publicradio.org.

And what a question it is!

If you follow the link above, you’ll find an interactive game called Consumer Consequences, which illustrates the impact of our lifestyles on the Earth. The game asks a series of questions about your lifestyle, including how many miles you drive per month, how much food you eat and how often you buy new items of clothing or shoes (yikes!).With every question you answer, the game provides information and tips on how you can improve your score. You can even create your own character to play the game, and your own neighborhood to play it in.

The impact of your lifestyle is then calculated in terms of how many Earths it would take if everyone lived as you do. You can compare your lifestyle with others and modify your answers to reduce your impact.

In an effort to encourage you to play the game, I will share my results: 

My character sported a top hat, a furrowed brow, a wedding dress and a very long handlebar moustache. I played in the downtown-looking neighborhood.

There are 4 people living in my household (OK, my parent’s household. I did just graduate from college, remember!). It is a single-family home that is 2000 to 2500 square feet. We live in Oklahoma, and I figured our gas and electricity costs are above the state average. We do turn off the lights in my house (my Dad makes me walk back up the stairs and turn out every light in my room if I forget) and close the doors, so I guess we try to conserve energy as often as possible. We probably throw out 2-3 garbage bags per week, and we recycle everything.  I drive (by myself) to work every day, but I do have a hybrid (if that counts for anything!). I don’t ever take the bus, train or fly anywhere. My car gets 60 miles per gallon (woot!) and I probably drive about 1000 miles per month. I don’t eat as much as the average person, but I do eat out a lot. I will admit, I have yet to get into the groove of buying locally grown and organic products. After this game, I definitely will be making a trip to the Farmer’s Market! The shopping habits are really what gets me in trouble. I can’t help it! I love to shop! 

Calculation: It would take almost 5 Earths to sustain my lifestyle if everyone lived like me! Yikes! This game is a huge wake-up call. My shopping and my eating habits were the worst on my list.

So there. I shared my embarrassing score. Now it’s your turn! 

I challenge everyone to play this game and share their Earth count here on the Go Green blog page. Leave me a comment and let me know what your results were and how you plan to change your lifestyle!

-Lisa 

The other day, I was driving (in a 1997 Honda Accord) west on I-40, headed for a friend’s wedding reception near El Reno. That’s a considerable distance from Oklahoma City, so I was already thinking about gas prices and such when I found myself surrounded by a tractor-trailer and about four huge trucks, each easily twice as tall as me on the road.

It got me thinking: will a situation like this soon be a thing of the past? Will such scenes become faded Americana? I’d assume that if these high fuel prices aren’t temporary, and most people say they aren’t, then vehicles will soon start shrinking. But will the SUV — the Ford F-250 that costs $100,000 over five years — be conspiculously absent from Oklahoma roads anytime soon?

According to an article in The Guardian, not just yet.

Here’s an excerpt:

Some argue that if you can afford a $60,000 (£30,000) Hummer, you can afford to fill it up, even if it does only 10 miles to the gallon. But awareness of the oil crisis and green issues means driving one is fast becoming a social outrage.

More than a million Americans a year still buy big, cheaper SUVs with similarly poor fuel economy. But in the same way, their sales are going through the floor, while fuel-efficient cars are gradually gaining business.

But the SUV’s future isn’t entirely bleak. Sure, most people just drive them to the shops, but a sizeable American hardcore do haul boats and drive on unmade tracks. Many will carry on buying them, but demand smaller ones with more fuel-efficient engines.

John