The Monthly Newsletter of greenlight magazine

Writing from Lake Tahoe, I was planning to talk about late June's devastating Angora fire and the environmental dilemmas (how to thin the forest without jeopardizing the lake's water clarity), the sad-to-see fingerpointing, and the challenges ahead (who will pay for it all, at Tahoe and wherever else fire-prone natural spaces and homes come together?). But that just seems too heavy for such a joyous month as July – especially when we have a couple of other grim topics below in garage care and bike accidents.

What about poetry to brighten our spirits or at least enrich our brains? Recently I was lucky enough to meet John Felstiner, a Stanford English professor working on a book called “So Much Depends: Poetry and Environmental Urgency.” John says, “My aim throughout this series is to face a crying need of our time by bringing alive the environmental imprint and impetus in familiar and surprising poems.  His collection includes Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and a number of less familiar but equally inspiring poets. Click here for a sampling sure to enlighten.

Happy reading! Joyous July!

—Bill Marken, editor in chief, greenlight magazine

In this issue:

• Traveling with a conscience
• Terra incognita: your garage
• Safer biking
• One green step at a time

Much has been written lately about carbon-offsetting every aspect of a person's footprint on this earth — Al and Tipper Gore reportedly offset their entire lives including all the travel they do promoting the film and book projects surrounding An Inconvenient Truth.

It makes carbon sense to consider other forms of transit, such as trains, locally available electric car rentals, and of course that healthy alternative — walking, particularly when traveling outside the U.S.  The greenest of us may just stay home or travel locally in electric rental cars.

But, what's an adventurous world traveler to do? Consider The Rough Guide to Ethical Travel, which sends you "...volunteering in Madagascar and dolphin-tagging in Norway, [or]...staying at an eco-lodge in Kenya and meeting Bangladesh villagers..."  All of which are a lot more involved than carbon offsets.  While you're out there, here are a few additional things to consider:

• Don't fly if you can go another way (planes are the worst carbon emitters).
• Just like at home, buy locally grown food, locally made gifts, and stay at locally owned (eco)hotels/resorts.
• Leave any place you visit as clean and pristine (or more so) than it was before you arrived.

I recently started wondering why there are no hybrid planes. If it works for automobiles, why can't planes load up on lithium ion batteries in place of a few passengers? According to The Economist it turns out that Boeing has been asking the same question — although a true solution is apparently far from reality. For now, it's either carbon offsets or just staying homebound for the true eco-conscience.

If you're like me, you don't even know for sure what lurks in your garage’s shelves, rafters, and dark corners. But, you probably have any one of the following hazardous waste items somewhere in there: paint, pest control sprays, compact fluorescent bulbs, computer screens, cleaning solutions, automobile lubricants. Or maybe many of them. So how can one best clean up a neglected garage and then go green?

When cleaning up after past tenants or a long history of random storage, consult Earth911.org for the best local hazardous waste drop-off in your area.  Search by zip code, then call the location to confirm (some agencies may even pick-up larger items at no cost to you).

Earth911.org is now asking garage-related questions in their new survey designed to determine your interests and concerns about home recycling. You could win a gift certificate, and you'll help this non-profit organization continue their good works by contributing to the content of a new portion of their site.

A friend riding a bike got run off the road by an SUV last month. I had two bike accidents in one month a couple of years ago — one was totally the car driver's fault. In the hills near me, two bike riders have been killed by cars in the last two years. I don't know what the grim statistics are, but my own anecdotal survey says that biking is getting more dangerous. If we want to encourage bike riding as earth-friendly recreation and transportation, let's work to make it safer for everyone.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get out your family's bikes this summer. Please let us know about any of your own bike safety tips.

SAFETY GEAR
Start with a helmet, of course. For help choosing a helmet for a child, click here.
You also may need: safety flag, safety flasher, horn, headlight and safety lamp. Don't forget extras like mirrors.

SAFETY TIPS
Best advice I've seen comes from Michael Bluejay's Bicyclesafe.com. As Michael says, the first rule of safety is "not to get hit." You especially want to avoid the "red light of death" or "the door prize", which I won when a motorist opened a car door into me.

For special tips for kids' safety, click here.

Check out a book devoted to the subject, "Bicycle Safety", by Peggy Pancella.

Ride safely!
-- Bill M.

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Check your email later this week for the new issue of greenlight Magazine!

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