Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

What a refreshing reminder of the good in the world! The back cover of the book advises if you've lost faith in the good in people and the world, to read this piece- and I totally agree. Hawken and I have a same kind of realistic optimism. We don't know that we will heal this planet, but we know we can . I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Hawken speak as a keynote at the Living Future conference in May 2013, Seattle. His outlook translates into his every word of his speeches and his book. In Blessed Unrest, Hawken compares the environmental and social justice movement as an earth-scale immune system. It gets underrepresented, but is constantly working and succeeding despite our actions allowing new 'viruses' in. I have a LOT of brain food from this book, but you'll have to buy your own copy to get all of it! However, I will share a couple of nuggets here- "The way we harm the earth effects all people, and how we treat one another is reflected in

Finally, after 320 miles and nights in cabins or camping on the ground- I got the wonderful hospitality of my good friend from UVM, Katie, and her family. It was so nice to sleep in a bed again, and she even had champagne waiting to celebrate! Relatively early the next morning, I took the metro into DC for my first lobby meeting with Senator Menendez. There were three of us total, we decided to ask for a push for a National Complete Streets Campaign. Cindy from the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition came in with us, and she had some great statistics and information about current policies. We asked for Menendez to introduce a national push for streets that are designed for bikes, pedestrians, public transportation and cars- not just automobiles a sis standard today. The idea is to do this as streets need to be repaired or redesigned anyway so it is actually not more expensive. Furthermore, high amounts of car traffic degrade roads faster, so the costs of upkeep would lower. Aft

Despite today being our grand finale, we still had a long 70 miles to trek from Reiserstown, MD into D.C. I left as soon as the route opened- a few hills in the morning had me questioning if I was going to make the 5th day without some assistance. But after the first 20 or so, the route flattened and adrenaline kicked in. We had to meet at the boat house 4 miles outside of the capitol by 3:15, and we (some equally exhausted riding partners and I) rolled in at 3:00. Then a police escort took us right up to the Capitol Lawn, I  rung my bike bell and cheered the whole way- I made it!! Then we had a few speakers- the President of the American League for bicyclists, and Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island. They were positive, supportive, and optimistic about future legislative decisions regarding Climate Change and environmental policy. Sitting on the lawn afterward, everything else for a while will seem so anticlimactic. 200 bike riders collectively rode about 320 miles in fi

Today was the day all the return riders forewarned about. 65 miles and 1800 feet in elevation climbs. EEK! but at least there was a lobster along for the journey! This morning was a slow start after camping out in the freezing cold Amish country side. I rode to somewhere past the Susquehanna river and needed some help. I got a lift to the water stop and rode the rest of the way, so more like a 50 mile day for me. Maryland is beautiful,lots of horses and farms that remind me of the sets in "the patriot" (See my horsey friend below). Tomorrow we ride into Capitol Hill! (After about 68 miles)

Woke up stiff and sore from yesterday's long ride. It was very cold in the morning but it didn't want to have to carry layers so I wore my normal biking get up. A beautiful ride, but the "rolling hills" of Pennsylvania made this far from a 'rest day'. Riding through Amish country is charming, kids were all at home helping their parents on the farms. I could see something's I reviewed in class, how modern builders sell the ideal of a farm lifestyle to normal families. There were no businesses in sight, so people must buy these homes and drive long distances in order to get to work to afford to keep them. Interesting to see the reminder up close. A few hills today have made me less confident about finishing tomorrow, which is supposed to be the hardest day. I'm just trying to remind my self I've already done this- 165 miles, raised nearly $2500, and raised awareness for some spectacular organizations. (A woman from the nj bike and ride coali

Today was 74.3 miles... You can imagine they had to throw some pretty views in so we didn't kill anyone. Crossed the Delaware river, which meant we were riding through beautiful views, and in then out of the Delaware valley.  We had lunch in doylestown, PA, which was cute historic town. On the way out, saw the Margaret mead house which is part of the rider scavenger hunt :). The last 4 miles or so into camp were uphill and treacherous. Camp Innabah was a little shkeevey for my taste, showers worse than the Cindy at Hoover, bug casings and spider webs in the cabin. BUT it was dry and relatively warm. I got a massage- there are 3 masseurs traveling with us- so smart! And went to see the speaker series where they covered topics from national parks to redesigning urban transportation systems.

We rode from the drop off point in Brooklyn to Princeton NJ today. The first hour or so was easy because we took a ferry after 5 miles in NYC, then broke for lunch :) The hills afterward, despite warnings, were difficult. I did NOT walk at all today, although tomorrow is 74.3 miles!!!!! So who knows what that will bring. The best part of today was when we all took off together, being able to visually see 180 or so bike riders doing something together gets a lot of outside attention. In a lot of areas where I ride, people don't even look or know to share the road with cyclists- I should bring this gang home for a couple weeks and let that teach them! One fun stop before I reached Princeton was a park that was the site of the 'martian landing' from the War of the Worlds broadcast. My phone is charging so i will post via instagram after this evening's speakers! I take all the pictures on my phone, so I may not be able to upload photos to these entries until I&

Well, it's the night before my #climateride I am super nervous and excited. A combination of those and stress from just regular old grad school gave me a migraine last night and I was asleep by like 8:30. Today, I'm feeling tired and ready to get going. After work I will head home to do my last minutes, and load up the car for a ride into Brooklyn! I wanted to use public transportation but with my bike, a huge duffel, and rush hour traffic, I'm figuring it's safer and less stressful to drive and drop things off and have my Boyfriend take my car home for me. I realized , while I review this a bit on my fundraising page- I didn't share my reasons for doing the ride. 1) A selfish goal. I am always thinking of new ways to physically challenge and push myself. Once I received my first donation- thanks mom!- I knew I had to go through with it. So all summer I was riding a few days a week. Even though not the distances I probably should have, this summer had some

Well, it's about 5 days until I leave for my Climate Ride. Getting nervous to ride these 300 miles in 5 days. I've been riding, but just have been unable to force myself to do 70 miles on my own. And I've never done a 300 mile bike tour before. I got bike shoes and clips, have fallen over a few times  but am getting the hang of it. Packed plenty of muscle wraps and aleve, udder butter, sunscreen- I think once I get moving I'll be just fine, but until then I will be a nervous wreck! It helps knowing all of the support I have from friends, family, and teachers. Whether they donated to support me, or the cause I'll be thinking of all of you on the ride! Each night, we will hear from speakers and get some lobbying training which I truly hope to use at a meeting down in DC- as of now, the staff haven't been able to confirm a meeting so I really hope I get one! If you haven't checked out the Climate Ride organization, or haven't made a donation

Ok, so of course coming fresh off the plane from the Living Future Conference in Seattle has really got me excited about the best and brightest in green building. I will be sharing lessons learned , case studies, and knowledge nuggets in several posts. And sorry for falling off the map for so long to all my readers- life happens, eh? So one of the most interesting innovations I learned about at the conference is the BIQ house in Hamburg, Germany. This is a multi-story apartment building that is completely powered by algae! Algae sits inbetween panes of glass, eats carbon dioxide and sunlight, and produces oily algae that are digested by the building to create power. Neat huh? This building is a pilot/prototype but just opened several weeks ago. This building brings up a lot of interest in algae for it's many uses. i've seen explorations in bioluminescent algae for street lighting, algae grown for biofuel for transportation, algae for wastewater treatment, and now to pow