***Only 2.5 days left in the raffles!!! Buy tix now and help fuel a good cause!
Hey y’all
Well, the launch of P.E.A.C.E Scooter 08 is coming up, in just 4 days. I am back in the South, after relocating my stuff up to Maine. 
Yesterday was a sad day of farewells to Daphne and Marco. The thought ran through my mind that my dog Marco is at Peace when I am with him, taking him for long walks and playing ball. In a sense, I am destroying his Peace by traveling to promote Peace. It was a glum day but now I’m back in gear-taking care of last minute details. Like finding pants and getting the scooter fully tuned at Scoot Richmond. And researching my carbon offsets.
That’s right.
The 2nd “E” in P.E.A.C.E is for Environment.I want to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible, a challenge when traveling and using petrol. The other day this topic came up on modernbuddy.com, concerning my CO2 output. Obviously, if I were traveling by car, at least 4x more pounds of carbon would be released into the air. Yes, I am using one of the most fuel efficient vehicles. And if my actions can convince just one person to purchase a scooter, I’ve earned points so to speak. But what is up for discussion here is every little detail…..
I’m going to assess what “bad” I’m doing-much of what can’t be avoided, avoid it if I can, but challenge myself to offset my polluted ways. It’s a good way for us to see what little things add up. Not to beat ourselves up, but to make more conscious decisions when we can. I’ve spent today furthering my education through some amazing websites. My dear friend Jessica works for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and she is helping point me in the right directions. I agree with her that every community is affected by the amount and quality of water available.
Now carbon offsets-ways to balance what pollution I do in effect make. This could be done by planting trees for example, which I’ve been exploring. One notable website I came across was Plant a Billion trees-a good endeavor-but I’m looking for something more community focused. That website led me to treehugger.com and Planet Green, two incredible resources and incredible vacuums of time-get a cookie and spend the day there.
For instance, today I learned about my ‘”water footprint,”that it takes almost 19gallons of water for the apple you might opt to have for a nutritious snack. Does this mean no apples? Heck no. But keep in mind that it takes 1860 gallons per pound of beef. I have no beef with apples, but I won’t be eating beef-that’s the kind of compromise I can make.
Jessica also gave me some suggestions on my goal to mow a lawn in every state. While appreciating the idea, she also encouraged me to talk about the emissions coming from a gas powered mower.
“Apparently, the EPA estimates that air pollution from cutting grass for an hour with a gasoline powered lawn mower is about the same as that from a 100-mile automobile ride. 54 million Americans mowing their lawns each weekend with gas-powered mowers may be contributing as much as five percent of the nation’s air pollution.”
Which means that Black and Decker are going to be invited as sponsors of P.E.A.C.E Scooter. My idea here is to invite them to donate one of their new electric mowers. Then, each person who allows me to mow their lawn into a Peace sign will be entered into a raffle to win this cool electric mower.
I’ve also reached out to some experts for advice on what will make travel on these by-ways as green as possible. Feel free to offer advice to me-we all need it!!!!
Tread lightly, so we can all tread longer…..
This idea would have made a great tshirt, says Daphne, “What goes around, comes around-with the closeup of a scooter tire with a peace sign on it….”
Will keep you posted on other stuff as it arises. For now I’m waiting for the scoot to be fixed, driving home to Cville, packing her up and then driving back down to Richmond for the scoot off on Friday.