This era in history may be remembered as the "Peak Age", a brief time when nearly all materials used to power and create our society reach the maximum extraction and production potential. Past this point, all of these resources become increasingly difficult to extract until they are no longer economically viable resources to be using. There are hundreds of examples of resources, currently embedded in our industrial society, which have reached their peak in the 50 years surrounding 2010, but the one which will most impact our society is petroleum.

The goal of living for 100 days without oil is to understand the extent of our dependance on oil in American society today. Specifically, how it will affect my life, as a 25 year-oil living in Minneapolis, MN. By using myself as a metric I can take a close and conscious look at where oil dependance occurs in all aspects of our daily lives : How we transport ourselves from one place to another, what we eat, how much waste we create, how water is cleaned and transported, where oil is used as; an energy resource, in conventional medicine and for hygiene and how oil affects how we entertain ourselves and communicate with others. By demonstrating how someone would be forced to live without using any oil resources, outlining both what the sacrifices will be as well as the benefits, we can can identify the many systems which will have to be re-designed in a world without cheap oil, and explore a new way of living in which we live in an energy balance.

(At the bottom of this page is a link to my version of a flow diagram of 'Where Petroleum Exists in Our Daily Lives' (using information from the Energy Information Administration-Annual Energy Review 2008 fig 5.0 Petroleum flow) click and zoom to enlarge)


Sunday, September 19, 2010

DAY 34_CYCLOPATH

17 September 2010

My fabulous friend Amber recommended me this website for finding bike routes through Minneapolis. 

http://www.cyclopath.org/

Cyclopath allows you to put in your preferences as far as; quickest route vs most bikable route, hill slope, only bike paths vs busy streets.  It can be modified by anyone living here so there is quite a bit of detail as far as what part of the route is good or bad and so on.  Awesome site, can't believe I never knew this existed. 

I mapped my route from Uptown to the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus (most frequent commute route). 



route by byway type (bike paths vs busy streets)
 

slope of route

Google maps also has a bike route function for those of you who don't live in Minneapolis, or didn't know. 

Its been raining quite a bit this week.  The other night the rain was pelting so hard it felt like hail.  I have to do more laundry when it rains because all the junk off the street gets all over my clothes. 

There are some strange forces of the earth that allow it to typically rain hard ONLY when I am on my bike.  My advisor, Virajita says she can tell if its going to rain if she knows I am biking around ;)  Fabulous.



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