BTA Board Member John Bloss recently read a book he thought the BTA community would enjoy. Here are his thoughts.
Biking Along in the Shadow of Peak Oil
I’ve just finished reading Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction. The book is an interesting, brief, and compelling account of the total impact of our automobile and petroleum oriented economy in the United States. It is authored by Terry Tamminen, an environmental advocate, who also served as the CalEPA Director in the Schwarzenegger Administration.
The book reads very much like an introductory environmental studies textbook and I would not be surprised to find it college course reading lists–particularly on the west coast since many of the insights are from a California perspective. The key points raised in the book are:
- the negative health impacts of the petroleum economy are significant and directly parallel the nasty aspects of cigarette smoking
- 60% of US oil supplies currently come from international sources, many of them politically unstable and/or repressive regimes
- change is necessary to move beyond the current oil based economy over the next two decades, it won’t be easy, but it can happen
If you are seeking some extra motivation during the winter doldrums to get out on your bike and use it as alternative transportation, this is the ideal book to pick up.
All the arguments in Lives Per Gallon point to the importance of advancing policies to get people on bikes and out cars (and develop other sustainable technologies as well). It’s important to keep this larger picture in mind as we work on BTA’s multi-faceted programs.
Yeah, alternative fuel, like bananas! (Sorry, how about “butternut squash” to be more seasonally- and locally-appropriate.)
Ew, I just went to what “e” linked to, and it’s a blog about buying cars. Stop spamming our bike site, “e.”
I deleted the post from “e” — sorry about that.