Cycling for the Planet

A friend of mine recently said he commutes by bike from a neighborhood near me to the same campus as me. We have similar careers and yet I am slacking it up over here by driving the 7.2 (car) miles roundtrip to work everyday. By bike, it's more like 10 miles roundtrip to use safer residential streets. But I digress. I fully have the means to bike a lot of days to work. There are days where it's not feasible or practical (like, before a work trip when I have overnight bag etc). There are more days per year though where it IS practical. So what am I doing??

So I started googling what the carbon footprint reduction would be if I rode my bike to work even half the days of the week, so 2-3 per week by bike. Firstly, let's define carbon footprint as the amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emitted during an activity or span of time. Example: yearly carbon footprint or in this story the amount of CO2 emitted by my work commute.

Based on the very cool tool MAPMYEMISSIONS, my commute carbon footprint by car is ~5lbs of carbon, roundtrip, everyday. That's around 25lbs of carbon produced per weekday just to get me to/from work. Lazy.

Into the rabbit hole I went, to learn about carbon footprint reduction, biking options, and how to do the math. However, I discovered that not everyone thinks biking is a perfectly clean alternative to driving solo in a car. It seems that some people think that fossil fuels powering your motorized vehicle and food powering me on my bike are equivalent. I'm looking at you, Harvard guy. But that's a false equivalence for me. My diet will stay the same, regardless of my mode of transportation to work. I have already mostly fine tuned my diet for my training and schedule so it won't change. Besides, I still have to eat to drive my car to work, so that's an assumption I am going to make in this experiment.

I pledge to ride my bike for 2 days per week until October, and bump it up to 3+ once the weather is nicer in the best month of the year and beyond. I often go to the gym before work, when it's still very dark out, and I'm not comfortable riding my bike to the gym at 530am. So I need to tweak my schedule but I think this is going to be great! How could it not be?

Now, if I could just have a widget tracker to keep myself accountable for how many days per week I ride my bike and stay on track!

More information: 

Map My Emissions

accessed 12 September 2018

Climate Impacts of Biking vs. Driving

Harvard's Keith Group, accessed 12 September 2018

How much CO2 does cycling really save?

European Cyclists' Federation, accessed 12 September 2018

What's the carbon footprint of ... cycling a mile?

The Guardian, accessed 12 September 2018

Cycle like the Danes to cut carbon emissions, says study

The Guardian, accessed 12 September 2018

How Much Can Bicycling Help Fight Climate Change? A Lot, If Cities Try

Streets Blog USA, accessed 12 September 2018

Poaching and the Ethics of Hunting

Another whooping crane was shot recently down here in south Louisiana.

News article, for your infuriation: LDWF: La. man cited for shooting whooping crane

Whooping cranes are an endangered species, protected by the landmark Endangered Species Act. And besides that, they are clearly NOT to be confused for another animal that is legal game. And besides that, it wasn't a hunting season.

Anyone who poaches clearly has no respect for the wildlife they are illegally taking, and no respect for the wildlife management that might be in progress. Shooting a whooping crane in your crawfish pond, and then leaving the bird on the side of the pond shows such a flagrant disrespect for wildlife that in my opinion that person should never be issued another hunting license in his life. But that's just my own personal opinion.

I want to be clear though before anyone thinks I'm anti-hunting. Having respect for an animal does not mean you do not hunt. Often it is quite the opposite.

"A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than that of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact." -Aldo Leopold

Doing the right thing when nobody is watching is a sign of ethics and morality. And it goes hand in hand with ethical hunting. 

1) Ethical hunting means following the rules. You respect and obey bag limits, size limits, harvest methods, season dates, and tactics as outlined for the location you are hunting in. There are limits for a reason, based on data collected by wildlife managers. Managers have the conservation of the species at the forefront of their plans. 

2) Respect the animal you are hunting. This means taking good shots, using the appropriate tools at your disposal, and take a clean shot. 

3) Allow for fair chase. Allow for the animal to have a reasonably fair chase of escape. "Put simply, fair chase is the pursuit of an animal in such a way that does not give the hunter an unfair advantage. " [source]

4) Respect the animal. That means once an animal is harvested, do not be wasteful. Utilize every part of the animal so that nothing goes to waste and the animal's life was meaningful. Shooting an animal you cannot use or will not use is disrespectful, wasteful, and generally counter productive to wildlife management goals.

5) Leave no trace. This principle is valid in every outdoors venture but also applicable when hunting. Don't destroy habitat, leave trash behind, tear up fields, or destroy vegetation in your pursuit of your quarry.

6) Respect land rights. Don't hunt on private property without permission (that is poaching!), and be respectful of other hunters around on whether on public or private property.

Surely there are more ethics that could be applicable for hunting, but those are the main ones. Anyone who poaches is acting in a deplorable manner. Harvesting any animal illegally is poaching, and that's not just with endangered animals.

I will never fully understand the mindset of people who poach, but I know in some areas there are compounding factors. The black market for things such as ivory is often enough impetus for poaching because people need money to eat. So in that scenario, poaching is a symptom of another problem to be fixed. Solve the crisis that is causing the poaching, and hopefully you solve both. I'm no expert but I can see the big picture and know that a lot will have to change.

I am not excusing people who poach to feed their families. I am just saying I see you, and I understand, and let's fix it.

More Information:
6 Hunting Ethics Every New Hunter Should Know
The Big Game Hunting Blog, accessed 8 September 2018

Ethical Hunting
Game Management Authority, accessed 8 September 2018

5 Solutions to Poaching
Vision Launch, accessed 8 September 2018

Africa's Poaching Crisis
The Dodo, accessed 8 September 2018

Stopping Poaching
World Wildlife Fund, accessed 8 September 2018

Conservation hero turns gorilla killers into eco-warriors

CNN, accessed 11 September 2018

Official OC Book Club!

We have an official book club! 

Outdoor Conservation Book Club on Goodreads

Come join the conversation!

Conservation Book of the Month September 2018 - Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey

I've decided to start reading 1 special conservation related book each month. Some will be new to me, some will be re-reads. This is one of my absolute favorites and timely given my NOLS course in February in the Arizona desert, so let's start there. Conservation book of the month for September 2018 is Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey! . "What do the coyotes mean when they yodel at the moon? What are the dolphins trying so patiently to tell us? Precisely what did those two enraptured gopher snakes have in mind when they came gliding toward my eyes over the naked sandstone?" - Edward Abbey in "Desert Solitaire" . #desertsolitaire #edwardabbey #bookofthemonth #conservation #desertsarecool #optoutside #stewardship

A post shared by @ outdoorconservation on Sep 1, 2018 at 7:52pm PDT

OC Book of the Month

I've decided to start reading 1 special conservation related book each month. Some will be new to me, some will be re-reads. I read pretty extensively in general, but haven't been focusing on science/conservation relevant material in awhile. This whole social media awareness/advocacy endeavor has reignited my spark so I am dedicated to going through the books related to this field.

I will alternate picks between classic books or iconic authors from the field, and newer more current reads.

If you'd like to join me on this educational and inspirational journey, check out our online book club on Goodreads! I have also been sharing quotes from each month's books using #ocbookofthemonth from @outdoorconserv :)

1. Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey (September 2018): Review
2. Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future, Edward Struzik (October 2018): Review
3. Our National Parks, John Muir (November 2018): Review
4. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (December 2018): Review
5. Who Rules the Earth?, Paul Steinberg (January 2019): Review
6. A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold (February 2019) Review
7. Sea Change, Sylvia Earle (March 2019) Review
8. The Future of Life, EO Wilson (April 2019) Review
9. The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert (May 2019) Review
10.  The Beak of the Finch, Jonathan Weiner (June 2019) Review
11. Grizzly Years, Doug Peacock (July 2019) Review
12. The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, Jack E Davis (August 2019)