Posts Tagged ‘green transportation’

We transport ourselves long distances in our outside, social lives. But what about inner transportation? How often do we consider where we go and what we experience on the inside of ourselves, our minds and bodies?

Because after all, we all spend our whole lives living in our minds and consciousness. If we want to change our habits – if we commute or not, how we treat this planet or our family or friends etc – then the first  place where the change needs to take place, is in the mind. When the mind gets focused, changes can come quickly.

This is a short story of a cool inner transportation tool that definitely makes the mind “greener” – fresher, cleaner, purer!

A couple of weeks ago I spent ten days in silence, without contact with the outside world, to learn to focus my mind and slowly clear it of unnecessary burdens. The course took place in Sweden but exists all over the world (www.dhamma.org). The technique of vipassana meditation, which this is called, is teaching self-observation and is simple, scientific and non-sectarian. One only works with one’s own physical reality and learn to focus the mind and develop an equanimous mind towards what one experience.

Simple I say, in retrospective, but when learning to focus the mind on one’s own physical reality the first time, it was crazy. Many people realise how unfocused they are, when internet, mobile phone, work, social life etc is taken away. Me too. And it is sometimes tough to meet oneself, truely. But it is like the earth. If we want it to be greener and our travelling so, we have to do the work. There is no short cut to paradise, anywhere.

After ten days of meditation I came out much lighter. Sorrows, irritation, stress, anger, crazy desires or fear, were gone or diminished. And I continue to sit and meditate in daily life, as I find it helping my “mental immune system”. This was my forth course, I did my first summer 2010. Having three university degrees and a couple of more diplomas, I consider this the best tool I have ever learnt. A tool for life and health. I am more present, more conscious about my actions, feelings and choices, and less stressed. I feel more empowered. And a purer mind has made greener actions more important.

And the best thing (from a social point of view) is that it is taught for free. Old meditation students pay for new students, and so it is given further. The profit is better life quality for everyone concerned.

If this sounds interesting, you find more information at www.dhamma.org. Courses are given all over the world in the same way.

A recent article in Financial Times about vipassana meditation:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a5e3476e-2a36-11e1-8f04-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1p8BJlLiW

A beautiful video how children are learning how to work with their minds

Nice inner journeys and a greener, fresher mind!

Let me have the honor and introduce you to one of my most trustworthy and long-time servants:

my first hiking boots

Birth 1997- Dead April 14th, 2011

I got them when I was 15 for a mountain trip for youngsters and they’ve been the most loyal rubber horses I’ve had. They have taken me all over the Nordic countries

to Sweden’s highest mountain, Kebnekaise, a day with no fog but unusual sunlight

to the hills of Scotland and Ile of Sky

to the Alpes in Switzerland, Austria and Italy

to the trains of all Europe and many more homes, rich and poor, warm and cold

- they’ve even looked at Mont Blanc

One year ago they decided to retire and withdrew themselves, literally

I gave then first aid, but the life energy was gone

no more transportation

I will always remember and honor them and will now have a hard time to replace them

“Rest in peace, you’ve left thousands of happy foot prints in my heart

as well as having set a standard of how long lasting material relationships can be”

I’m sure they’ll reach rubber heaven

Hi!

You know, I don’t really get why bicycling have become a hip lifestyle choice. Why so much rage is directed towards it and why you are “one of those greenies” if you pedal to work. I mean, come on! It is just another mode of transportation. Not only that but it is still one heck of a way to get around on shorter distances, and a fun experience if you bring the kids as well.

In my mind, riding a bike should be something natural. There is good infrastructure and you can get around quickly and efficiently without driving. It is not something for just environmentalists and poor people. But for some reason you sure can find a lot of that in arguments online.

The real world doesn’t look like that of course. The infrastructure is often lacking and cycling takes more time, something many don’t feel they have in todays society. Poor people often choose to cycle as it is free, thereby adding to that image. And of course the green crowd pick up the bike as it is good for health as well as the environment. Does that mean that you have to bee in one of those two groups to cycle to work? No. Definitely no.

I myself think it is a cultural thing. You don’t see this as much in European blogs, but in the North American blogosphere this kind of reasoning is everywhere, on both “sides”. Drivers who hate cyclists. Cyclists who hate cars and want them out of the picture. And then there are the sensible people who try to reason and see more then their own sides argument. However, cycling is kind of a new phenomena in North America. Cyclists and drivers don’t know how to interact and coexist and the infrastructure is in my understanding often sub par. In Europe it is more established and kind of natural.

As a cyclist I can really understand why drivers dislike cyclists. When driving it can be scary when you have unprotected and unpredictable people on the road. But that doesn’t account for parking in the bike lane, cutting bikers of and shouting obscenities to cyclists. I sadly have read about in several bike related blogs. I am really not sure how widespread this is. But still. I am also sure that cyclists who doesn’t care to follow the same rules as everybody else, and who are totally unpredictable may play a part as well. I sure don’t like when a cyclist start to wiggle over the road or decides to suddenly turn without a warning. On the other hand I don’t like drivers who act as if cyclists doesn’t exist at all or behaves badly either.

Now this is just some musings on my part. I don’t know the root to the problem. But I know something will have to be done to change this. As of now more and more people decide to use personally powered vehicles for the daily commute. We can’t have people afraid of trying out a bike ride when we have a climate which is changing in a horrible pace and diminishing oil reserves around the world. Bicycling is part of the future. It has to become accepted if we are to solve the problem with increasing traffic. You are not a “greenie” or some kind of hippie for picking up the bike. It doesn’t have to become a lifestyle choice either. This is just another way to get from point a to b.

A green commute is for everyone. It is not special to take the bike to work. Or the bus for that matter. Or walking. But it is good for the environment. It is good for the health. It is good for the wallet. But for it to work we need good infrastructure. And for that to happen there have to be political consent. Which doesn’t come before people really want and use the infrastructure. In other words; try a green commute. Behave well and stay safe. Who knows, if cycling become really common, as it is becoming in many pats of the world, it may move beyond a mere lifestyle choice and become a totally integrated part of the infrastructure. Look at the Netherlands, Denmark or Sweden for example. It is possible.

Fredrik

China is a really interesting country. The history is long and intriguing, the food is amazing and there are lots of interesting cultural perks that is very foreign and exotic to a Swede.

But there is a lot more to China then that. Lately there have been all kind of interesting environmental buzz coming from over there. I am sure you all have heard about the straddling bus by now, as seen to the right. That one have been, and still is a huge conversation starter. Do a twitter search for greener commute. You will probably find at least one or two posts about it even after all this time. And no wonder why, IF they can get this monster to work in a safe manner it would solve a lot of problems with slow public transportation.

And now, well a while ago, more interesting infrastructural news come out. China is  investing in high speed trains. Since it is a HUGE country with vast distances to cover for both passengers and gods, that is a good way to solve the time problematic without relying on airplanes. It is quite a no brainer that China, one of the worlds fastest growing economies choose to invest in good transportation options.

The amazing news is that they now want to connect that network with Europe. That would be a massive undertaking, laying rail over very difficult terrain and through a long list of independent countries, and it would demand a huge investment, but if it would succeed… Think of the possibilities.

Hundreds of years ago there were the silk road. It went more or less through the same territories and constituted a trade connection between first the Roman Empire and China, and later with the European trade houses. One can guess that the underlying idea with this monster of a project is more or less the same. High speed rail is faster then ship. Less costly too. And as ships use high level sulfur fuel with loads of emissions on international water to keep the costs down, this may save a lot of CO2. Not only that, China can get raw materials and imports to their factories faster this way, and they can speed their exports to Europe in a very cost effective manner.

And who knows, passenger trains between London and China may even get popular, if slower then flying.

Another interesting side effect is how other countries may open up their eyes to high speed commuter rail. Sweden is starting to ponder that idea right now, and I believe some big projects have started in North America as well. High speed rail opens up the option of longer yet faster and more environmentally friendly commutes.

With rising property prizes in many bigger cities, lots of people have to look for housing in smaller towns farther from the cities. These smaller communities are often more quiet and nicer to live in, but the commute forces the city workers to drive for hours/day. If the HSR is available as an option, who knows how much traffic can be reduced. If enough people had fast and reliable public transportation available that would mean less wear and tear on the roads, less pollution, less stress and thousands of tons of saved CO2 !

/

Fredrik