Green Transportation

Learn how to reduce your Carbon footprint and volunteer to train others to do the same. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) is offering an 11 week course on Climate Change and Sustainability. The dates are from September 22 - December 8, 2010 and the class will be held in Albuquerque, NM.

Course participants are provided 30 hours of training, and in turn they "pay back" the program through volunteer service.

web site for general description of New Mexico Climate Masters

At an Earth Day celebration in 2002 in Santa Fe, I spotted Gail Ryba riding her bike, wearing her ubiquitous yellow jacket. “So, Gail, how’d you like to take over for me as energy chair for the Rio Grande Chapter?” She replied, “Gee, I’m pretty busy with the bicycle coalition and the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy and raising a child.” “I know,” I said, “I always look for overextended activists.” “Okay, I’ll think it over.” The very next day Gail called me and agreed to be the energy chair, and thus began Gail’s short but effective stint as a Sierra Club activist.

This oil disaster should be a wake up call. It changes everything. If this can happen in the Gulf Coast, it can happen anywhere that drilling takes place (New Mexico). We need to protect our communities and our economies and switch to a clean energy future.

Send an e-mail to President Obama telling him that we need accelerate plans to build a clean energy economy. Click here.

Our nation’s transportation policy is in desperate need of reform. Significant portions of America’s roads, bridges, and transit systems are in a state of disrepair. Our auto-dependent transportation sector consumes two-thirds of the 20 million barrels of oil used each day in the United States and emits roughly one-third of the nation’s greenhouse emissions.

Santa Fe’s own Fred Vang, an automotive consultant, gave a provocative seminar on the future of automobiles to a packed house on November 17. This seminar was the fourth in a series on Sustainable Living that was presented by the Northern New Mexico Group in 2009. The talk and discussion included both short-term and long term issues related to cars.