I was surprised biking into Pittsburgh. As a former center of steel production, I had low expectations for the city, and was surprised to find a scenic, clean city. Indeed, Pittsburgh, which sits between where two rivers meet to create the Ohio River, was recently voted America’s most livable. Tim Kelly, the cyclist who led us into the city, also pointed out, with pride, the city’s bikeways along the rivers. A new trail connects Pittsburgh with Washington DC and is helping promote bicycle tourism and economic growth in many towns along the route.

To be sure, Pittsburgh’s economy has suffered in recent decades, as overseas competition has closed local steel mills. As we cycled in, Tim pointed out site after site where a former steel mill had operated, and explained that the population of Pittsburgh has shrunk as people have left to look for work elsewhere. On the other hand, without the steel mills, the air and water are far cleaner (I wonder what the pollution is like in the places where our steel is now made), and, because the population is shrinking, you can get a house in pleasant neighborhoods at a very affordable price.

For our first event in Pittsburgh, we led a group of cyclists to the Allegeny Commons, one of the city’s many parks, to plant a tree to commemorate the 100th birthday of Rachel Carson. (Rachel Carson wrote the book Silent Spring, which is credited with helping to begin the environmental movement – we were pretty honored to be at an event for her). A pastor from a local church gave an interfaith blessing, a representative from the mayor’s office attended, and we planted a Kentucky coffee tree.

After the tree planting, we went back to the REI store where we began the ride and talked with shoppers and signed people up for our email list. We also found that the REI store is LEED certified — this is certification that indicates that a building energy efficient in it’s design and construction.

The following two days, we gave presentations at Chatham University and Robert Morris University and two radio interviews. At our presentations that are open to the public, most of the attendees already know a good deal about global warming, and we hope that we can inspire the attendees to take more action. At the talks we give to classes – where the students are required to be there – I am again surprised how little people know about global warming, and we try our best to make sure people understand that carbon dioxide, which is produced by burning fossil fuels, is the biggest problem.

After three full days, we left Pittsburgh, once again following cyclist Tim Kelly, who took a day off of work to help us navigate out of the city and help us start the ride into Ohio.

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