Here is a short montage we put together combining the best videos and pictures from South Dakota and Wyoming. Thanks to the Resophonics for letting us use their music in the background.
Video Montage – South Dakota and Wyoming
July 19th, 2007 by DavidYellowstone – fires, pests, and fishing
July 19th, 2007 by David
After a day in Sheridan (where we talked at a library and spent half an hour in an interview on the morning talk radio), Bill and I climbed into the Big Horn Mountains, thus officially entering the Rocky Mountains. The 5,000 ft climb brought cooler temperatures, pine forests, and a great descent when we reached the far end of the mountains.
Riding across more dry rangeland, and spending one day in Cody, WY, we climbed again, this time into Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is a high volcanic plateau covered with evergreen trees and abundant wildlife. We saw elk, bison, eagles, osprey, and—to our surprise—even a wolf (see photo below & far right). As none of the wildlife is hunted, the animals approach cars and people, resulting in frequent bison traffic jams. (A ranger told us not to approach the bison on our bicycles — which turned out to be pretty much impossible as the bison would walk across the road both in front of and behind us.)
   |
I was also struck by the number of large cars and large RVs (many of the RVs had large SUVs in tow). Everyone was driving to see the wildlife and features of the park, and likely enjoying great road trips.
   |
I must admit, though, that it is hard to see so much gasoline use, knowing what effects global warming will have on this region.
What does global warming mean for Yellowstone? Well, for starters we think forest fires may be five times more common in this part of the country, as drier and hotter summers cause fires to burn hotter. In addition to reshaping the natural environment, there is another cost — entering the park we saw a memorial to 12 firefighters who died fighting a forest fire.
Secondly, we have seen lots of dead trees in the mountains from another source — bark beetles, which burrow into the bark of trees and kill them in large numbers. Descending out of the Bighorn Mountains, an entire mountainside appeared to be dead (photo left). Outbreaks of these beetles have become more common in recent years, as warmer temperatures have helped them reproduce faster and reach higher altitudes. As the earth warms, we are likely to see pests like these to spread in places we have not seen before.
And finally, we just read an interesting piece in a local paper — fishing in this region has had to be restricted, as an unusually hot summer and low water flow has caused fish die out in the Yellowstone region. More summers in the future will be like this, which raises questions for future sport fishing in in this region.
All of this points the same way — warming the earth will seriously and irreversibly change natural systems. These are examples of why we think we may loose as much as 20% of all known plants and animals to extinction if continue with business as usual.
A Measure of Success
July 15th, 2007 by Bill
We received these awesome thank you cards from kids at the school near Toledo where we gave talks and led a bike ride in May. It was really nice for us to see that our project had an impact. Have you made any changes or become more aware of global warming since we gave a presentation or appeared in the media in your town? Let us know! We want to hear your stories.
Speaking of media, we have done quite well in the past month. The more conservative parts of America seem much more intrigued by our message on global warming. Crossing South Dakota and Wyoming, we have completed 6 newspaper interviews, 3 radio interviews, and 1 television interview. You can see them here.
In other news, we just spent two days at a summer art camp just outside Sheridan, WY. The Bauen Camp, which attracts teenagers from around the country, sits on the side of the Big Horn Mountains in a spectacular setting. We used our time to have an extended conversation with the students about global warming. (We also just received an email from them saying that, after we left, they did a dramatic interpretation of global warming in the form of a play).
Wyoming and the Powder River Basin
July 8th, 2007 by Bill
For a long time biking west, we have seen full coal trains traveling east and empty coal trains returning. Following I-90 (biking on the freeway for one of the first times this trip), we entered Wyoming and the Powder River Basin. We had heard that this is where the coal has been coming from, but the scale of the mining became more amazing as we biked into Gillette. Every few hours we saw a 100+ car coal train, and we learned that around 85 coal trains – each carrying 16,000 tons of coal – leave this region every day. We also saw an open pit mine right next to the freeway, and another just outside of Gillette. Burning coal provides 52% of America’s energy and it’s also the biggest worldwide contributor to global warming pollution.
Gillette is the largest city in this basin – the self proclaimed energy capital of the world – and there we stayed with Jenny, a wildlife biologist who told us more about the town. Gillette, like many in the west that rely on natural resources, has undergone several booms and busts. Currently, the town has jobs galore, an incredibly tight housing market and a meth-amphetamine problem. We didn’t know about the recent boom in coal bed methane. This boom has been going on for about 7 years and a map of the region shows thousands of wells dotting the landscape (Jenny pointing out wells on the right). The wells are small boxes located all over the range lands. Pipelines hidden below ground allow all of the gas to be piped to garage-size compression facilities where powerful 12 cylinder engines compress the gas to be piped along to market. Water is also pumped out of the coal beds along with the methane so the landscape is now dotted with ponds where the water is siphoned off and left to evaporate or (hopefully) seep back into the aquifer. Several people we spoke with were concerned about the water that was being lost in an already desert-like landscape and the impacts this water is having on private lands.
Traveling on, we stayed on the Sorenson ranch (Powder River Angus) and were given a tour of the ranch and surrounding lands. After living on the coasts, David and I found this an amazing and largely foreign way of life. One thing that became clear to us is how much more dependent a farmer or rancher is on fossil fuels. The marginal land here requires farms of 5,000 acres or more and taking care of this land requires a lot of driving of trucks and tractors. The Sorensons chose a 300 horsepower 4-wheel drive Dodge diesel pick-up that gets over 15 mpg. Compare that with a Ford F-350 that gets about 8 mpg and you can see that they will burn half as much fuel in a year and that means half as much global warming pollution. In fact, at 15 mpg, their pick-up truck that is used to cover the toughest terrain and serious winter storms gets about as good mileage as the SUV many people use to pick up groceries. Being here made us wonder how we can devise an equitable way to reduce our use of fossil fuels when some people rely on them so much more than others.
After providing a hearty breakfast and a lunch to go, the Sorenson’s saw us off. We biked a couple miles along the dirt road (scoria really) that the coal bed methane industry is now putting in and maintaining all over the region. We reached the highway before 8am and it was already 75 degrees. Along the 80 mile journey to Sheridan my bike computer read 119 in the direct sunlight. Luckily the looming Big Horn Mountains will bring not only steep climbs, but also cooler temperatures. It’s scorching hot in the west right now. Is this our global warming future?
Wind Power in the Great Plains
July 5th, 2007 by David
We became very familiar with South Dakota’s wind energy potential. Every day the wind would howl at us from a different direction. We were a bit lucky as well — we ended up have slightly more tailwinds than headwinds.
The map shown on the right shows the potential wind energy from different states around the region (I took this photo next to a wind farm in South Dakota). One of the problems with wind is that it is most windy in the Great Plains, where few people live. Also, it isn’t windy all the time (so you can’t create electricity all of the time). But, usually it is windy somewhere, so if we have a large electric grid, we can distribute the electricity. We also don’t currently have the distribution network to carry the electricity away from the Great Plains — why not build it? According to the map shown on the right, and comparing with U.S. energy statistics, the combined wind energy potential of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota is roughly equal to the current U.S. yearly electricity generation from all sources (coal, natural gas, nuclear, etc.).
Yes, there are concerns with wind energy, and I am not sure we should cover all of the Great Plains in wind turbines. I encourage you to read this link to learn more (especially issues concerning bird and bat mortality). The bottom line is that the wind turbines are far better than the alternative of global warming.
The 30 second video below, though, sums up how I feel about wind power:
Crossing South Dakota
July 3rd, 2007 by David
Leaving Minnesota and crossing into South Dakota, the land became drier and more sparsely populated, and towns were less frequent. We still saw many fields of wheat and corn, but grazing land became more common. We passed through many small towns, and learned that most of the towns are far smaller than they used to be, as fewer farmers are now needed to farm the same amount of land.
Crossing South Dakota, we expected to find resistance to our message. For some reason, people who are more conservative are less likely to trust the science of global warming, and South Dakota is fairly conservative. How did people respond when we asked them ‘what do people around here think about global warming?’
One woman, a schoolteacher (the wife of a farmer who gave us a tour of his farm and who is shown right), told us that people here are starting to take the issue seriously. In one small town of 100 people, another woman remarked that summers and winters are far warmer than they used to be. Without us telling her what we were doing, she added ‘must be global warming – it’s affecting us too.’ And we found this many places — people are starting to believe it’s for real.
Yet many others gave a reply like the owner of one gas station, who flatly said ‘We are conservative here, we don’t believe it’ (I am unclear on this reasoning). The owner of a bike store in Pierre said that we are just seeing a ‘natural cycle’ and that there was nothing we could do about it (both not true). And, if you look at the article about our trip in the Rapid City Journal, take a look at the comments (readers can comment on the online article) and you can see plenty of resistance.
Most people, though, seem to be like people everywhere else — confused about the basic ideas of global warming. The owner of a steak house, after hearing what we were doing said, ‘that’s a big issue – who do you believe?’ One man argued that he sees smog in cities, and not in South Dakota, so they didn’t have to do anything in South Dakota (smog has very little to do with global warming). One woman, when we told her about our project, looked up in the sky and said ‘it’s too bad when there is a hole in the environment,’ which, we think, was referring to the ozone layer (many people confuse global warming with ozone depletion – they are in fact very different issues). My favorite was an older rancher who, after telling us some jokes, said it is getting warmer due to ‘earth warming,’ but had no explanation for what ‘earth warming’ is.
I guess that it is fair that people are confused on this issue — it is a complicated issue (and, there have been large campaigns to confuse people). Bill is convinced that we need some type of national education program on the issue, to help communicate the basic ideas of global warming — what do you think about this?
We should note that no one was hostile to us — in fact, most people were exceptionally friendly. The restaurant owner who seemed skeptical still ended up giving us dinner when he heard we were biking across the country. The gas station owner had a long friendly conversation with us.
We departed South Dakota via the badlands and the black hills — a scenic finish to the state. Below are photos.
   |
Tune into ‘Despierta America’ tomorrow
July 3rd, 2007 by DavidTomorrow morning (Wed July 4th), at about 8:30 AM eastern time, I will appear on ‘Despierta America,’ a morning show on Univision. Univision is the nation’s largest Spanish speaking network (yes, the interview will be in Spanish), and, if you get any Spanish TV, you likely get this channel (the network claims 40 million viewers worldwide). The interview should be about both my last trip through Latin America, as well as Ride for Climate USA. So, tune in, especially if you want to see me encouraging people to switch to energy efficient bulbs in Spanish!
Bill and I also just crossed the border with Wyoming, and are taking a short lunch break to get out of the heat – stay tuned for our next entry on crossing South Dakota (and of course what South Dakotans think of global warming….).
Welcome to South Dakota
June 22nd, 2007 by Bill
We rode into South Dakota today. It was a great ride because we averaged over 14 mph with a tail wind and cloudy skies kept the weather cooler. It’s amazing how quickly things can change; the last 3 days we’ve been riding into a fierce head wind that had us averaging 7 mph. Today the wind shifted 180 degrees and the world became a far better place.
When we arrived in Watertown SD, we stopped at a restaurant where we could set up the mobile office and plan our radio interview, check email and catch up on the blog entries. A quick news search showed some incredibly positive news. The Senate agreed on a fuel efficiency increase for cars and trucks — an average of 35 mpg for cars, SUVs and pick-ups by 2020. This seemed impossible just a few years ago, but the winds have shifted 180 degrees and the seemingly impossible just happened.
Keep in mind that this is just the Senate that has agreed on a fuel efficiency increase. Now the House of Representatives will have to agree on one, the two bodies will have to come up with a compromise that they can both agree on and the President will have to sign it. Our elected leaders are debating a major energy bill that will play a huge role in addressing (or ignoring) global warming. You should contact (write, email or call) your two Senators and one Representative and let them know that you care about global warming and want a smart energy bill that will help address the problem. Now is a great time for them to hear from you and you can use this link if to find their contact information.
Bicycling in Minneapolis is Great!
June 20th, 2007 by DavidWe made a video celebrating the bikeways in Madison, Wisconsin (and you should take a look at it — it is one of our favorites). We recently arrived in Minneapolis, and discovered that that city also has excellent bikeways. Here is a video tribute:
Cow Power and Renewable Energy in Wisconsin
June 18th, 2007 by David
Our final stop in Wisconsin was in the town of La Crosse, where, in addition to appearing on the local TV news (click here to watch the clip on Youtube!), we stayed with a Karolanne and Karen. Karolanne works with ‘Dairlyand Power Cooperative,’ a company that generates and provides electricity for about half a million people around the area. (You can see Karolanne at the end of the last video we posted here – she is the one jumping up and encouraging you to change your light bulb.)
As Bill and I are energy dorks, we enjoyed asking Karolanne all sorts of questions about how energy is produced and used in Wisconsin. (Interesting fact that we learned: the electricity use in Wisconsin for air conditioning in the summer now exceeds the electricity use for heating in the winter).
It turns out that coal, which is one of the biggest producers of carbon dioxide, is still cheaper than renewable energy, but that the state is doing many things to promote renewable energy. We also learned that a new type of electricity generation, which Karolanne dubbed ‘Cow Power’ is becoming viable in Wisconsin. We decided to let Karolanne, who is shown on the right with digested cow manure, explain in her own words.
How does Wisconsin promote renewable Energy?
Wisconsin has a renewable portfolio standard that mandates all utilities in Wisconsin to produce 10% of their energy from renewable resources by 2015. My company, DPC, also has various incentive and rebate programs that encourage members to buy energy efficient appliances. DPC produces renewable energy from wind, landfill-gas-to-energy plants, hydropower and manure digesters — manure digesters are also known as ‘cow power.’
Please explain ‘Cow Power’ to us. It sounds pretty cool.
“Cow power” plants use dairy cow manure as the energy source. The manure is collected and heated, creating the natural byproduct of methane gas. That methane is the fuel used to power the generators.
We currently have three of these power plants (one shown on the right). Each of these anaerobic manure digester facilities can generate enough to power at least 600 homes (775-840 kilowatts). Our long-term goal is to create enough power from these digesters to power approximately 20,000 homes (25 Megawatts).
What else is great about ‘Cow Power?’ (besides the name)
Manure digesters also help farmers.
* This energy source is abundant and “natural” to our region. Unlike some forms of renewable generation, this fuel is a constant, steady source. As long as there are livestock farms, there will be an available supply of manure.
* Clean air and water pollution issues associated with manure disposal are significantly reduced, as is the odor problem.
* Weed seeds and pathogens are killed during the digestion process.
* The heated, de-watered byproduct of the digestion process can be used as natural bedding. The liquid can be used as a fertilizer by the farmer, thus reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers.
* Odor issues, an increasing problem for farmers, are reduced by the manure digesters.
* Potential pollutants from manure in ground and surface water are minimized.
Learn more about Dairyland Power Cooperative and their renewable energy resources at www.dairynet.com.
Thanks! And, as we said before, be sure to see Karolanne in our video of crossing Wisconsin!