Greetings from Alison Wiley here in Portland, Oregon. I'm a writer/doer/thinker who lives happily by putting people, nature and God ahead of accumulating more stuff. Read more →
Bright, sunny skies today in Montreal, Canada, where I’m enjoying a car-free* vacation with my husband Thor. We chose Montreal partly because it has the luxury of a good transit system. In rural areas and small towns, which I also love to visit, cars
The bad news is that gas is back to $4/gallon. But the good news is that we have choices: we can spend less on gas by changing the way we drive. This is an updated version of my much-visited 2008 post. Happily, we reduce our carbon emissions when we drive less, inch closer to energy [...]
Yesterday afternoon I alit at the Amtrak station here in Portland, heavily laden with my laptop, book-bag and purse. It would be quite a trudge to where I needed to go. What should conveniently appear at the curb but a pedicab, pedaled by a lovely young woman named Margaret? Margaret, who leases her pedicab from [...]
Tags: bicycling·carbon footprint·cars·Cascadia Pedicab·fun·green living·happiness·Oregon·outdoors·pedicab·technology
1.) Ads. Don’t want ‘em. I’m jonesing for readership, not dollars. 2.) Hatchet jobs on anyone or anything. I’m here to be constructive, not tear things down. I’ve angered some people with some measured criticism, but at the same time I’ve suggested a positive path they might consider taking. I’ve even rewarded someone who took [...]
Tags: ads·cars·consumption·fun·green living·happiness·life·rich and famous·technology·thrift·water
Watching General Motors going through its tortured downsizing, bankruptcy and reinvention of itself makes me think of how bloated our relationship to cars here in the U.S. has been for decades. (And I wish with all my heart that every laid-off employee will find a new job soon.) What all of us need and have [...]
Tags: carpooling·cars·General Motors·green living·happiness·Oregon·thrift·vanpooling
My pursuit of the Diamond-Cut Life (a life rich in joy and low in consumption) still leaves me plenty vulnerable to the excesses of U.S. culture. I love finding little inroads to simplicity and happiness like the ones I’ve listed here. I’ll publish the second half later this week. Gracefully end memberships that are no [...]
Tags: bicycling·cars·email·exercise·green living·happiness·life·plants·possessions·storage·thrift·vegetables
I notice that my most popular posts are generally the ones that help people save money. I suggest that the thing that would save all of us the most money possible is the building of community. There is much research showing that the happiest people are the ones with the most friends, family and friendly neighbors woven into [...]
Tags: Bill McKibben·cars·consumption·Deep Economy·happiness·life·relationships·Southern California
Coming up on my one-year anniversary in my carpool, I recently wrote a post about how it is saving me $6,800/year according to this cost calculator. (I have a 100 mile round trip, and five carpool partners). I’m also saving a lot of carbon emissions, and arriving at work and back at home sweeter and [...]
Tags: carpool·carpooling·cars·commuting·thrift
I have another thought or two on the proposed bailout of the American auto industry. Then later this week I’ll be reporting on desalination, the increasingly popular, carbon-intensive transformation of ocean water into drinking water. While acknowledging that job loss in the auto industry (or anywhere) is extremely painful, let’s take a step back and [...]
Tags: automakers·cars·Drive Less Save More·exercise·green living·Grist·Oregon·Zipcar
My carpool has naturally been discussing whether the government should bail out the Detroit automakers. The bailout question reminds me of the short story “The Lady Or The Tiger” in which a woman decides which door to send her lover to, i.e. death or a new life with a new lady. Carpool opinions may be [...]
Tags: automakers·carpooling·cars·climate change·Detroit·economics·energy conservation·General Motors·global warming·GM·hybrids
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