Green Notes

The blue heart of a glacier

About 10 years ago, on a summer vacation in Chamonix, at the base of Mont Blanc, I did the tourist thing and took the little mountain train to Montenvers and from there descended into the heart of the Mer de Glace, the Sea of Ice glacier.

Every summer, a grotto featuring an enormous bedroom, dining room and more, is carved out of the ice where the temperature remains just below freezing. Although it was certainly an interesting side trip,  what has really stayed with me is the color of the ice: the purest, most luscious turquoise you could imagine. Its intensity was so mesmerizing it's as if I wanted it to absorb me. As the climate warms, adventures like this may be hard to experience.

Sometimes, on nature programs that feature calving icebergs, you get a glimpse of it.

Yes, this all very far from Florida's environment (at least until the sea level rises) but I came across some gorgeous photos of rare, striped icebergs in Antartica on The Daily Telegraph's website. Check them out and you'll get an idea of what I saw in the heart of a sea of ice.

Fuel efficiency is improving, says EPA

The EPA says that for the fourth consecutive year it's reporting an increase in fuel efficiency for cars and light duty trucks. When manufacturers turn in their final reports, it's expected to show an average of 20.8 mpg, an increase of 0.2 mpg from last year.

I'm not impressed.

My first car was a 1968 Morris Minor Traveller, (It was already a collector's item when I bought it around 1980). It was built like a tank and it got about 40 mpg (Imperial gallons, which are slightly larger) on the highway. It was the kind of car that even I could work on (in desperation), which means it was as basic as could be.

Mine was the same color as this one, too.

Of course, it didn't have the maneuverability of a modern vehicle. The radiator had to topped up frequently, and if you needed air conditioning you wound down the windows. It had a good heater though.

It would never pass current safety regulations. For a start, the wooden frame (made of ash) was structural. Still, it was a great car for transporting kids, dogs, and even goats.

Cars vs. bicycles - again

I'm shocked by the vitriolic comments posted by Herald readers about cyclists. The horrible accident this morning on the MacArthur Causeway was caused by a cab driver who, for whatever reason, plowed in a group of cyclists, critically injuring one of them.

It seems that Miami motorists think the road only belongs to them and that if cyclists can't be banned, they should at least stay on the sidewalk.

However, the law is on the side of the cyclist, as Action Line wrote in a Q&A on Tuesday:

Q. If there's a sidewalk, does a cyclist have to use it? Recently, an angry driver told me to get off the road and on to the sidewalk. Was he wrong?

-- Gus Pereira, Miami

A. He was. ''Florida law gives bicyclists the right to use any public road (except the expressways) regardless of whether or not there is a sidewalk,'' said David Henderson, Miami-Dade County bike and pedestrian coordinator in an e-mail. ``In fact, it is almost always safer to ride on the road than on a sidewalk.''

That's because drivers turning a corner aren't looking for cyclists. ''Sidewalks expose you to traffic at the most hazardous time, when drivers are making difficult turning maneuvers,'' he said.

The Florida Bicycle Association publishes a booklet of Florida bicycle and pedestrian traffic laws and lots of other safety information at floridabicycle.org.

How 'hypermilers' save gas

The Sierra Club's Green Life blog offers these "hypermiler" tips to save on gas:

Travel light. An extra 100 pounds of cargo can reduce your mpg by up to 2 percent. Remove that surf rack when the waves are flat, and take the rock collection out of your trunk.

Face out. Back into parking spaces. Cold engines use more fuel, so three-point maneuvering is more efficient at the end of a trip.

Use cruise control. Pressing the accel button lets you speed up in smaller increments (and burn less gas) than even a feather-weight foot on the pedal.

Brake (very) gently. Skilled hypermilers coast to a crawl with hardly a touch on the brakes to avoid wasting an ounce of fuel at traffic lights.

Here's my own tip: If you've parked your car in the sunshine, before getting in open all the doors to let out the heat. (Particularly effective if you have a hatchback; you can feel a blast of hot air come out.) It means less work for the a/c, reduces wear and tear, and of course uses less energy.