AlternativesMagazine

By Olivia Vito Police officer pepper spraying students during occupy event. What's almost as alarming is the number of people standing  around taking photo's.   It’s all too easy not to take action these days considering the sheer abundance of injustice that floods our heads via memes and catchy headlines. They inform us of how many minors were shot dead by the police last night and what native communities are currently being ransacked by obscure government policies. We scroll on, heading after heading, viewing our news through pictures and attention deficit inducing mediums, devouring violent captions as though we’re actually going to do something about them – and maybe we had intended to – but the catch 22 is that the more headlines we see, the more we keep scrolling and the less motivation we feel to actually do anything about it. Unless the offense is occurring in our own homes, most of us don’t feel we have the power to stand up against such omnipotent forces. We

  http://alternatives-magazine.com/bikesaturdays.html

A community incentive promotion to help bring attention to the need  to improve bicycling infrastructure and your middle line. Form your own BIKE SATURDAYS team - where you work, family, school, organizations, church etc. Imagine a system of trails, quiet neighborhood streets, bike lanes and cycle tracks that connect your home with your work, school, shopping, entertainment and other destinations. You could enjoy the freedom of safely and conveniently getting where you re going without being forced to drive a car. Walking and bicycling already account for 12 percent of trips taken in America. But these modes could continue to grow substantially with greater dedicated investment in active transportation networks and focused program administration. Many cities across the county are realizing this and are investing millions to improve biking infrastructure and other safety measures. Studies have also shown that bicycling as a safe mode of transportation brings with it a certain

 Another benefit and service bikes provide Bike messengers swarm the streets of New York on a daily basis, and now Amazon's packages may be stowed in their saddlebags. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is staffing up to test a new delivery service for its products there by bicycle that promises to get orders delivered to buyers within the hour. The Journal says it could be called Amazon Prime Now, and be available in Manhattan to start. Presumably it will also cost more than the company's same-day delivery service, which runs $5.99 per order for Prime members and $8.99 for everyone else. "It might be called "Amazon Prime Now" Amazon's been on a quest to trim delivery times for orders, including the possibility of using aerial drones to make short haul trips with small packages. However that effort remains years out, and requires advances in both the technology and regulatory approvals. The company has also attempted to add incentives to peopl

Paris is already the host to the largest bikeshare system outside of China — currently circulates about 18,000 bikes around the city. From the GRIST -- by Liz Gore Paris is surging toward the front of the peloton of European cities racing for more bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets. Mayor Anne Hidalgo recently announced an ambitious plan to transform the historic city center into a “semi-pedestrianized” zone, where walking and biking will be encouraged, and automobile access will be limited to emergency vehicles, residents’ cars, and delivery trucks. Now, when you finally get around to taking that dream vacation to the City of Love, you can travel via bicyclette — or go retro and rock a penny-farthing — down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées with fewer cars and less lung-choking smog. If Hidalgo gets her way, the ban will start on weekends, and eventually be all week. Hidalgo wants to double the number of bike lanes in the city by 2020 as part of a $147 million cycling develo

It’s called the Inner Harbor Water Wheel, and though it moves slow, it has the capability to collect 50,000 pounds of trash per day.   The timing for John Kellett’s solar-powered creation is crucial—hands and crab nets simply can’t keep up with the growing amount of wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles and other debris carried from storm drains into the harbor. Water Wheel: Harnessing the power of nature to help keep the Baltimore Harbor clean The Inner Harbor Water Wheel uses a combination of old and new technology to harness the power of water and sunlight to pick up litter and debris flowing down the Jones Falls River. The current of the river provides power to turn the water wheel, which lifts trash and debris from the water and deposits it in a dumpster barge.  A solar panel array provides additional power to keep the machine running even when there is not enough water current.  When the dumpster is full, it is towed away by boat and a new dumpster is put in place. READ

The beautiful Athabasca river runs through the Alberta tar pit (in the background) and is at risk of becoming a dead river. THIS WAS POSTED BACK IN 2014, BUT IT'S STILL RELEVANT TODAY One of the most important facts that is missing in the national debate surrounding the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is this – Keystone XL will not bring any more oil into the United States.   The idea that Keystone XL will improve U.S. oil supply is a documented scam being played on the American people by Big Oil, its friends in Washington DC., and especially the Koch Brothers, who will benefit the most by it's approval, own oil leases to 1.5 million acres of the Canadian tar sands.  Keystone pipeline: Obama bashes project while in Myanmar Speaking at a press conference while in Myanmar, Obama offered perhaps his harshest assessment to date of the controversial pipeline. “Understand what this project is: It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it th