When Mike Halligan isn’t skating across frozen bridges, he’s reclaiming thrown away objects for recycling. Just last week, the Warehouse Manager at Morgan Imports rescued a Schwinn Suburban from a downtown dumpster after spotting it from a Lull forklift. He’s also an avid paddler, guiding canoe and kayak trips with Frog Hollow Outdoors. Distressed by the amount of trash in local waterways, he started collecting some of it in his down time. And from some of the photos he has shared with me, I’m speechless at the amount of debris he’s hauled out of our rivers and streams. Among the […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Taking on toxins is worth it
Some winter mornings, while riding in Cornwallis Road’s new bike lanes, I can smell Counter Culture Coffee roasting those fairly traded coffee beans two or more miles to the south. The same still air that pools summertime ozone over the region’s largest employment hub wafts the unique smell of coffee beans expanding in heat, releasing their caffeinated oils. Whenever I ride through one of those invisible, aromatic clouds, I breathe deeply. Problem is, I can also smell the exhaust from the surrounding cars at every intersection. No doubt, on-road cyclists are more vulnerable to their environments than drivers. It’s not […]
Column: Bike Against Bad Air to back tougher clean air rule
Phillip Barron The Herald Sun September 8th, 2005 DURHAM — As if North Carolina didn’t already have a hard enough time combating air pollution, a new federal ruling may allow neighboring, upwind states to off-load soot and other particulate pollutants on the Tar Heel State. In July, Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit in federal court and a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider portions of the agency’s Clean Air Interstate Rule. “While we generally support EPA’s new standards to clean our air,” Cooper explained, “we fear that loopholes in this Rule will give power plants in […]