Gas Should be $20 per Gallon

I was driving to Bend, OR (one of my favorite places on earth) listening to the Planet Money podcast entitled "The One-Page Plan to Fix Global Warming" and was reminded of an email I wrote Annie a few months ago ranting about how I think gas should be $20/gal. The podcast briefly sums up what is an elegant 2 word answer to global warming: carbon tax. It basically would slowly increase the price of gas over time, so as to not shock the economy which heavily depends on oil, but to give the country incentive to move in other directions than oil consumption. Economists, after all, tend to believe incentive is the root of all action, I tend to agree.

In addition to reducing the effects of carbon emission on our planet, which is most likely the gravest problem we face right now as a community of people living on earth, I think it would have a great number of added solutions to problems that we face as a country.

1. Health Care (Exercise)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states on their website that over a third of adults and 17% of children in the United States are obese. They also note the cost of that epidemic:

In 2008, overall medical care costs related to obesity for U.S. adults were estimated to be as high as $147 billion.

 $147 Billion. In the 2012 fiscal year the United States Government Federal Education Budget was $121 Billion. That is $26 Billion more than our government spends on schools. Granted, that does not include individual state spending, but this is just for perspective. I should not have to cite any specific research, as there are thousands upon thousands of studies all linking exercise to a reduction in chronic diseases resulting from obesity. And lets not forget to mention that a large portion of the population that are diagnosed with high blood pressure, heart disease, or chronic stress which are synonymous with obesity, are not considered obese and are therefore not included in the $147B figure.

Another study, "Waging War on Modern Chronic Diseases: Primary Prevention Through Exercise Biology" Estimates that the total cost of epidemic chronic diseases in this country is nearing $1 Trillion and attributes 250,000 premature deaths a year to conditions related to insufficient exercise. Our country's gravest health problem is that of chronic disease, which is preventable. How might we circumvent this preventable epidemic? Well, if your car cost you $250 to $400 a week to drive to and from work, you might just consider, well I don't know, a bike?

I agree, you live far away, it might take you an hour to bike to work. Here is a simple solution to that. MOVE! You think that is a big deal? I just talked to a guy the other day who went in for a check up and left with a quadruple bypass. Are you telling me that the fact that you don't think you can, or just don't want to, relocate, is the reason you sit in traffic not exercising every day? That is a terrible reason, and its a choice you do not have to face thanks to the modern marvel of the car. In order to make positive change, you have to make changes. Moving is not hard, and if it is, you have too much stuff. Move near to where you work, increase your productivity by commuting and exercising, and take another car off the road which will also emit less carbon. Save money. Save the environment. Save your life.

2. Industrial Food

You've read Omnivore's Dilemma. You've seen Food, Inc. You've heard about how industrial agriculture works. If you have not, I suggest you start with either of those publications that can do a much better job than I can explaining how we feed our population in this country. This is my best attempt to paraphrase what I think is the most important part of this issue:

Natural Food Cycle

Industrial Food Cycle

Get quickly acquainted with the industrial food industry here, then check out the farm featured in Food Inc. and Omnivore's Dilemma here. Fascinating differences between two groups of people doing essentially the same thing (feeding people) while also doing so much more. For the sake of my article, however, its the gas that is important. Raise the price of things you do not want. The simple fact is that its cheaper to buy something processed than fresh, and that is due to subsidies and cheap gas. If veggies at my farmers market were cheaper than oreos, we might have some significant changes in diet in America, which relates to the first topic of this article: Health. My bottom line: a McDouble should not cost less than kale, but it does. (The relationship between food and health in America is greatly explained in the documentary Food Matters, check it out!)

Since I'm not an expert at all, but I feel like I am trying to sound like one, I should include a rap lyric from Lupe Fiasco here to break the serious tension that I feel I have so far conveyed:

How many fries can these arteries take?
I'll give McDonald's a little help here
I think they should expand into healthcare
And then you'll have all ends covered
Even make caskets, have it all umbrella'd

Speaking of covering all ends....

3. Government Policy

In 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org (the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy), the Energy and Natural Resources sector and Transportation sector combined to spend more on lobbying ($622 million) than any other sector in the United States (even more than the health care sector, which spent $487 million). That makes those two sectors combined the most powerful force in influencing government policy of the most powerful government in the world. For me its safe to say that from time to time you get what you pay for in US Politics, and with the Oil and Gas industry dominating the Energy and Natural Resources sector with $140 million in 2012, they are having a great influence on our government policy making. The interest of these sectors is inversely related to the interest of the environment and the health of the people who live in it. They ignore scientific proof that our earth is changing (According to Greenpeace, in 2000 Koch Industries contributed $61 million to “climate-denial front groups.”), and profit from every second we sit in traffic.

Think back to when people actually smoked cigarettes in earnest. I want to think of oil companies as modern day 1970's tobacco companies, which were reduced to a helpless pulp by people making changes in the way they live their lives. Its just better for everyone.

Ahhh yes, everyone, my segue train keeps on a rollin'...

4. Community

What do cars have that bikes do not? While there are many right answers, the one I am looking for here is giant steel boxes with sound proof windows surrounding the driver. Another answer that I would accept: "empty seats."

If gas is $20 a gallon, maybe, just maybe, people may begin to go out of their way to team up and buy gas together. The easiest way to do that is let a bus driver do it for you, or a person who gives you and 2 other people a ride to work, or even to just not buy gas at all. Cars help us ignore what is happening around us. The exhaust pipe is situated as far away from you as possible which helps us ignore our impact on the environment. The radio is there to help us ignore that we are alone. The power they possess help us ignore how far away things are. Their design make us feel less responsible for our actions on the road, like cutting someone off or buzzing a cyclist. We are separated from our actions in a car, which is bad for us as a community. As a pedestrian you would never cut someone off to show rage, or stop in front of them, or run by them so close that you nearly knock them over, because you are accountable for your actions. Even when you pass gas you are IMMEDIATELY aware of your impact. I truly believe you are more courteous and considerate when you are held accountable for it, and you owe that to the people around you. 

I also feel, in my own utopia, the idea of streets filled with bikes and people would be an amazing thing for a community. Increasing the interactions between people within a community would no doubt increase its tight-knitted-ness. 

5. All those opposed?

What about people who cant get around without a car?

I believe THIS is what subsidies are for. Since we are talking a tax, which would be a great source of revenue, it would be very easy to subsidize legitimate need for gas. I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if a person were to claim that due to their obesity they would need a subsidy. I agree you are free to do what you want, so that is a tough one. 

You seem to think people can just up and move their entire lives.

Yep. I do. People are amazing.

What about vacations? You love those!

I do! Man, I really do, and this would destroy me as a person who puts nearly 30,000 miles a year on his car driving around the country. Maybe airlines are not subjected to this tax. After about 5 seconds of the country knowing about this, companies will be building rails and buying buses to make good money running long distance transportation companies. I am saying that it needs to be a serious decision to drive a car, a decision that takes into account your impact on the people around you, and I believe that you should be accountable for that, and if you want to spend $1000 driving half way across the country instead of taking a $300 plane, that is your choice. A big part of this is accountability for actions, and $20/gal might just be the cost of my actions in a car.

It would take me about an hour to bike to work, I dont have that kind of time.

This is the crux! This is how we can be sure our priorities are a mess. Lets start out by noting the average commute time for a worker older than 16 not working at home: 25.2 minutes. (Check out the study, as well as a map of commute times by state here) Its 25 minutes to get to work. In 25 minutes, at 15mph average (you can do it, I know you can!) that's 6.25 miles! Imagine all the houses you could find within a 6.25 mile radius of where you work!

Here is why it is the crux of the problem: who does not have the time to stay healthy and improve the outlook of the global environment? What are our priorities in this country that we cant spare an additional 30 minutes to an hour commuting to work, when we would not even have to go to the gym once we got home. We are so focused on being here and there and getting this and that and making this other trip, but when you just stop and think about it, why are we so caught up in all this crazy running around? Sitting in our cars for an average of 50.4 minutes a day getting to and from work? Say it takes you 2 hours to bike to and from work every day, is the additional 35 minutes in the morning and 35 minutes in the evening so hard to swing when you consider the benifits? I almost hate to ask, but why are you not doing that already?

I have to pick the kids up from soccer, or school, or Bobby's house, etc.

This is a lifestyle change that I propose. Hopefully school is close, just like work is close, and car pooling is an option. Burley makes a great thing:

So Happy!

The bus is still a great option for kids, and moving close to your school is a very good idea. We have to make changes to prevent the things I listed above, and they are big changes, but they are good changes. All we would be doing is creating people who understand that cars are not the main form of transportation, and that is a good thing. We cant keep letting the car excuse us from making real changes in our lives. When we drive somewhere, we make an impact!

6. Closing

We have the most unhealthy population of all time in America. Fully preventable diseases are the primary health threat in this country. Our food system is subsidized and Doritos are cheaper than spinach. Industrial food and cars both allow us to ignore the consequences of our actions (eating and moving). It takes energy to move places, and it takes food to get energy, and the addition of gas to that equation has toxic waste products that harm us and our planet. Gas should be incredibly expensive if you consider its consequences. I truly believe that increasing the price of gas to what it should be worth would have positive effects that far outweigh the negative in this country. We would be healthy, our planet would be healthy, our community would be stronger, and our government would be stronger. $20/gallon gas for everyone!!!!

Add your comments below and let the conversation begin!

That time we went to Spain, Part 1

I'm flipping through pictures from about 25 years (is that enough exaggeration? Go with eons? Ok, eons it is) ahem, 25 eons ago to try and remember the insanity that was going to Spain the day after Redlands for a 3 day stage race called Castilla y Leon (or at least I think thats the name of it, I had no idea what was happening). One thing is for sure, I had no idea what was happening..

Lets start with the first team ride of the trip, for which I slept 1 hour on the plane and woke up at 8:30... in the morning.... again. So, 1 hours of sleep = 2.5 hours of riding and feeling like I would be lost forever at any moment thanks to this kind of thing:

Nope, no idea.

Causing this kind of confusion:

Someone learned how to edit photos!! 

Ending up in us just taking pictures of each other because all the scenery was in Spanish.

Ok, so for the rest of the time, just assume that I have no idea where I am, what anyone is saying, or what time it is. This way I can get going on the rest of the story.

One thing that I found myself doing was looking around and trying to figure out if things were supposed to be important or notable in any way. In America we typically have signs on things that tell you that they are important, and there is a hot dog stand nearby with a guy selling those foam fingers with whatever the special thing is printed on them. I think this shows my traveling naivety, because you are riding along and...

So does this castle sell snickers bars or what?

Speaking of traveling naivety, no matter how slow you speak, or how flamboyant the hand gesture, if a person does not understand English then you are GETTING NOWHERE. Its like this shower stall from our first hotel: 

So this glass door just... ends? Why does it even open?

It doesn't matter how hard you think about it, you will never understand.

One thing that I do understand is food. If someone holds a platter of food to me I just shake my head up and down and they put that food in front of me in scoops until I shake my head left and right. Thankfully Paco gave us a Spanish lesson on the first ride stating "For lunch, pollo y pasta, for dinner, pasta y pollo." This I can handle. It was at the very end of the trip that I received something that I wholly could not have expected:

Jamon! or, Leg of Jamon!

But that was at the end of the trip, details of which will be in part 2, or 3 at the rate this is going.

So with my sleep schedule out of whack, my language not working, and everyone drinking cafe con leche like it is THE ONLY DELICIOUS WAY TO ENJOY COFFEE (incorrect), I would have to say I was having a difficult time integrating into the culture. One positive from this was my unbelievable desire to go to sleep at every second, and I could not tell you what the ceiling of any hotel in Spain looks like because I normally fell asleep on my way to the pillow. That's too bad, because you figure that in other countries they probably have those magic ceilings like in Harry Potter or no ceiling at all. 

Have you ever put red sauce on your rice in the morning? Because I have. Moving on.

So we all got to Spain. We (I) fumbled around a lot. We rode bikes. While riding bikes I noticed something particularly Un-American (because drawing comparisons is the only way I can deal with, well, anything) about Spain, and it was this grassy field:

Its not to say that we don't have some grass, I mean, some people spend more time pampering their lawns than cooking themselves dinner. But what we don't have is unused space. At the very least in America we would have cattle eating that grass so that we could eventually eat them. Optimize! Improve! Better Better BETTER! Efficiency!!!! MAKE THE MONIES! Its particularly American to attempt to take everything up a notch, to capitalize on an opportunity, or somehow take whatever it is and make it better. I noticed that this is particularly not the case in Spain. There is some relaxation taking place. You cant find food before 8:30pm and if you go then, the cook will be angry that he has to start things early. In America there would be a restaurant that was called "you can eat here at 5pm!" There is this grassy field here that just seems to be doing that, being grassy. There is no sign that reads "here lies a grassy field, protected under the grassy field act of 1974." And depending upon which section of the grassy field act this particular grassy field falls, it is either for looking, playing, or AVERT YOUR EYES ITS SECRET. I just thought that was interesting.

That pretty much sums up my time in Spain before the race. As for the race, that will be another blog, but if you want a hint as to how it went:

Computer Homicide, Beauce, and getting our butts kicked.

So I get this great idea to write a blog, and I do, 2 posts in one day even! It may have been my Canada sized boredom, one rainy day too many, or just genuine desire to write that brought me there, but there I was, writing! The next morning Paco ran my computer over with a car, stranding me in Canada with no way to connect to the world and french TV (I did not capitalize french on purpose, because we were in Canada).

Is it a sign? I don't do signs. So no, it was not a sign, it was just a major bummer. BUT, HARK, TECHNOLOGY REIGNS SUPREME ONCE AGAIN IN MY interesting LITTLE LIFE!!

Well, its about time for a picture, and a segue, lets get two birds here:

I had some real interesting conversations with Annie about the existence of podium girls, and I would like to draw your attention to my awkward right hand. Do you know what I do every day? Certainly not get on podiums and practice getting awkwardly kissed for longer than necessary so the photographers get their shot. Case and point, on the first day that I was in the KOM jersey I punched this girl in the face:

So hilarious!!

....annnd awkward left hand this time:

What do I do with my hands?

So you now know two things about me, I don't do signs and I don't do podiums. Moving on to the actual race.

Computer-less, TV-less, and general entertainment-less-ness led me to sneak into the first break of the Tour of Beauce, win the KOM points, and get in the jersey. Its no mystery that this year I have been somewhat abused by Bissell for the KOM competitions, which is fine, and I even told Carter Jones the day before the race that I was done with the damn things. I swear, sometimes I think the only things that ever DO happen are the things I explicitly say WILL NOT happen.

- I will never eat mustard (its all i eat now)

- I will never wear spandex

- I will never shave my legs

- I will never go for another KOM point again

- I will not go get more cake.

So, with the help of my team, I go for the KOM points on the side of doing my job, which is kind of a double duty, but I don't have a computer anymore so what else am i going to do? Everything was going great, I was scoring in every KOM sprint, but like clockwork Pat McCarty of Bissell gets in a break, gets a bunch of points, and I've got yet another Bissell vs. Jim on my hands. I swear man, even when I train on climbs right before I get to the top Chris Baldwin comes from nowhere and pips me at the line. He doesn't even live in Wyoming!  So I decided to live it up while it lasted, and my favorite picture of the year happened:

The local "yout" takes a minute from blowing their whistles to have us write our name on paper.

This day I believe Paco went ahead and got himself in Yellow, after what was I think the most agressive stage of the year, by winning on Mount Megantic. If you didn't know, yellow is more important than dots, so we now fully race for Paco after he holds off the field in the TT. 2 Stages to go! The first one went great, the team rode amazingly, and everyone was smiling afterwards.

The team, riding GREAT

The last stage went, hmm, as I said to the entire Bontrager team including overall race winner Nathan Brown (who is a great guy, but im a great guy too, and I didn't get to win Beauce, so he must be doing something else) "Well, we left it all out there, all the jerseys, all our riders, everything, its all still out there."

Pat McCarty did a great job to get in an early break that we decided to let go and sacrifice the dots in strategic interest of winning the whole race. Which we didn't do. It was a tough day, nobody was smiling, and so began my mid-season break. Its a sour taste that I think we all have in our mouths while we get back to training this week. I've been walking around with a toothbrush for when it gets especially bad. The other teams did a great job of taking our team down to 3 guys to defend Paco from a powerful field on a difficult circuit, and we came up short despite all of our best efforts.

That was Beauce. Yuck.

Im back in Jackson now, and I hope to get to a few good stories from my 3 months racing on the road. For now I leave you with this, which I like to call my answer to why I like living in Jackson:

As I said in the previous post, we've been on the road for a while. We dont get many opportunities to do what we love, which is hang out with people we love or go for training rides, so sometimes you have to pretend that you are having fun being a lobster:

Clearly a fake picture, everyone knows Nate is stronger than me.

Who knew a restaurant with a picture of two dancing lobsters with their faces cut out would manage to charge $20 for a dinner salad. After that, I went to the store, bought, and ate a box of cereal out of a cup. Speaking of eating cereal out of a cup, being on the road inevitably requires you to get creative whilst feeding yourself. Here is my kitchen:

Pretty sure the translation on the box of cereal is "Jim Stemper's Dinner"

We've got plastic silverware, cereal, fruit, a bag of carrots which i will eat continuously until gone and turn orange, a lone can of V8, hotel room coffee which tastes like you'd think it would, and almond milk.  Any combination of these things can fit in a cup, and be eaten on a bed. Hand towels make great place mats to avoid ruining your bed for the night.

At the beginning of the season you have all this energy to apply to other things. Here is how I kept my things at team camp in February:

Ahhhhh yes, organization.

Here they are now:

See what I did there?

Today is the day before the day before the Tour de Beauce. Its raining. Bobby and I are sharing a hotel room, but since hes married i guess we cant share the only bed, sigh. 

My office, kitchen table, couch, bed, closet, foyer, living room, and theater.

I figured that, with the rain and all, I'd take advantage of my versatile hotel room and get my easy ride out of the way:

WHEW! Good one! Aside from all that cooking and riding, Bobby and I have a big day planned. He is eventually going to eat an orange that he took from breakfast this morning, but he's going to wait a while because he just had a banana.

BIG DAY PLANNED TODAY!!!

Truly living the dream.

Being a person who loves to be outside, these days are tough, but you have to think about the 6 day stage race on the horizon and how half way through you could be tired because you got greedy and went for a long ride. Tonight the goal is to not spend $20 on a salad. I might spend $20 on a tiny block of cheese instead and make my teammates feel bad when they eat more than me.

Stemper Nation Unite!

You would not believe how many pictures of roads I have. Look! A road!!

Another road!!

You can hardly tell that those two roads speak completely different languages. Its so hard for me to tell, but I've found that as I travel around, people seem to be able to pick me from a crowd as a non speaker to their native tongue. Since I'm usually trying to buy something, the person working at the checkout counter views me more as a bummer than a customer. If only we could all be a little more like roads.

I've been on the road for.... a while now, and currently sit in a Comfort Inn in Quebec, where its raining, so naturally its time to revisit the blog-o-sphere. I realize that I have a lot of people close to me (ahem, mother) that do their best to find out what I'm up too, and I do a pretty terrible job of making time to say hello, I'm alive, and I didn't win, again.  I have no excuse for that besides I am always tired, never in the same place for long, and kill my phone battery in record time.

For you folks of the self proclaimed Stemper Nation, I give you this blog! Which is likely to include:
- Pictures of roads!
- Complaining about air mattresses and pets that shed!
- Stories of Bobby Sweeting laughing at literally everything I say!!!
- LISTS
- Jibberish
- Hotel cooking, which is like home cooking, but nothing like home cooking
- Rants about things related to Fox News reports
- Essays related to whatever daily life passion I temporarily adopt
- My life, the way I see it.

You have no idea how much I appreciate you all, and I hope I can give a small fraction of the love I get back.