I sat in the public gallery in the legislature today for the second time to observe a meeting of the Special Committee on Climate Change, a committee struck “to explore the options available to reduce GHG emissions and to make fully costed recommendations on how the province can best meet its emission reduction targets.”

The meetings, I have found, are quite interesting: last week’s meeting featured a report from Todd Dupuis and Erin Taylor from Prince Edward Island’s Climate Change Secretariat, and this week’s was a presentation by Dale Beugin, the Executive Director of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission.

In both cases I’ve not only learned a lot about emissions, emissions mitigation, PEI’s climate targets and options, and about carbon pricing, but, perhaps more importantly, I’ve gained insight, through their questions, into the minds of the Members of the Legislative Assembly, about what they know about climate change (and what they don’t know).

From a purely emotional point of view, it is comforting being in a room filled with politicians who, without exception, recognize that GHG reduction is an urgent issue, agree that action is needed, and agree that, despite our small size, we need to act boldly, when, outside in the regular everyday world, one is pummeled by half-truths and propaganda to the contrary.

It is also heartening to witness the much-discussed collaborative spirit of the legislators in the room: the questions they have been asking have been insightful, genuine, and have been successful in drawing information from witnesses that would have not otherwise emerged.

The next meeting date for the committee hasn’t been published yet, but you can watch out for it on the Calendar of Committee Meetings.

This is a great Tiny Desk concert: Taylor Swift, solo and acoustic.

Like the mighty Colorado River, Mount Edward Road in Charlottetown starts out gently and without much fanfare. From its source at St. Peters Road it flows northwest; as it progresses, the road builds up steam and changes character from a modest commercial street to a modest residential street and, finally, once it crosses the bypass, becomes a busy industrial chaos populated by all manner of cement trucks, courier trucks, lumber trucks, and pickup trucks. In these upper regions, as I discovered today, it is kind of the perfect opposite of “bicycle friendly,” sporting only the barest of pockmarked paved shoulders, and driven by drivers from whom bicycles are simply not expected.

I was on Mount Edward Road this afternoon on my way to Pure EV, the city’s nascent used electric vehicle dealership.

It is vehicle registration renewal season for our 2000 Jetta, and I’m doing my due diligence to determine whether our money and effort are better placed in keeping the Jetta on the road or transitioning to an electric vehicle. Being a family of modest means, Mike Kenny’s scheme to import used EVs from Lower Canada and resell them here on PEI is the ideal solution for us, as purchasing new would be beyond our reach.

It seemed wrong to go EV shopping in the Jetta, so I put my bicycle on the bus up to the Charlottetown Mall, rode out the back to the Confederation Trail, on the trail until it emerged on Mount Edward, then along to Sherwood Road and just up past Brown’s VW to Mike’s dealership.

I arrived on a good day, as Mike had two Nissan Leafs, a Kia Soul and a Tesla on the lot. We had a good chat about the challenges and opportunities of EV ownership, and then Mike put me in the drivers seat of the Soul, and then the Leaf, and we went for test drives together.

As I discovered when I drove my friend Trudy’s Chevy Bolt for the first time in May, after about 15 minutes the “E” part of driving an EV recedes into the background, and it’s “just a car.” Achieving this state in the Leaf and the Soul was helpful, as it gave me a chance to compare their fit and finish and their respective user interfaces, as well as their essential driveability. Although my test drives were quick, I’d say the Kia emerged the winner, perhaps because it’s tuned somewhat tighter than the Nissan, so the drive was closer to the tightly-wound Jetta that I’ve been driving for 19 years.

I came to no definitive conclusions as to the way forward, but evidence was added to the pile.

Mike, by the way, welcomes test drives from all and curious; if you are one of those “my next car will be an electric car” people, you will find no better maître d’ at the entrance to this new world than he.

Along the way to Pure EV I stopped at Gallant’s & Co., the weekday outpost of the folks who’ve been selling us our smoked salmon bagels at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market in recent years. I enjoyed an order of fresh spring rolls and a tomato soup, followed by a solid cappuccino (espresso, north of the bypass: who ever thought!).

The hearty lunch fortified me for navigation up and back on the outer stretches of Mount Edward. I managed to emerge unharmed; I was, however, very happy to cross the bypass and get back on the quiet, peaceful  Confederation Trail for the ride back downtown.

It was heartening to be amidst an overflowing, diverse crowd packed into the Haviland Club tonight for the public launch of Bike Friendly Charlottetown:

We are an independent community group that advocates for accessible, safe and friendly cycling in the city of Charlottetown.

Our Vision: for people of all abilities to be able to cycle anywhere in Charlottetown using safe and accessible city-wide cycling infrastructure.

Oliver and I cycled over from 100 Prince Street, our visual cacophony of lights blazing. It was nice to see that others made the effort to cycle too: the Haviland Club’s (non-existent) bicycle parking was full.

My brother Mike recommended this episode of the Without Fail podcast, an interview of Ira Glass by Alex Blumberg. It’s very good, in a Luke-interviews-Obi-Wan kind of way.

A year ago today I started writing a summary of my day, every night at bedtime. With the exception of some missed weeks due travel, I’ve kept at it, and filled one Baron Fig Confidant and half of another.

My entries vary between a few quick lines and several detailed pages, depending on the ups and downs of the day. I’ve been very consistent in my format: I write the date in red (with a Pilot Metropolitan) and I write my notes in black (with a Nemosine Singularity). I keep bottles of red and black ink on my bedside so that I’m never in a situation where I can’t refill my pens if need be.

As it happens, on October 27, 2018 I was one week into an annoying fall cold; I find myself in the same situation today.

This all places me squarely in the tradition of my father, who has been taking notes on his day since before I was born.

We should stop talking about “residential beds” for people with disabilities and instead talk of “homes,” like we do for everyone else.

From today’s Studio D Radar mailing list:

There are typically two visceral reactions when people first hear about the Short Walk expeditions. The first is the assumption that we are venturing into a war zone, when the reality is that this corner of Badakhshan province has been peaceful for thirty+ years. If the Taliban or any other armed group was active in our field of operation the expeditions will be delayed or cancelled and we’d instigate a Plan B.

The second reaction is an assumption around fitness. While one needs to be physically fit, our screening interviews focus on cultural and team dynamics—everyone needs to be aligned to the mission, and be willing to work for the wellbeing of the group, something we refer to as “one body principle” a term coined by our 2018 Medic Sam Kellogg. When interviewing candidates there are four major challenges we discuss in addition to fitness: operating at high altitude for extended periods, long distance trekking, developing country, and higher risk travel. All of our 2019 Short Walk team had experience of at least one of these attributes, but no-one (other than Jan, the expedition leader with experience in all five) had experience in more than three on a single trek. In summary: humans that manage to work well as a team are pretty resilient.

File this in the same folder as the references I quoted in Human Infrastructure, Sex and Cycling last week: embrace your infrastructure as you find it, and focus, instead, on the personal, cultural and social issues layered on top of it.

Having a kombucha bar slash lunch spot slash farm stand a quick cycle away proved helpful when I started supper tonight and realized we had no vegetables.

Farmacy & Fermentary—from they of Heart Beet Organics—is on Great George Street in the space, next to Timothy’s, formerly occupied by the late great Café Soleil. It is a worthy successor.

Elizabeth May’s letter to Prime Minister Trudeau is a well-worded setting of the table for a more collaborative Parliament.