Occupy Wall Street Turns to Pedal Power

One of the most notable disconnects of the green movement is the continued reliance on fossil fuels and gas even as we protest the United States (and world's) reliance on fossil fuels and gas.

We heat our home with natural gas and protest fracking; drive cars everywhere while purporting to be against drilling for oil; and buy food from less-than-green companies in order to save a buck, even while decrying corporate agriculture and factory farming.

So it's a great relief to see some of the folks participating in Occupy Wall Street changing the rules.

For the first leg of these protests, gas-powered generators were indispensable: for lights, for charging up computers and cell phones, for providing heat. But last week, New York City confiscated many of the generators being used (Mayor Bloomberg cited a safety issue). Those generators won't be allowed back into the park, so environmental action group Time's Up! came up with a new solution: bicycle-powered generators.

The video above will do much by way of explanation; but basically the group needs 11 bikes in total to power the whole park. Any money raised for the bikes that goes beyond what they need will be used to build more energy bikes, which will be sent to other occupations. Awesome. 

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