Tonight, if you aren’t already attending the Michael Ableman appearance in Everett, you might check out this totally cool talk instead.
Greg Melville is, according to my latest Grist local newsletter, “fresh off the highway and now on a book tour” for his new release “Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, One Fry-Oil-Powered Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future.”
If fuel, not food, is your eco-thing of the moment, get thee to the U District Bookstore, 4326 University Way N.E., Seattle by 7 p.m. Oct. 24.
Here’s a book synopsis from Amazon:
Is it possible to drive coast-to-coast without stopping at a single gas pump? Journalist Greg Melville is determined to try. With his college buddy Iggy riding shotgun, this green-thinking guy—who’s in love with the idea of free fuel—sets out on an enlightening road trip. The quest: to be the first people to drive cross-country in a french-fry car. Will they make it from Vermont to California in a beat-up 1985 Mercedes diesel station wagon powered on vegetable oil collected from restaurant grease Dumpsters along the way? More important, can two guys survive 192 consecutive hours together?
Their expedition on and off the road includes visits to the solar-powered Google headquarters; the National Ethanol Council; the wind turbines of southwestern Minnesota; the National Renewable Energy Lab; a visit to one of the first houses to receive platinum certification for leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); an “eco-friendly” Wal-Mart; and the world’s largest geothermal heating system.
Part adventure and part investigation of what we’re doing (or not doing) to preserve the planet, Greasy Rider is upbeat, funny, and full of surprising information about sustainable measures that are within our reach.
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