Ed Begley, Jr., beloved actor and an environmentalist far ahead of his time, once cycled his way onto TV news, zipping along on a stationary bike to power his home. He recently kicked off an Earth Day teach-in, hosted by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi at Wilson Park in a SoCal community, reminding us all of what lifelong love and sacrifice for our shared planet can do.
We, as a society, don’t often ask each other to sacrifice or exert much effort for the sake of Planet Earth. Yet, studies have shown that people love to suffer for a good cause. Examples abound, including 5K and 10K walks for a cure, and the ALS ice water bucket challenge, which became a global phenomenon raising $115 million for ALS research and patient care. Strange but true, the public’s “willingness to contribute to a charitable or collective cause increases when the contribution process is expected to be painful and effortful rather than easy and enjoyable,” according to a 2013 article in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.
How might we take inspiration from Ed Begley, Jr., to bring pain and effort with intention for the cause of Planet Earth — for community and neighborhood resilience? How might we also Power Cycle Up on a stationary bike for the good of the planet and ourselves?
How about this?:
- Could we Power Cycle Up to give used electric vehicle batteries a second life? At about 80% of their original capacity, these batteries can easily power a home long after they have outlived their usefulness in electric vehicles. No solar during an outage? No problem. Imagine power cycling to keep a fridge running for you and your neighbors’ insulin and baby formula, while charging medical and other critical devices.
- Riding is better when we’re together. How might we Power Cycle Up as a neighborhood, while challenging others to do the same? Could we organize a marathon challenge with teams of “riders” to see how many EV batteries could be charged and how quickly? Could such efforts help to raise funds for community solar or resilience hubs and their partner organizations?
Ed Begley, Jr. would be the perfect race ambassador to officiate, raising the green flag in more ways than one. How might we begin?
