If you were a car, what kind of car would you be? Or more importantly what kind of gas mileage would you get?

It’s not an existential question, more of a math problem, one that blogger David Archer asked himself when he, “noticed a Prius license plate that read: 54 mpg.”

None-the-less impressed with the Prius’ efficiency the whole encounter moved him to wonder about human efficiency which eventually morphed into the subsequent question: “How many miles per gallon of gas does a human get?”

To figure this out Archer used the concept of energy—from gas and from calories—using megajoules for gas and kilocalories for food to calculate human mph. I won’t try to re-create his math here but after a few calculations he concluded:  

“A 155lb human walking at three mph will burn 246 kcal/hour, or 82 kcal/mile. Feed that human one gallon of gas … and he'll have enough energy to walk for 128 hours. At three mph, he'll cover 384 miles. In other words, he'll get 384 mpg at that weight and speed.”

Archer goes on to point out that is seven times more efficient than the Prius, and 24 times more efficient than a Hummer H2.

Check out Archer’s blog if you want to find out how many miles a Prius gets on the equivalent energy from a Big Mac or the efficiency of bike versus car.

The surface temperature of Lake Erie has hit a temperate 70 degrees recently—swim-able for some but will you take the plunge?

Well, if you do decide to swim in our fair lake this summer you can visit a number of sites (or call) that offer up-to-the-hour information about water conditions.

Between Memorial and Labor Day, Ohio beaches are monitored and tested in some cases daily for water conditions, temperature and quality, and made available to the public.

And the news has been relatively good as of late. Of the 52 Lake Erie beaches were water quality was monitored in 2006, 42 beaches (81 percent) had at least one swimming advisory but very few instances lasting more than three days. All in all beach advisories constituting only 12 percent of the swimming season last year.

Mathematical modeling of water quality is now being used to develop a predictive system for beach advisories at five Lake Erie beaches. This year, as it was last year, the nowcast system is up and running for Huntington Reservation—look for similar programs in 2008 and for Edgewater and Villa Angela.

We all know that exercise is good for you, and running, for those who can do it, is one of the best ways to get healthy. Although there are many of us who enjoy a quiet, solitary run, there’s nothing quite like crossing the finish line at organized racing event.

For those who have never participated in one of these sporting events, this year is the time to change that. Over the course of the summer Northeast Ohio hosts a variety of runs, walks and rides from 1 to 100 miles and most all of them raise money for worthy causes.

You get a reason to train, a t-shirt, a chance to run new routes and the sense of excitement and passion that running with hundreds and even thousands of other participants gives. Local development, and other health and human service organizations benefit from your entrance fee—so in reality everyone wins.

Click here to check out some of the area’s upcoming events and the local organizations each race benefits.

It’s springtime in Ohio and outside everything is turning green. Why not take advantage of all that green by bringing some inside by visiting one of the area’s open-air markets.

Some fresh-air markets like North Union are up and running while City Fresh and Countryside Conservancy are gearing up to offer locally-grown foods and products to Ohioans.

City Fresh begins offering Share Bags June 1st at and The Countryside Farmers’ Market at Heritage Farms in Peninsula season begins next Saturday, June 2nd and runs from 9 a.m. to noon.

Click here for other market times and locations.

Spring is here but: What to do to fill that big gap between Earth and Memorial Day? How about taking advantage of one of the handful of outdoor, get-in-touch-with-nature events this Saturday.

First thing in the morning there is the Cinco de Mayo migration at the Dike 14 nature preserve which includes guided hour-long hikes every 30 minutes and boat tours. This Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Cleveland Lakefront State Park.

Later in the day be one of the first to tour the Blue-Pike farm Cleveland’s own 21st century urban farm. Curious how there can be a farm in the middle of the city? You won’t be if you stop by the Blue-Pike farm open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. located at E. 72nd between St. Clair and I-90.

Representatives will be on hand to discuss organic growing products and techniques. Coffee and pastries for the early-comers if you need more information, call Carl at 216-373-9461 or email ohiobio@gmail.com.

Want to get your hands into some urban-nature? Attend Saturday’s Asphalt Gardening 101: Hands-on learning workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The site is between E. 53rd and E. 55th, south of St. Clair next to the Goodrich-Gannett neighborhood center at 1368 E. 55th.

Help build an asphalt garden with Emmy and Jessica Levine of Wonder City Farms. The plan is to take an asphalt lot and turn it into a working urban garden.

Come to the workshop with your garden tools, gloves and any compost, newspaper, food scraps you have. There will be a potluck lunch so dishes are welcome. For more information, call 216-334-7478.

So now there is no reason to be in doors this weekend. Come out and get a little sun on your face and dirt under your nails.

Summer 2007 will come with a number of opportunities and challenges, according to the Ohio Coastal Resource Management Project (OCRMP). As always there’s some good news, not-so-good news and some opportunities to get involved in the water quality of Lake Erie.

The Good News: An Ohio Sea Grant study found that when Lake Erie water clarity and quality increased, so do regional property values.

According to the study, when bacterial counts decreased the price of a beach accessible home increased by 0.1 percent and when water clarity increased to 6.5 feet home prices increased four to five percent (on average $4,300). Also, proximity added value, by nearly $12,000, to property within 10 miles of a Lake Erie beach.

Things you can do: Critical legislation has now been introduced that authorizes the completion, operation and maintenance of the permanent electronic barrier to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. Supporters can call or write the offices of Ohio representative and support the speedy passing and funding this Bill.

Things to watch: The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Commissioners have recommended in response to 13th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality establishment of a comprehensive data, surveillance and monitoring system, with results-based reporting and called for a Great Lakes Accountability Summit in summer 2008.

The Lake Erie Committee has recently announced a significant reduction in the 2007 total allowable catch (TAC) for Lake Erie walleye and yellow perch.

The Lake Erie Committee which is made up of fishery managers from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Ontario, and Pennsylvania collaborate on fishing quotas for commercial and sport fishing.

The walleye and yellow perch numbers are lower than the 2006 numbers when Ohio’s share of walleye was approximately 5 million. The 2007 numbers for walleye are a little more than 5 million for all of Lake Erie, leaving Ohio’s share at 2.75 million, a 54 percent decrease.

Ohio's yellow perch quota is 4.3 million pounds of the lake-wide 11.4 million pounds which signals a 34 percent reduction from last year.

The TAC is based on a complex modeling program that takes into account a number of factors including: how many fish are in the lake, how many where fished out, how many are dying and how many more are being introduced to the ecosystem.

“It’s a very complicated process. We have long-term datasets going back to the 70’s in order to track how long the hatches stay in the fishery.” says Roger Knight, ODNR Division of Wildlife. “It’s kind of like hitting a moving target.”

With a two to three year cycle, this year’s reduction is a result of a weak walleye and yellow perch reproduction cycles from 2002, 2004, and 2006. Although there is no easy answer to why fishing stocks are down the possible explanations are many.

Running on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail this weekend, I considered myself lucky to glance over toward the Cuyahoga River just in time to see a blue heron take flight. I was still all giddy with excitement when I ran into a ranger about a half-mile down the path.

Here I felt like such a good eco-citizen in telling him that I had spotted the heron—thinking how impressed he'd be. After I told him, he looked at me and smiled, “Oh, you mean a heron like all of those nesting there.”

In fact, he was in the process of observing a “scattering” (the proper term for a group of herons—I looked it up) and a bald eagle nesting in the trees as I ran up with my sighting.

So, whether you are hoping to see a scattering of herons, a wisdom of owls or a convocation of eagles this is the time of year to get a glimpse of some of the incredible bird migrations that make their way through or home in Northeast Ohio.

There are a number of groups and resources to help those who want a guided tour or just need a heads-up on where the best birding sites are in the state. Click here for more information on birding in NEO.

I’ve always said that a good copy editor is worth his or her weight in gold.

The Ohio EPA and the Core of Army Engineers were most likely thinking the same thing last night at a public meeting regarding water quality and the Cleveland Harbor Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) 12.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and record public comments on the plan to maximize the capacity of the CDF 12 with the construction of an interior berm. The berm will hold 800,000 cubic yards of additional dredged material for more than 2 years.

However, due to a mistake in the Corp’s application—the inclusion of Dike 14 as a “minimal degradation alternative” option for the dredged material—the meeting took on life.

Representatives from the Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee were in force and asking pointed questions of EPA contact, Ed Wilk.

Wilk and other Corps representatives found themselves repeating the main message of the evening, which turned out to be that Dike 14 was not being considered as an option for depositing the dredged material.

Dike 14 supporters were somewhat undaunted and took advantage of the public comment time to reiterate why Dike 14 is important to the city and it’s residents.

Last Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced an investment of $385 million in six cellulosic ethanol biorefineries over the next four years. The funding was initially going to cap out at $160 million but was raised in order to match a $1.2 billion industry investment.

The goal is to produce more than 130 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year, in order to reach Bush’s Twenty in Ten Initiative, which aims to increase the use of renewable and alternative fuels in the transportation sector to 35 billion gallons (ethanol) by 2017.

It’s good to finally see some long-term solutions to the energy/emission problem, but at last week's Refueling Northeast Ohio’s Economy: A Clean Fuels Solution to Air Pollution conference, hosted in part by Earth Day Coalition and NOACA, the questions were about what can be accomplished in the near future.

The point of the conference was to help organizations and fleet managers better understand what options are available to them when it comes to lower emissions and cleaner fuels.

Representatives from NOACA and Earth Day’s Clean Fuel program talked about emission reductions by reducing idling and repairing vehicles, but the real focus was on clean fuels. The clean fuel industry was represented by speakers for biodiesel, ethanol (E85), natural gas and propane.