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Wednesday, April 21 2021
 Be Healthy. Be Green. Earth Month Blog Series On average, Americans spend 18 days in a car per year--eight hours and 22 minutes per week (source). It goes without saying, we are car people. But what does that mean for our planet? From the EPA: In 2019, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation accounted for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of the overall trend, from 1990 to 2019, total transportation emissions have increased due, in large part, to increased demand for travel. The number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by light-duty motor vehicles (passenger cars and light-duty trucks) increased by 48 percent from 1990 to 2019, as a result of a confluence of factors including population growth, economic growth, urban sprawl, and periods of low fuel prices. (source) Barry Saxifrage, a Canadian columnist writing in Canada’s National Observer, noted that understanding our emissions impact is difficult because CO2 is invisible. If we are talking about plastic pollution, we can see the effects. We can see the piles of plastic litter clogging waterways and videos of choking animal life. But despite being greater than our plastic pollution, carbon is usually “out of sight, out of mind” for us. Visualizing CO2 Saxifrage offers the idea of visualizing CO2 as plastic straws. A typical plastic straw weighs less than half a gram, so he used two straws to represent a gram of CO2. He wrote, “Polluting the average amount seemed reasonable to me until I started to ‘see’ that CO2 as equal to littering 420 plastic straws every kilometre [0.62 miles]. At highway speed, the average Canadian car litters climate pollution at the rate of 15 plastic straws' worth shooting out the tailpipe — every second.” It’s worse for air travel: “The average airline passenger emits around 25 gCO2 — a fistful of 50 plastic straws worth — every second.” (source) Yikes. We’re such a car culture. Our cities are designed for cars. Everything is spread out to make room for parking. Public transportation is limited. For most of us, cars are default. As for myself, I don’t feel I have a safe or practical alternative, as I am usually toting a child and I have pain issues that prevent me from walking on paved surfaces for very long. I am nothing but understanding as to why, with things as they are, most people are tied to their cars. But some of our church members have found that they can, indeed, make car-free commuting a part of their lives. Photo: courtesy of Bruce Nesmith Bruce Nesmith Bruce Nesmith is a Professor of Political Science at Coe College, co-founder of Corridor Urbanism, and writer of his blog, Holy Mountain, where he comments on public policy, place, and social relations. I also know Bruce as a walker. He’s been a pedestrian for a long time, and continues to walk to work. I know this because, one, I’ve seen him, and two, he writes about it. In his latest post on Holy Mountain, he wrote, “Cars are seductive--for their convenience, for their accessories, and I guess for a certain type their power. I chose differently long ago, and I'm glad I did.” He continues expounding on the benefits of walking. Walking is an excellent time to clear the head and process thoughts. “A time spent moving at a human pace, being truly able to see things and people around me, without the onrush of stimuli in and out of my car, is good for my mental health.” It’s good for social relations (getting to know your neighborhood) and observing the natural world. Plus, it’s good exercise. “I need to note that my commuting mode is not strictly car-free, and my core motivation is hardly ethical. I simply enjoy walking, or riding my bicycle, over driving. I may well, though I hope I don't, counterbalance the environmental benefits of my commute in some other sector of my life,” Bruce wrote.
John Nollsch One of the first things I understood about John Nollsch upon getting to know him is he rides a bicycle. Everywhere. To St. Luke’s where he works as a social worker. Across Iowa while on RAGBRAI. I asked him about his story. He said, “Routine bike riding for transportation has been part of me at least since grade school. In junior high I followed the path of my older sister and I biked to Lake Macbride with friends for the first time and I was sold on longer bike-rides for fun. My first RAGBRAI was XII in 1984 and I’ve done maybe 17 of them, maybe more, I lost count.” “The environment wasn’t my first thought as a kid but it certainly is now, along with keeping fit and not wasting money on unnecessary fossil fuels. I drive a car when I need to, but it seems most Americans have a different definition of ‘need’ than I do,” said John, whose car’s bumper sticker reads “My other car is a bicycle.” Bicycling has afforded blessings: “Probably my favorite biking situation is RAGBRAI with a good friend very early in the morning & very quiet & seeing the sun rise above the corn. It’s not the kind of RAGBRAI time most people hear of but it is down-right spiritual.” ••• Short-Distance Vacations Something that Jonathan and I have done in the last few years is to take our vacations a short distance away. Far away enough that we are definitely not home, but close enough we can get there in a few hours. In fact, the last two years, we’ve gone only one hour away to a cabin at Backbone State Park. Three years ago, we stayed in an eco-friendly cabin (solar powered, composting toilet, etc.) just a half a day away in Wisconsin. We can maximise our vacation time by spending less time getting there. This is not to say we’re never going to take a cross-country drive, but we’ll take them less often. Photo: cabin at Backbone State Park Comments:
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