In this week’s
series of posts, I’m going to talk about the major stuff I’ve already done.
This is so you know my starting point. In later posts I’ll go into more detail
about each of these. But I firmly believe that what I’ve already done can be
doable by a large majority of people.
If one of these suggestions doesn’t work for you, that’s ok. Remember: you don’t have to change your whole lifestyle. Just do what you can.
Part 1: DON’T DRIVE.
Automobile pollution is one of the single greatest contributors to climate change, and it’s a tragedy as well because cars have completely overtaken our street infrastructure to the detriment of anyone who wants to use the street any other way. Our entire road system caters to the existence not of buses, trains, bikes, or groups of friends, but to ugly, outsized plastic abominations. If you’ve ever waited ages for the walk sign or ridden a bike for ten minutes, you’ll notice that the whole power structure of the American road puts you, a pedestrian or cyclist, at the very bottom, in favor of machines that could literally kill you at any time.
Cars are not just methods of transport, they are killing machines that, like guns, operate entirely at the mercy of their handler. Drive one fast enough and you can commit an act of terrorism, as people have done, or just roll over someone’s beloved pet or a person themselves. Drive a car anywhere, for any time, and you’ve just literally directly released global warming, i.e. carbon dioxide, straight into the air.
If there’s anything you can do, put the brake on your driving, unless there is literally no other way to get to where you want to be. If you’re in a situation where that’s impossible, at least carpool or consider investing in a Prius or other electric vehicle if you have the money for it. Going on a roadtrip, shuttling your 3-person family around, or living in your car are acceptable uses, but if you’re driving half a mile to go to Sonic to order a smoothie in the middle of the night, please stop.
As an alternative to the foul automobile (long past its vintage days of glory in which it at least looked nice), riding a bicycle is probably the most personally satisfying thing I’ve done to reduce my carbon footprint. Biking is an extremely enjoyable activity; once you zoom past one congested string of cars, you’ll never think about getting in that queue to hell again. If you’re living somewhere with decent bike lanes, save yourself the hassle of insurance, refueling, going to the DMV to register and reregister your vehicle, and inhaling clouds of smog while growing angrier by the second.
Supposing that where you live has bike-friendly infrastructure, as in bike lanes and cars that go at speeds less than 25-35 mph, spend the $100-$150 on a used bike off Craigslist. Bring it to your local shop for a tune-up, which will cost about $50 if it’s a cheap, good shop. Buy a $20 helmet, $40 U-lock (these are more secure) and chain. Add an optional $10 bottle of chain lube and a $15 bike pump. Even at conservative estimates, this $200-$250 in fixed cost, in one year, is cheap as hell for a machine you’ll enjoy using for years. That’s literally like $15-20 a month, cheaper than any car payment, lease, insurance, gas, whatever, you’ll find: not to mention the instant cardio and interval workout and the pure childlike joy of whooshing down roads where everyone else is crawling slower than snails.
When you bike, you can actually feel the breeze rush past, your legs pumping energy, the landscape sweeping around you in myriad colors. Contrast that with being locked in a metal box, suffocating with rage. Granted, if you bike, you’ll be pissed off at drivers, too, but it’s mostly out of pity, and when that’s not happening, you’ll feel a certain zen that you absolutely would not in an oversized moving prison.
It’s a shame that in America, basically any form of non-car transport has been oppressed by our car-worshipping infrastructure. In some ways it represents what the industrial age has done to us: replacing the power of the human body with faceless plastic hunks that degrade and enrage the people trapped within.
Although I like biking, electric scooters, mopeds, roller blades, and skateboards are all neat options. It’s even cool, too, to ride a motorcycle, as motorcycles can get 100 miles to a single gallon of gas. They’re dangerous, though, compared to a bike, and require registration. So, if you can’t bike for whatever reason, such as maybe a lack of bike lanes in your area, maybe you could do half your commute with an electric scooter on a sidewalk; Razr sells a scooter for about $150.
Anywhere you go in America, there’s also bound to be a cycling or streets organization, interested in replacing our car infrastructure with real infrastructure that values human connection and health as opposed to road rage and roadkill. Find out who these people are, maybe on the weekend when you’re sick of sitting in traffic for the umpteenth time. Maybe you could sign a petition, or show support for their efforts. It’s your tax money: Do you want asphalt lanes full of air pollution, crushed animals, and simpering pedestrians skittering like roaches? Or do you want parks, greenways, and people eating ice cream, not having to inhale in mushroom clouds of petroleum? Use your dollar and your time to vote for that, and not Exxon, Chevron, and Shell.
Down with cars, down with the oil economy.
If one of these suggestions doesn’t work for you, that’s ok. Remember: you don’t have to change your whole lifestyle. Just do what you can.
Part 1: DON’T DRIVE.
Automobile pollution is one of the single greatest contributors to climate change, and it’s a tragedy as well because cars have completely overtaken our street infrastructure to the detriment of anyone who wants to use the street any other way. Our entire road system caters to the existence not of buses, trains, bikes, or groups of friends, but to ugly, outsized plastic abominations. If you’ve ever waited ages for the walk sign or ridden a bike for ten minutes, you’ll notice that the whole power structure of the American road puts you, a pedestrian or cyclist, at the very bottom, in favor of machines that could literally kill you at any time.
Cars are not just methods of transport, they are killing machines that, like guns, operate entirely at the mercy of their handler. Drive one fast enough and you can commit an act of terrorism, as people have done, or just roll over someone’s beloved pet or a person themselves. Drive a car anywhere, for any time, and you’ve just literally directly released global warming, i.e. carbon dioxide, straight into the air.
If there’s anything you can do, put the brake on your driving, unless there is literally no other way to get to where you want to be. If you’re in a situation where that’s impossible, at least carpool or consider investing in a Prius or other electric vehicle if you have the money for it. Going on a roadtrip, shuttling your 3-person family around, or living in your car are acceptable uses, but if you’re driving half a mile to go to Sonic to order a smoothie in the middle of the night, please stop.
As an alternative to the foul automobile (long past its vintage days of glory in which it at least looked nice), riding a bicycle is probably the most personally satisfying thing I’ve done to reduce my carbon footprint. Biking is an extremely enjoyable activity; once you zoom past one congested string of cars, you’ll never think about getting in that queue to hell again. If you’re living somewhere with decent bike lanes, save yourself the hassle of insurance, refueling, going to the DMV to register and reregister your vehicle, and inhaling clouds of smog while growing angrier by the second.
Supposing that where you live has bike-friendly infrastructure, as in bike lanes and cars that go at speeds less than 25-35 mph, spend the $100-$150 on a used bike off Craigslist. Bring it to your local shop for a tune-up, which will cost about $50 if it’s a cheap, good shop. Buy a $20 helmet, $40 U-lock (these are more secure) and chain. Add an optional $10 bottle of chain lube and a $15 bike pump. Even at conservative estimates, this $200-$250 in fixed cost, in one year, is cheap as hell for a machine you’ll enjoy using for years. That’s literally like $15-20 a month, cheaper than any car payment, lease, insurance, gas, whatever, you’ll find: not to mention the instant cardio and interval workout and the pure childlike joy of whooshing down roads where everyone else is crawling slower than snails.
When you bike, you can actually feel the breeze rush past, your legs pumping energy, the landscape sweeping around you in myriad colors. Contrast that with being locked in a metal box, suffocating with rage. Granted, if you bike, you’ll be pissed off at drivers, too, but it’s mostly out of pity, and when that’s not happening, you’ll feel a certain zen that you absolutely would not in an oversized moving prison.
It’s a shame that in America, basically any form of non-car transport has been oppressed by our car-worshipping infrastructure. In some ways it represents what the industrial age has done to us: replacing the power of the human body with faceless plastic hunks that degrade and enrage the people trapped within.
Although I like biking, electric scooters, mopeds, roller blades, and skateboards are all neat options. It’s even cool, too, to ride a motorcycle, as motorcycles can get 100 miles to a single gallon of gas. They’re dangerous, though, compared to a bike, and require registration. So, if you can’t bike for whatever reason, such as maybe a lack of bike lanes in your area, maybe you could do half your commute with an electric scooter on a sidewalk; Razr sells a scooter for about $150.
Anywhere you go in America, there’s also bound to be a cycling or streets organization, interested in replacing our car infrastructure with real infrastructure that values human connection and health as opposed to road rage and roadkill. Find out who these people are, maybe on the weekend when you’re sick of sitting in traffic for the umpteenth time. Maybe you could sign a petition, or show support for their efforts. It’s your tax money: Do you want asphalt lanes full of air pollution, crushed animals, and simpering pedestrians skittering like roaches? Or do you want parks, greenways, and people eating ice cream, not having to inhale in mushroom clouds of petroleum? Use your dollar and your time to vote for that, and not Exxon, Chevron, and Shell.
Down with cars, down with the oil economy.
