Is it Greener to Drive than Walk?
Wednesday March 19, 2008
If you take a walk to the store and back for a small errand, logging a total of 1.5 miles, obviously that's better for the environment than driving your car there and back, right? Maybe not. If you replace the calories you burned with a glass of milk, the greenhouse emissions associated with producing milk just about equal the emissions from the car trip. That's one conclusion of Chris Goodall, the author of How to Live A Low-Carbon Life, quoted in the TierneyLab blog. I love mythbusting more than most people, but I want to see the math on this one. Mr. Goodall was making a point that food production, especially meat and animal-based products, produces a lot of greenhouse emissions. But the fallacy pointed out by many commenters on that blog and on the Freakonomics blog is that most people in Western societies already eat more calories per day than they burn off. The walker probably won't eat more because she took that walk. The excess calories already in their diet are just being put to good use in powering foot transportation rather than adding to the belly and hips. One of the most compelling counter-arguments is that the walker is reducing their health risks by walking, therefore being less likely to need treatment for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and some forms of cancer. Providing health care uses an enormous amount of energy and resources. The medical center where my husband works is one of the biggest employers in the city - that's a lot of commuting, not to mention power, water, and the costs of producing drugs and supplies. Keeping your body working right with a daily walk is a good thing to do for yourself and the planet.
Comments
Moreover, if the argument is that drinking a glass of milk contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, aren’t I *more* worthy of a glass of milk than someone who also drove? Should we be pushing anti-milk campaigns for the environment? I used to only walk and had no license, but never drank milk. Now, I am trying to have a more healthy, balanced diet that includes milk & yogurt as good sources of protein and calcium, have a license but still have no car. I walk everywhere I can. Milk or no milk was not the deciding factor in my life. Was milk the deciding factor in the ozone layer? Has a milk craze in the last 50 years caused the holes, or is the people who now drive? Let’s see some scientific proof here! Either way, remember to drink your milk and remember to keep on MOO-ving!