What are You Doing This Weekend?

Are you in a location that will get some sunshine or mild temperatures today? Get outside! We’ve been told for years that “fresh air and exercise” is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves. But what does that have to do with moving away from fossil fuel use? Plenty.

 There are about 325 million people in this country. If one hundredth of one percent of the population (32,500 people) walked five miles this weekend instead of driving, 1.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide will be kept out of the atmosphere and 13 million calories will be burned.

 Walk, jog, or ride your bike to get some of your errands done. We know you can’t carry four bags of groceries on your back; but you can walk to the post office, bank, or where you go to get your hair cut.  Not practical where you live? Try a modified version; drive and park at a central location and then walk to the various places you need to go. Walking five miles instead of driving and re-parking numerous times will burn about 400 calories (based on a 150 pound person walking at 3 miles per hour which is pretty leisurely, you could burn more calories if you picked up the pace a bit). You would also avoid putting about 5 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air (based on EPA’s estimate that 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide are produced for every gallon of gasoline consumed; if your car gets 20 miles per gallon 5 miles would use a quarter of a gallon; a quarter of 19.6 is 4.9).