“It is clearly better for the environment to walk to the corner store rather than to drive there. Right?
Now even this seemingly obvious conclusion is being called into question by Chris Goodall via John Tierney’s blog. And Chris Goodall is no right-wing nut; he is an environmentalist and author of the book How to Live a Low-Carbon Life.
Tierney writes:
If you walk 1.5 miles, Mr. Goodall calculates, and replace those calories by drinking about a cup of milk, the greenhouse emissions connected with that milk (like methane from the dairy farm and carbon dioxide from the delivery truck) are just about equal to the emissions from a typical car making the same trip. And if there were two of you making the trip, then the car would definitely be the more planet-friendly way to go.”
Be Green: Drive - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog
“A group called the Pacific Institute has done some further analysis of the data. Their analysis suggests that for most reasonable assumptions about the diet of the walker, driving generates a greater carbon footprint.”
I’m glad this got sorted out as I had recently decided that the lack of bus service to work over the summer meant I should walk, not drive. My diet is vegetarian when convenient (and when I’m not needing a sure-fire fix to my blood sugar issues), so that put me a little bit out of the shooter’s eyesight.
Something else not being mentioned is the health benefits of walking, psychological and physical. The benefits might outweigh any carbon required to create the animal products used to power the walk. Yet, strictly carbon speaking, anyone who lives longer is by nature going to cause more carbon emissions. So eat less meat AND walk less?
What are you doing to lower your carbon footprint?
I’m walking to work,
eating less meat,
using reusable mugs at Starbucks,
try to avoid things shipped from overseas (I said try 
), etc…
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