Last month I blogged about Chris Goodall‘s claim that walking could exacerbate global warming more than driving if the person doing the walking gets his or her calories from foods like beef or milk.
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 like how the Pacific Institute approached this issue. They used data and clearly articulated assumptions to better understand these claims. They put everything out on the internet so that people can check what they have done and challenge it if appropriate.
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. might take a lesson from this.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
For every minute of walking, the average person lives 3 minutes longer, so maybe that’s another justification for not walking places. Longer living certainly increase carbon footprints right?
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/health/29brod.html?em&ex=1209787200&en=6f2392f6ffff430a&ei=5087
well, somebody also needs to calculate the foot print of nothing-else-to-do researchers driving to their environmentally controlled office, use the power to turn on their fancy computers, the cost for the grid that provided them the electricity, etc….Now, that will be an excellent research idea.
Maybe the conclusion is everyone should commit suicide? wait…someone tell me the carbon footprint for the gun manufacturer, bullet, energy to transport that, energy to cremate or dig up a hole and embalm…etc…
The only conclusion that one can come to is that the best thing one can do for low GHG emissions is to reduce (not eliminate) your meat consumption.
Now, possibly with the delayed solar cycle, the recent colling of the planet, and the crazy winter we just had we may want to be pumping GHG up to avert the next ice age. Who knows what’s really going on, climate science is far too new to make any calls either way.
Yet another thing not being considered is that a zero carbon footprint probably has unintended consequences. The environment has adapted to handle things decomposing, burning, being flatulent, etc. With too few greenhouse gases, I’m sure that something bad would happen. I’m curious what the right carbon footprint per person is. I would wager that the planet will adapt to whatever we do. The worst case scenario is that the plantary adaptation causes lots of death and destruction to bring things back into balance. The best case scenario is that no one dies, but we all adapt. I highly doubt that any scenario involves the complete destruction of all life.
Perhaps this research would be more interesting if I went to the store every time I wanted a meal. Instead, I usually frequent the store only once per week and purchase much more food for my family of six than I could carry home with me on foot. I also buy food in bulk and store it in my basement; those trips down the stairs don’t use much carbon at all. So for the way I buy and consume food, it’s a lot more carbon-efficient for me to drive.
Riding a bike cuts energy expenditures by 60 to 80% (increasing travel range by a factor of 3 to 5) over walking.
In high traffic energy expenditure is nonlinear, everyone stuck in the traffic jam burns more gas and wastes more time. Cyclists and pedestrians are less effected.
May is bike month. Instead of a gas tax break, why don’t we all use our rebate checks to buy a bike and make 5% of our trips on two wheels instead of four.
I’m with MM.
jb, I’m very glad that your spoiled mentality of not being able to so much as run outside is causing so many externalities to be thrown at me. And that’s not even considering your presumed “need” for a turf-grass lawn that is probably worse for the environment than if you paved it in concrete. And have you even considered a mechanical, push mower (no gas)? That’ll increase your cardio, I bet, especially if you jog behind it like I do.
189lb person, 2673 calorie diet? This is America people, shouldn’t that be 245lb person and 5000 calorie diet? I’m sure if we spent more time walking or biking we might slim down though.