I will give it to Grist’s Greenie Pig, Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, for at least giving non-fossil fueled travel a shot, and for challenging others to do the same
True, this method is not exactly swift if your destination is, say, Anchorage.* Within two miles, though? Food-fueled transportation — a.k.a. walking, biking, hopscotching, what have you — can be just as efficient (and when parking is involved, often faster) as hopping in the car. And when you consider that 40 percent of all automobile trips occur within a two-mile radius of wherever we are, the so-called Two-Mile Challenge becomes a truly viable option for putting a cork in the carbon emissions spewing from the typical American lifestyle.
If you read through it, she tries, she really does. But, sometimes fails (why doesn’t she own a Volt?)
Then there are the times comfort comes into play, like when we ordered a pizza from our favorite local joint, 1.8 miles away and a pleasant stroll when it’s not raining bathtubs — which it proceeded to do 20 minutes before our scheduled pickup time. I considered our options: Bike there, and fold the pizza to fit into a backpack? Walk, and bring the pizza its own raincoat? (What’s that — an umbrella for the pizza? Don’t be ridiculous.) When it came down to it, we just didn’t feel like struggling through the cold downpour for 40 minutes, desperately trying to protect the cheesy goodness from going soggy. So we drove.
Yeah, that sucks. But, hey, Liz, if you’re going to sacrifice, it has to be a 100% effort (BTW, I wonder what the food miles are on that pizza?)
Know how many responded to her challenge? None. Warmists love talking, but few are willing to do.
Ummm.. who says? That may be true for Yuppies living in big cities like San Fran, San Diego, NYC, Boston, etc. But, for normal people, I’d bet our traffic averages about 10 miles per trip when you take in to account work trips and taking kids to whatever sport or hobby you and your kids are involved in.
And, while I do praise her for attempting to live life like she preaches, she still did not go all the way. How about growing the ingredients necessary for making those pizzas at home?
Gotta do it to keep the planet from boiling off toward destruction.
I do have a lot of trips in that radius, usually to the grocery store or WalMart. But, that might account for 10% at best, since I usually hit those on the way home from work, which is about 15 miles. Video store? 4 miles. Target? Same. Best Buy? Same (there’s a lot of places I go to all in the same area of Knightdale)