I took the car in for regular maintenance yesterday and they laughed at my odometer reading. It appears that we’ve only driven about 2000km in the last 8 months! This is pretty significant and has been part of our plan to reduce our environmental impact while improving our health.
In fact, there are only a few reasons we ever use the car:
- getting out of city for hiking & canoeing,
- transportation for Scouts & Guides,
- and occasionally lugging stuff around.
The car is almost a permanent fixture in the parking garage and if it weren’t for the above reasons it would probably be sitting on a used car lot somewhere.
So how do we get around? First of all, we planned the location of our home very carefully to be close to everything we need. I think the premium we had to pay for location is easily offset by fuel savings — and far more importantly — time savings, health benefits and reduced stress from not having to endure a commute. I work from home and Agnes’ lab is only a five-minute walk away, but we could easily commute to anywhere in greater Vancouver via public transit or by bicycle if this were to change.
Don’t let gas prices get you down. After all, they’re only going to go up.
The Kyoto Protocol officially starts today: February 16, 2005. But what is Canada’s plan to meet our targets? Sure, we have the One-Tonne Challenge to help ordinary Canadians do their share, but this is only one part of the puzzle. CBC’s web site has some good introductory material about Kyoto and the plan drafted by the government in 2002. Unfortunately, this plan has remained at the “draft” stage and has yet to be implemented in any way. (more...)
(I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while but Rick Mercer beat me to it!)
The One-Tonne Challenge is designed to help Canadians understand and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a great site, with a questionnaire to analyze your energy use and calculate your annual greenhouse gas emissions. Once you’re done, it suggests different ways you can reduce that amount and how the effect on your total.
The average Canadian produces 5 tonnes of greenhouse gas every year - the goal is to reduce this amount by 20%, or one tonne. We need to reduce current emission levels by at least 23% in order to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. Scientists suggest that number should be as high as 60% to reach sustainable levels. I’m a firm believer that through individual efforts, seemingly small, we can make a big difference when added up in the end. The One-Tonne Challenge will go a long way to helping Canadians meeet the Kyoto target and raise awareness about our lifestyles’ affect on the planet.
We took the challenge and rang in at about 2.4 tonnes per year. That’s a pretty low number: half the Canadian average and a tonne below the BC average. Can we really reduce that by another tonne? Maybe not, but I’m sure we can reduce it by at least 20% and encourage others to take the challenge.
Besides the One-Tonne site, you can also check out David Suzuki’s site for ideas about reducing your impact on climate change.
Non-Canadians: You can still give the challenge a try! Some of the data may be a little skewed (e.g. you have to pick the Canadian province you “live” in) but it will give you a good idea of your emissions with helpful tips on what you can do to reduce your impact on global warming. And for those not familiar with the metric system, 1 tonne = 1000 kg = 2204 lbs.