Harsh Facts & Ecofriendly Economics: Save Vanishing Species

Harsh Facts of the Week

Motor vehicles are responsible for about one third of the world’s oil use. However, they account for almost two thirds of America’s oil use.

In the United States, 10,000 gallons of gasoline are burned in a single second.

In the state of California alone, the amount of gasoline vapors wafting out of gas station pumps totals 15,811 gallons a day. 

On average, 1,143 gallons of gasoline are used per household per year. (If the vapors lost from Californian gas stations could somehow be saved, they could fulfill this annual usage for about fourteen households). 

Americans now use motor vehicles for more than ninety percent of their daily trips. Keep in mind that a quarter of all car journeys are less than two miles.

An average person travels more than 9,000 miles a year by car, compared with less than 4,000 miles from four decades ago.

Children who live near streets used by more than 20,000 cars a day were six times more likely to develop cancer than those who lived in neighborhoods where traffic was less than 500 vehicles each day.

We live in a fast paced world, and for most of us, using a car is inevitable. However, we have also become so accustomed to this fast method of transportation that for many of us, walking or biking to a destination that is only a mile or two away seems like quite a lengthy and strenuous trip.

I will be going to college in a very bike-friendly city. I plan on bringing my car with me to college, but I have vowed to myself that I will only drive it when it’s absolutely necessary. For the rest of the time, I will be joining the hordes of walkers and bike riders in order to transport myself around campus, the city, and local attractions, such as the lake.

Where can you substitute a walk or a bike ride in your daily schedule? Have you been lacking in exercise lately? This could be the perfect opportunity for you to work off some fat, enjoy the outdoors, reduce your carbon emissions, and generally feel good about yourself. 

To learn seventeen ways to make your car more fuel efficient, check out this past edition of “EcofriendlyEconomics.”

Ecofriendly Economics & Harsh Facts: Drilling

Harsh Facts of the Week

American offshore oil drilling extracts about 1.5 million barrels a day. In comparison, the current daily oil consumption of the United States is 21 million barrels.

Drilling technologies have improved, leading to less spill occurrences. However, at current extraction rates, predictions indicate that in the Gulf of Mexico over the next forty years, there will be one oil spill per year of at least 1,000 barrels.

An average hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well requires three to eight million gallons of water over its lifetime.

In 2011, France became the first nation to ban hydraulic fracturing. 

Natural gas extracted by fracking may have a significant environmental advantage over coal mining; when burned, shale (natural) gas emits half the carbon dioxide per unit of energy as coal. Regardless, fracking adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through extraction leakage and emissions from burning natural gas. Methane, a greenhouse gas about twenty times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, can leak during hydraulic fracturing. So, it is unclear which is potentially “healthier” for the environment.

Fracking for natural gas provides major economic advantages and allows access to stores of fuel that otherwise would have remained untouched. If you read up on the topic, you’ll find that hydraulic fracturing has disadvantages and advantages, both of which can be heavily and extensively argued. While fracking supporters provide some solid defenses, I still find myself opposed to fracking for one major, overlaying reason.

Our Earth’s fuel resources are limited. Finding new places and ways to obtain it is helpful in the short run. However, in the long run, we’ll eventually be left high and dry, or we’ll suffocate on our own fumes, whichever comes first. Every time the sun shines, a wind blows, and a river flows, there’s raw energy that can be tapped into, perhaps indefinitely so. I want my country, and at the very least, New York State, to realize the superior long term benefits of focusing on renewable energy, rather than temporary solutions to the energy crisis. Instead of pouring oceans of money into lobbying, promoting, developing, and executing fracking, I want the efforts to be shifted to renewable. Developing renewable energy can provide just as many jobs and will be more economical and ethical to carry out than harvesting fossil fuels.

Most importantly, renewable sources are the only reliable way to provide energy to the masses without further damaging the environment. It’s such a simple, healthy concept. So why is a big chunk of society and business fighting back against its evolution? 

We have an addiction to fuel, all of us, myself included.  I’m ready to beat my addiction. That’s why I traveled to Albany today and rallied in the capitol against fracking for over three hours. The details of my experience will be described in a separate post.