Advocacy Project: Calculate your auto Emissions!

Calculate your auto Emissions!

The purpose of this activity is to inform us as consumers just how much emissions our personal vehicles actually release into the environment. From here you can be make better educated decisions when choosing to use alternative modes of transportation when traveling.

Background: Emissions from an individual car are generally low, but in numerous cities across the country, the personal automobile is the single greatest polluter. This is because emissions from millions of vehicles on the road add up. Driving a car is probably a typical citizen's most "polluting" daily activity.The power to move a car comes from burning fuel in an engine. Pollution from cars comes from by-products of this combustion process and from evaporation of the fuel itself.  Did you know that SUV's put out 43% more global-warming pollutants and 47% more air pollution than the average car? For these reasons alone we need to start thinking of alternative modes of transportation. Think of how many pollutants could we prevent from being released into the air. Cars not only require much more energy and product to produce than bicycles they also use less, and are in general a much healthier mode of transportation. Using a bicycle to commute four days a week for four miles saves 54 gallons of gas annually. We all are always looking for ways to save gas and our money, try biking any short distances you need to travel. Not only will you save money but you'll feel better knowing you didn't contribute to the pollution and also did something healthy for your body. Finally, just to give you a sense of how serious of an issue CO2 emissions are from transportation alone take a look at this statistic. Carbon dioxide emissions from personal vehicles in the United States equaled 314 million metric tons in 2004. That much carbon would fill a coal train 55,000 miles long, long enough to circle the earth twice!

Instructions: Use this calculator to calculate how much your vehicle emits into the atmosphere. If you don't have a personal car use your parents or even roommates. If you really wanted to go above and beyond, compare your vehicle to your parents/roommates etc. Your results will give you the total pounds of CO2 released, total CO2 MT emissions, and your total CO2 credit cost. I've included my results so you can at least compare them to mine if you have no one else to compare to. 10,426.44 lbs is how much my 2008 Pontiac G6 emits, hopefully some of you get better results than I did!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

1. My SMART goal was to eat 2 cups of green vegetables 4 times per week for the next 8 weeks. I still did exceptionally well in my goal because I tried to diversify the vegetables I was eating. Doing this really helped me enjoy my goal because I wasn't getting sick of eating the same things over and over and was still eating things that were good for me.
2. My successes were being able to not only achieve my goal but also had a few extra servings of vegetables without even thinking about it. The strategies that helped me to be successful were pairing the vegetables with my dinners and eating different vegetables each time. The challenges I faced were mostly not eating vegetables while I was at work. The biggest problem is still forcing myself to pack a lunch, I remembered one day but then forgot the next. Its really not a tough task but when I get into a hurry or forget to pack one the night before its always just easier to order something at work. This will be something I'll need to further work on. Maybe next time I go to the grocery store I will just grab some pre-made meals that I can quickly throw in a cooler and go.
3. The feelings I felt during this weeks goal was just overall being more awake and more productive because I wasn't so full of greasy fatty foods. I felt this usually right after I was done eating.
4. This week I learned I need to work extra hard on remembering to bring my healthier lunches to work with me so I can continue my goal without interruptions of fast food.
5. My plans for next week are to basically keep the same goal but to increase my intake and broaden which vegetables I eat by taking away the green part. So my goal for next week will be to eat 2 cups of vegetables 5 times per week for the next 7 weeks.

Review the entire process:

1. My SMART goal was to eat 2 cups of green vegetables 4 times per week for the 10 weeks. It didn't change a whole lot throughout the project except increasing my intake or changing which specific vegetable or vegetables I was eating.
2. The things that helped me to be successful was to keep reminding myself in the beginning that these foods are good for me and I do like them I just need to remember to eat them. The things that got in my way were not eating as healthy while I was at work or school and being in a hurry and not having time to prepare healthier choices when fast food was much quicker.
3. I benefited from this project because now eating vegetables isn't so much a chore now as much as it is something I just do with most meals. I learned that I can eat healthier foods and actually enjoy them. What I learned about behavior change is that it can be done you just need to get yourself into the routine of accomplishing your goal each week and adjusting it to make it more attainable or more challenging to fit your needs.
4. The environment benefited from me changing my behavior because I was going out less and eating less meats and more vegetables.
5. I will definitely be continuing this behavior, now its more just a habit than something I have to remember to do each day. I like to eat many of the vegetables I've been including in my goal so its not too difficult for me.
6. I would recommend to others to start out smaller in the beginning because you can always modify it later. Choose something that is really important to you also because otherwise you wont have as much ambition to keep up with it. 

 Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain