Walking damages planet more than going by car!!

Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated.

Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby.

The sums were done by Chris Goodall, campaigning author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, based on the greenhouse gases created by intensive beef production. “Driving a typical UK car for 3 miles [4.8km] adds about 0.9 kg [2lb] of CO2 to the atmosphere,” he said, a calculation based on the Government’s official fuel emission figures. “If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You’d need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving.

“The troubling fact is that taking a lot of exercise and then eating a bit more food is not good for the global atmosphere. Eating less and driving to save energy would be better.”

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This is plain silly. Do you think this is for real or someone overgeneralizing the situation?

[edit on 9-8-2007 by Digital_Reality]

[edit on 9-8-2007 by Digital_Reality]

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Mod edit - replaced quote with 'ex' tags

Please read Posting work written by others

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 10/8/07 by masqua]

Seema silly to me to hhaha... but, maybe it will shut al gore up for a few seconds... hopefully daily planet gets a hold of this and stops mentioning 'global warming' every 2 friggin seconds!

Al Gore already knows this

It's not a hoax and it's not a lie.

The point is that the atmospheric carbon produced by food production, processing and distribution in rich countries is ridiculously high.

It's not about reducing global warming by driving everywhere and becoming a couch potato. It's about doing something to reduce the carbon load of basic industries. Making everything greener.

Most of us don't really have a clue, as the following table shows. It comes from the Times Online article cited earlier:

— Traditional nappies are as bad as disposables

— Paper bags cause more global warming than plastic

— Diesel trains in rural Britain are more polluting than 4x4 vehicles

— Burning wood for fuel is better for the environment than recycling it

— Organic dairy cows are worse for the climate

eat less and drive more???
we already have so many starving people in the world, and waaaaaaaaaaay too many cars, at least in North America, because if you don't have a car, you're not cool...

This guy doesn't make any sense to me...

so global warming was caused by man walking the earth? Don't forget horses... they 'pollute' as well..

I usually have an open mind to all theories, but this just sound plain weird to me.

I'd like to see the evidence that people who drive consume less calories

Anyway, presumably this also means that doing the housework, dancing and all sporting activities should also be banned because they cause global warming? Oh, and what about sex?

It's just another case of if you play around with statistics you can prove just about anything .....

I walk just about everywhere, and don't consume the RDA of calories daily -- and well, this article more or less scared the patootie out of me at first.

Still, with all the synthetic and processed foods in mass consumption, it seems more like a relative issue than a universal one.

HAHAHA ... that is so misleading!

So ... what about me? I am a vegetarian. If I walk, I don't replenish the calories spent with nearly as much wasted carbon, in fact, most of my food produces O2 from CO2 I know it still most likely has a negative aspect from transportation, farm equipment, etc. I am planning on starting a full fledged garden of my own soon ... then I really will have a much lower load.

I also drive a Civic Hybrid, I get 45 mpg city 55-75 mpg highway (depending on speed). I drive less than 10,000 miles a year, it is a SULEV and judging from the fueleconomy.gov website, I put out around 2 tonnes a year from the car. Much better than my RX-7 of old!!! mid to high teens IIRC.

You are not doing much good either considering, if the average person stops exercising, they don't reduce intake adequately, they use more electricity (lights, tv & cablebox, fans, computers) than if they were out doing something HEALTHY for their mind and body ... and most people drive vehicles that get horrendous mileage, as I once did. 960 miles on one tank is my record 80 mpg on 12 gallons, I probably could have stretched it to over 1000! And just for doubters, this isn't that rare, go here for examples CleanMPG or here GreenHybrid . I think the owner of the CleanMPG gets over 99.9 mpg regularly in his regular Accord (limited by the guage on the navigation system) ... he has pictures, just look around, check out the databases and articles, or sign up and ask for proof yourself. I am not on there, but, I got some tips and implemented them. You can use them on any car and make improvements.



If we really micromanaged the care for the environment ... not for the sake of 'global warming' but for the sake of BEING CLEAN and not polluting just because it is easier. The ghg wouldn't be an issue in the first place. We should be clean because we breath the air, we drink the water, and we suffer the consequences of our actions and the actions of those before us. Polluting the environment is like poor hygiene ... I hope most of us wipe our rears, take showers, and wash their sheets on a regular basis ... to be clean ... well, the same respect could be paid to the earth. Eating less meat and dairy, growing your own veggies, consuming less energy, driving less and driving an efficient car, etc. ... what is funny about those things, when you do them, you also spend less money. Sounds like a win-win situation.

I wish we could restore the planet to where it was 200 years ago, before we cut down a large percentage of the trees, strip mined for minerals, destroyed ecological systems and life globally (whales, extinct species of plants and animals for example). The cure for a lot of diseases may have been destroyed on a few of those rain forests we wiped off the planet.

Don't get mad when the earth strikes back ... it is only natural to defend yourself I think the funniest thing is the possible ice age resulting from the warming

btw, go ahead and be careless, melt the ice ... my house is about 100 ft above sea level, them more you melt, the more my house is worth ... you will make it coastal property! I would much rather you didn't and took care of this planet.

at first i thought this was a quote from The Onion or something. =)

unless i see some evidence i'm not taking it at face value.

My first response was laughter after reading this article also. It kinda gives you the feeling that whatever you do in life your still Jacked

Ecogeek reported a very good rebuttal to this.
www.ecogeek.org...

Other things that ecogeek does not hit on are

1. The "hidden" carbon emissions that exist for producing food like emissions created to power farm equipment and to transport food are comparable to the "hidden" carbon emmissions that are necessary to produce and transport oil.

2. Cars produce other pollutants besides carbon like NOx emmissions.

3. There are reasons why walking is better for the common good other than lowering polution. Excessive oil consumption and driving has lead to: funding terrorism, wars in the Middle East, rampant obesity and heart disease due to people not getting any excercise, and traffic jams.