In the last EcoMinutes, I discussed how you should resolve to eat lower on the food chain, to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, and lower your contribution to climate change. Today, two more resolutions.
Resolution No. 2 is to use less plastic. After climate change, one of my biggest environmental concerns is plastic pollution and the use of single-use plastics. Although not all plastics are bad and many are essential, most single-use plastics wouldn’t fall in that category. Single-use plastic in the form of plastic bags, bottles, other containers, and straws can pollute and cause harm in several ways. First, plastic is made up of petroleum, a nonrenewable resource, along with many other chemicals, including carcinogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Plastic also never goes away; it just gets smaller and smaller. After they are used, plastics degrade, and the pieces become smaller and smaller until they become microplastics and even smaller to nanoplastics. These tiny pieces are carried in the air or end up in the water, where they are ingested by small organisms, the base of the food chain, which are then eaten by larger organisms up the food chain, with research showing humans ingesting about five grams of plastic, about the weight of a credit card, a week.
But, you don’t only get your microplastics from seafood — you can breathe them in, or get them in sea salt, teabags, your clothes, or even through a mosquito bite. I’ll be talking about plastic pollution in more detail in later podcasts, but, briefly, the reason this is an issue, is that plastics can cause problems by just being in your body, or through the chemicals that are absorbed and then released by them, and microplastics are often colonized by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms, which might lead to infectious diseases. Another problem with plastics is that they harm wildlife.
Animals, sea life, and birds eat plastics, which can block their digestive systems and kill them. More than 100,000 turtles and marine animals, and more than a million birds are killed each year by eating or being trapped by pieces of plastic, plastic bags, fishing line, and six-pack can holders.
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What you can do — say no to single-use plastics, bring your own cloth bags to the store, carry and use a stainless-steel water bottle (there will be a later podcast on bottled water — bottom line it’s no better than tap water), a reusable coffee cup, and don’t use a plastic straw. If you have to use a straw, use a reusable one. I have a cute little one that folds up in a small carrying case that fits in my bag. When I’m at a restaurant, I generally tell the server to ask rather than automatically giving everyone a straw with their drinks (yes, I’m rather insufferable to have dinner with), and I also carry containers with me to avoid getting foam take-away boxes (the servers generally love this one).
Resolution No. 3: Resolve to drive less. One of the most environmentally damaging things we do on an individual basis is driving. According to the EPA, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation account for about 28% of total U.S. emissions, making it the largest single contributor. Between 1990 and 2022, greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than in any other sector. Within this sector, passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks make up the majority with 57%.
The type of vehicle you drive does affect how harmful your commute is, but all vehicles cause some damage. Burning fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The buildup of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases like methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) is causing the Earth’s atmosphere to warm, resulting in changes to the climate we are already seeing today in more extreme weather and yearly record temperatures. Electric vehicles, EVs, contribute about 60 to 68% fewer emissions than gas-and diesel-powered vehicles. And when those EVs are charged using renewable sources, they can further reduce emissions by an additional 18% and even become a grid resource.
In fact, electric school buses are proposed to supply energy to school buildings during power outages. Using school buses as a power source would significantly reduce carbon emissions compared to using backup diesel generators. And buses can be charged when electric rates are low and used to generate revenue from supplying energy back to the grid when the bus is inactive, such as during the middle of the day, in the evening, or during the summer when rates are higher. I will be doing a future EcoMinutes about electric school buses and both their environmental and health benefits.
So, what you can do to reduce your driving — this is a bit more difficult where we live. As I write this, I’m visiting one of my children in New York City. He doesn’t own a car. We’ve done virtually all our traveling by subway, train, or on foot. In fact, it’s rare that I don’t get all my steps in when I visit either of my children who live in big cities. When I lived in New York, I used to get a lot of work done or read a book on the train. Now I read or do crossword puzzles on my phone. An interesting fact that they share on each train ticket is how many pounds of carbon each trip offsets. In Northwest Florida, we have no public transportation that is easy for everyone to use. Yes, Escambia County has ECAT, but I can’t ride it from Santa Rosa. I’ll be honest, if I could get on a bus or van and be a passenger going to the university every day, I’d jump at it. There used to be a bus in northern Santa Rosa County, but the commissioners at the time were incredibly short-sighted and refused to pay what was a relatively small amount to continue it. So, without a good public transportation system, what can you do to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions? First, just drive only when necessary — I live about a mile and a half from a supermarket, and I often walk it when I have only a few things to buy. Most of my bigger shopping trips are on my way home from work. So, walk and bike when you can. Chain your trips. If you’re going out, think of all the errands you need to run, and do them on the one trip. In fact, do all the stops on one side of the road on your way out and the others on your way back. If you can, carpool. There are several women who live close to me who belong to the same organization I do, and we carpool to meetings and events. It makes the trip feel a little shorter, and there are more sets of eyes watching the road. Last, drive the lowest-emission car you can. I currently have a hybrid, but I will certainly consider an electric vehicle when I’m planning for my next car.
