Small Steps to a More Sustainable World

Small Steps to a More Sustainable World

On September 22 2015 Paris France decided it was going to institute a citywide car free day.  It was a success you can read about it here: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/a-day-without-cars-in-paris/index.html

Now what can we do with this information? Do you think we could institute a citywide car free day in our most polluting cities in the United States? What kind of impact would it have on our CO2 emissions nationwide? Well  the blog green is my thing  has already done the math for us: https://greenismything.com/2015/09/16/what-if-everyone-in-the-u-s-stopped-driving-for-one-day/

◦          254 million Approximate number of cars/light trucks registered in the U.S.

◦          36.92 Approximate number of miles driven by the average U.S. car per day

◦          24.1 Approximate fuel efficiency of the average U.S. car/light truck (in miles per gallon)

◦          0.008887 Approximate number of metric tons CO2 emitted by one gallon of gasoline

So, when we do the math…

[(254,000,000*36.92)/24.1]/.008887=3,458,068 metric tons of CO2

So, if everyone in the U.S. stopped driving for a day, theoretically we would prevent approximately 3.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions. Not bad!

What could potentially be achieved if we instituted one of these days every month in every major polluting city in the world? How easily would we be able to reduce the amount of emissions annually with a simple ban once a month?