June 10, 2022 By Charlie Inglis
Hello fellow citizens! I, Charlie Inglis, am here today to enlighten you on a very important topic. If you do this, you, yes YOU, will help the environment. What is it? My topic is: Don’t leave your car idling when you are not driving!
Now, you may be asking, “I am just one person. How would me idling affect the environment?” Although one person alone doesn’t have a devastating impact, you are definitely still contributing to greenhouse gasses (the ones that fuel climate change, such as carbon dioxide, or CO2). Also, if everyone in the town who could drive let their car idle, here’s what would happen. As of 2020, there were 18,213 people who can drive in Hingham. Say they each leave their car on for 10 minutes every day, for 30 days. They burn 0.026 gallons of gas every 10 minutes. That means they burn 0.78 gallons of gas in those 30 days. If one person burns that much, then 18,213 people would burn 14,206.14 gallons of gas in 30 days. That is just horrific. All combined, if you were pooling the costs of every individual’s gas payment in those 30 days, that would cost $62,237. And that isn’t even including regular driving. We can do better, Hingham!
The pollution in exhaust can irritate asthma and allergies, as well as cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Higher levels of air pollution are connected with increased school absences, hospital visits, and even early deaths. Vehicle exhaust is still harmful even when you can't see it. Children are more sensitive to air pollution because they breathe 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than adults.
When you burn a gallon of gas, it releases 19 pounds of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. In a year, if you idle for 10 minutes every day, you will emit 180.31 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere.
I know this is devastating information, but you can help! Here are some ways you can reduce your contribution to climate change:
- The biggest one is, if you are waiting in your car, or not in your car, even for a few minutes, please turn your car off. If you’re parked for 10 seconds or more, you should turn your car off and restart it when you’re ready to move again.
- I hear my parents and grandparents grumbling all the time about how expensive gas is these days, so that is another reason. You’ll save money!
- Spread this information around, and tell your friends to look on the Anchor as well to find more tips about it!
Thanks for reading and I hope you use this info and share it with your friends and family members. Ciao! 🙂
I love what you’re saying, and don’t take this the wrong way, but I think we can do better. People who are serious about the environment have to consider getting rid of their cars altogether. Perhaps one car per family and try to work with that. As I go around town I see many families with 3, 4 sometimes even five cars. Carpool with your neighbors and friends, have neighborhood trips to the grocery store etc. people should be asking their parents, why do we need more than one car? Do we really need air conditioning? Why aren’t we growing our own food? Why can’t we hunt and trap for our proteins? We need to start thinking differently, because what we’re doing isn’t working. As a coastal community we have to be concerned that in five or 10 years water levels will totally put Hingham underwater. Great job on the article. You are definitely on the right track!
Well said Charlie!
All right, Charlie! Your sage and well-founded advice can apply to service vehicles as well. May it be heeded by us all.