HR: 1330h
AN: U32A-0033    [PDF]
TI: A Healthy Reduction in Oil Dependence and Carbon Emissions
AU: * Higgins, P A
EM: phiggins@globalecology.stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford, CA 94305
AU: Higgins, M
EM: higginsm@umich.edu
AF: The University of Michigan, Department of Epidemiology School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
AB: Societal dependence on oil as an energy source for personal transportation leads to increasingly negative social consequences including climate change, air pollution, political and economic instability and habitat degradation. Our heavy reliance on the automobile for transportation, determined in part by urban sprawl, also contributes to the population's increasingly sedentary lifestyle and to a concomitant degradation in health. We have shown that widespread substitution of exercise, commensurate with previously recommended levels, through biking or walking instead of driving can substantially reduce oil consumption and carbon emissions. For example, if all individuals between the ages of 10 and 64 substituted one hour of cycling for driving the reduction in gasoline demand would be equivalent to the gas produced from 34.9 percent of current oil consumption. Relative to 1990 net US emissions, this constitutes a 10.9 percent reduction in carbon emissions. Therefore, substitution of exercise for driving could improve health, reduce carbon emissions and save more oil than even upper estimates of that contained in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 6304 Benefit-cost analysis
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: U
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting