Piss on the Planet …

(noon. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This ad comes via Canada. GreenCalgary is running an idle-free campaign with, we could say, a bit of a different twist.

The negative health and environmental impacts of idling have been known for over a decade. Yet, all over the city of Calgary we are leaving our cars running while not in use for an average of 5-10 minutes per car per day. Idling is unnecessary. It wastes fuel, produces more harmful emissions than normal driving, damages engines, and contributes to climate change

A good example of how idling is counter-productive and dangerous comes from diesel fumes from school buses — creating direct health risks for school-age children.

the levels of diesel exhaust on a bus can be four times as high as those found in passenger cars driving just ahead of the bus. And the concentration of diesel fumes found inside the buses were more than eight times that of the average amount found in California’s outdoor air.

idling buses often spew out higher concentrations of particles and carbon than moving buses, although buses may emit more when climbing hills or moving in heavy traffic.

…

children on diesel buses breathe in more soot than everyone else in the surrounding metropolitan area combined, and up to 70 percent more soot than the average commuter. … Kids not only face this increased risk from exposure; they are also more vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health showed that young children’s lungs will get two and half times the dose of soot particles as an adult’s lungs.

Sensible school districts have anti-idling policies for their buses. (See EPA’s anti-idling campaign as part of the Clean School Bus effort). Sadly, they are too rarely seriously enforced. Eliminating (nearly) that threat is one reason that plug-in hybrid electric school buses (PHESBs) are a smart step forward.

In the interim, as we wait for PHESBs and electric cars and better transit and more telecommuting and flex time and smart growth and …, learn more about idling and stop being idle.

Idling doesn’t take you very far… and getting nowhere is costing you a lot of money! Idling an engine for more than ten seconds uses more fuel than turning the engine off and restarting it. So all that time spent idling is costing us money that we didn’t need to spend!

So, idling pisses money away while pissing on the planet.

Hat-tip to Auto Blog Green and The Car Connection.