An idling car releases 1 pound of carbon dioxide emissions for every 10 minutes it is run and what this means in the wake of a new high school.
By Molly Mitchell, '20
A brand new high school means construction means decreased parking availability to students. Weekday mornings, sophomores and juniors arrive at early hours to park close to the school. Sophomore Aiden Vanek usually gets to school around 6:55 AM, parks his car and does homework in the auditorium lobby. What would be the environmental consequences if Vanek wouldn’t leave his car to get homework done and instead idled his car until a few minutes before 8:05 AM?
A statistic reported by the Environmental Defense Fund stated that for every ten minutes a car is idled, one pound of carbon dioxide as exhaust is released into the atmosphere. According to Junior Andrea Orazen, who parks on Northwest Boulevard at 6:40 AM, many students keep their cars running, while parked, through the morning.
“I do think it can create [environmental] issues because there are so many kids sitting in their [idling] cars for almost an hour,” Orazen said.
A common misconception for cars is that restarting them burns more fuel than leaving them idled. The Environmental Defense Fund suggests, on their website, that if you’re waiting more than 10 seconds in an idled car, you should turn off the ignition. Increased time spent lining side streets could have an effect on the city’s environmental footprint leading to increased greenhouse gasses, like carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.
Q&A: Environmental Science Teacher Beth Bailey
Q: The Environmental Defense Fund reported that an idling car produces a pound of carbon dioxide every 10 minutes that it is idled. Based on your background in environmental science, what concerns would increased idling of cars pose on the environment of UA?
A: Carbon dioxide is a big concern because it is a greenhouse [gas], but it is not the only emission in car exhaust. Other examples of chemicals include forms for nitrogen oxides, which can contribute to climate change, but also to other problems like acid deposition and photochemical smog. Fine particulate matter and VOCs could be present which can contribute to smog as well.
Q: What solutions do you see to this problem?
A: Turn off your car! It’s spring, get moving, go take a short walk with your friends instead of sitting in the car. It will wake you up, help our air quality and save you money.
Q: How important, in your opinion, is addressing this environmental issue?
A: Local air quality issues and global climate change are important issues that we are facing as a society. I think sometimes people have the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. Just because we can’t see all the chemicals coming from the cars and we don’t have immediate bad results from our actions, it doesn’t mean that our daily choices don’t matter.