Challenge 5: Throwing down the gauntlet -- and the keys

Not more joking around.

You’ve switched your light bulbs, screwed in your water-saving nozzles, even given up one of those T-bone dinners you love so much every week. But, if we are really going to rope in climate change before it’s too late, we need to address one inescapable habit: driving.

No matter how many pet names you have for your car, it’s still chief among evils when it comes to greenhouse gases – not to mention smog, acid rain and sprawl.

So, this week, it’s time to cut back on the gas.

For some of you, whose Hondas resemble igloos right now, it might hardly seem a stretch. But if you count yourself among that special Greater-Toronto breed of commuters, spending up to an hour and twenty minutes behind the wheel every day just to get to work and back, it will seem a serious sacrifice.

The Challenge: Spend one less day in the car this week than is your norm. Period. Taking a cab instead of driving doesn’t count.

If you are a road-warrior who all but lives in your car, that means one day on transit, carpooling or walking.

If you are like me, and only really drive on weekends, it means schlepping your groceries the old-fashioned way – on your shoulders.

Motivation: Transportation makes up more than quarter of our green house gases in the country.

Specifically, for every kilometre you drive in average-sized car, you spew out 316 grams of green house gases. Your SUV discharges an extra 145.

The average Canadian round-trip commute is 16 kilometres. But in the GTA, where people are known to leave their homes before dawn to avoid parking on Highway 401, it’s much, much more. One commuter profiled in The Star last December, Michael Barrett, drives 150 kilometres a day to get from his Oshawa home to his office in Mississauga and back.

So, let’s take a happy median. If you chuck your keys and cut out 32 kilometres of driving over one day, you’ll cut out more than 10 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Do that every week for a year, and you’ll cut out as much carbon as if you’d unplugged your home for two whole months. Astounded? It's true -- if you factor in the fact that in Ontario, about about 80 per cent of our electricity comes from green sources. (I know that building nuclear plants requires a lot of greenhouse gases, but so does building solar panels.... I'm talking output here.) To do the math on that, the World Wildlife Fund Canada's Keith Stewart pointed me to Environment Canada's inventory on greenhouse gases, which shows that in Ontario every kilowatt-hour of electricity translates to 220 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Process: Remove car keys from pocket, put them in a distant drawer for the day. Locate the nearest public transit stop.

Cost: Time spent planning. If you live in the suburbs and need to cross town for work, you’ll have to get familiar with a host of Go Transit and TTC maps.

Savings: About $14. Not driving 32 kilometres will mean you’ve just saved about four litres of gas – or about $4. Add to that the ransom you pay daily to park downtown.

-- Catherine Porter