It may be hard to believe, but sometimes driving is the greener way to travel.
According to Chris Goodall’s book How To Live A Low-Carbon Life, we need to think of fuel as a far more general term that includes the food we eat.
If you are eating a lot of meat, milk, or other pre-packaged products, but walk everywhere, you may still be having a worse impact (in terms of carbon emissions from food processing) than a vegetarian who drives to the grocery store.
The Pacific Institute has supported Goodall’s claims and says that in some instances driving can be “environmentally superior to walking”.
Of course, there are many variables, and tracing your carbon footprint back to the original source of your food is a bit extreme, so this should be taken with a grain of salt. But if you are a walker or biker, keep in mind that your fuel should be greener than a car’s.
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