Sixty seconds. A mere sixty seconds is the amount of time Natural Resources Canada recommends you leave your engine idling while running errands, chatting with a friend, waiting at the ferry or picking your children up from school.
Avoiding unnecessary engine idling is something we can all immediately do to minimize our contribution to global climate change. Vehicle emissions greatly contribute to atmospheric pollutants, including greenhouse gases — the gases responsible for the climatic warming we are experiencing on Earth. In fact, every liter of gasoline consumed emits around 2.4kgs of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Natural Resources Canada advises “If every driver of a light-duty vehicle in Canada avoided idling for just five minutes a day, we would prevent more than 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.” This is the equivalent of taking an estimated 490,000 cars off the road each year.
A recent study found that in the peak of winter, Canadians idle their vehicles for a combined total of more than 75 million minutes a day – equivalent to one vehicle idling for 143 years.
Salt Spring Island, the community where we live, has a serious engine idling problem. On any given day you can find drivers idling their vehicles at the ferry terminal, outside cafes, banks, the library, at communal mailboxes, at the side of the road chatting on their cellphones, or having a ‘Salt Spring’ moment and talking to a neighbor.
Vehicle emissions, aside from being a significant source of greenhouse gases, are also a major contributor to worsening air quality in the Capital Regional District (CRD). This is of particular concern for children and individuals with breathing challenges. Interestingly enough, Natural Resources Canada found that drivers with children are more likely to idle than individuals without children.
Although not widely known, an engine idling bylaw came into effect in the CRD in 2009. The Bylaw to Promote Clean Air by Regulating Motor Vehicle Idling (Bylaw No. 3533) was created in recognition that “Motor vehicles are sources of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur oxide, and volatile organic compounds which are a health hazard to the inhabitants of the Capital Regional District” and for the “…purposes of maintaining, promoting and preserving the public health of the inhabitants of the Capital Regional District…”
The bylaw is designed to eliminate unnecessary engine idling and asks that CRD residents refrain from engine idling for more than three consecutive minutes.
In celebration of Earth Day 2010, let’s make a commitment to give up engine idling, and if we see someone participating in unnecessary idling on Salt Spring Island or anywhere else, we can politely remind them that greenhouse gases are a major source of global climate change.
Happy Earth Day!
Valerie Williams is the editor of www.GreenMuze.com and will be helping construct a Climate Change Solutions Art Canvas during the Salt Spring Earth Day Festival on April 18th, 2010.
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