It’s been hot. Really hot. And humid.
No surprise there, really. This is the South, after all, albeit June.
Here in Durham, the mercury has been getting a workout, topping out at or above 90 degrees for most of the past two weeks.
Along with this increase in heat has come an increase in the AQI, or Air Quality Index. The AQI number ranges from 0-500 with a color code from green to maroon in six colors. The number and corresponding color is a daily measure that tells you how polluted your air is and what consequential health effects might be of concern.
Although the Environmental Protection Agency calculates AQI for five different pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act, ground-level ozone and particulates are the two that pose the greatest immediate human health risk. Children, active adults and people with respiratory diseases such as asthma and emphysema are especially sensitive.
What do we do about the problem? The same thing scientists are urging us to do to stop global warming and climate change.
Burn less fossil fuel.
The leading sources of ground-level ozone and particulates that lead to high AQI values and warnings to limit outdoor activity on hot summer days are emissions from vehicles and power plants.
That means the same transportation and energy solutions that contribute to a greener, more sustainable and climate-neutral Duke also contribute to better air quality for breathing and living. With rising rates of asthma across the country due to poor air quality, and with children especially vulnerable, this is something everyone can get behind.
For the sake of this column, let’s focus on individual impact, and transportation in particular. In April, Sustainable Duke offered up its Green Devil Challenge: (no relation to this column) Drive Down Emissions—a challenge aimed at reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicles driving to campus each day by encouraging people to try alternative transportation. That month, more than 2,500 people accepted the challenge.
Across the Triangle, commuters have been taking similar steps to try alternative modes of transportation. The annual SmartCommute Challenge recently wrapped up with more than 10,000 pledges. While prizes to employers will be awarded on percent participation, Duke was a clear winner, leading the field with more than 2,500 people pledging. That was twice the number of IBM’ers and three times as many as UNC.
In a moment of global coincidence, I gave myself a challenge to go on a carbon diet—it also started in April—I called it my Carbon Diet Challenge. Here’s an update.
I still have yet to get on a bus. Even if I wanted to now, the bus I would take doesn’t operate during the summer. So, that option will have to wait until I have time to lobby for its year round operation.
Biking is still a great option for me because I like to bike. With a commute longer than 10 miles, however, I encounter a higher level of risk than the ideal bike commuter, making biking an option I’d rather not employ every day, even with the lower summer traffic. Better integration with a better bus system, and it would become far more appealing.
By far the most successful way for me to cut my carbon emissions is still telecommuting. No driving involved. Roll down to the computer, plug in, get working. I still get my window, but less interaction with my peers. Provided I don’t adjust the thermostat to keep the house more comfortable than it would be sans occupant, this option might just break even.
How am I doing? I estimate I’ve averaged two days a week telecommuting or biking since I went on the carbon diet; that’s a 40 percent reduction in my transportation carbon footprint. Not bad.
How did everyone else do? Hard to say.
The drawbacks of both the Green Devil Challenge: Drive Down Emissions and the SmartCommute Challenge are accountability and auditing. There is no reliable way to measure if people actually tried another mode of transportation, just that they said they would. There is also no clear methodology for measuring the long term success, ie. getting individuals to switch to a different commuting pattern.
Add to that the fact that the Triangle area was built and developed with cars in mind during an era when it was the norm to build bigger houses farther and farther outside the population centers. The area faces an uphill battle to get away from those two infrastructure realities without significant growth in population and the public transit infrastructure demand that comes with it.
In Durham, at least, there’s hope of overcoming that adversity. A new bus line is starting in August that will connect Duke’s campus with the downtown Durham core. The Bull City Connector will be free and run every 15 minutes.
Until it comes online, you can get involved in the public comment period for the proposed Triangle Regional Transit Program, keep biking, turn off the lights and try to breathe easy.
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