RIDE2SAVE
Earth. It is ironically a short word, only containing two vowels and three consonants, but it is currently the only planet that provides life for human beings. Unfortunately, our Earth is on its way toward death. As proven in former vice president Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Documentary, Earth is going through a severe climate crisisglobal warming. He refers this global warming as an increase in Earth’s average surface air temperature that is enough to cause the expected climate conditions to change rapidly and often cataclysmically (worldviewof-globalwarming.org). What is global warming caused by? One of the problems is the offset carbon cycle. The Earth maintains a natural carbon balance; when the concentration of carbon dioxide increases slightly, the system gradually returns to its natural state. Compared to the rate at which humans are adding carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuelspollution, the natural readjustment of carbon works slowly. Therefore, carbon can’t remove itself fast enough, causing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to increase. The effects of global warming include icecaps melting, warmer waters, more hurricanes, deadly diseases, long-term droughts, huge heat waves, and economic consequences. If appropriate actions are taking soon, these effects of global warming can be reversed, which means our Earth might fully recover. Actions vary from small, such as recycling bottles, to big. As students, RIDE2SAVE can help!
RIDE2SAVE is a carpool plan that everyone who attends schools from kindergarten to grade 12 in a well-populated area can take part in. Not only will it decrease carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it will also loosen the traffic before and after school. Saving the earth while making parents’ lives easier with less traffic? It’s a Win-Win situation!
There are about 53.5 million students (U.S. Census Bureau) who attend schools ranging from kindergarten to grade 12. Out of these 53.5 million students, about half26.75 million studentslive in a tightly-packed, populated city. On an average basis, each student spends around six miles (survey) on driving to school and back home. Since there are 180 school days in a regular school year, that’s 1080 miles a year per student. Multiply this to the 26.75 million students; that’s 28,890,000,000 miles per year. Say that each gallon of gasoline provides 20 miles, then it totals up to 1.44 billion gallons of gasoline used up just for going to school. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, each gallon of gasoline emits 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With the 1.44 billion gallons of gasoline, the carbon dioxide emission is 27.94 billion pounds. Does that number sound too intimidating? Here’s how RIDE2SAVE comes into place.
So what if all the students carpool, four kids to one car? On a daily basis, there will be only 6.69 million cars hitting the streets in the morning to go to school. There will only be 0.36 billion gallons used up for this purpose, which is three-fourths (1.08 billion) less gallons than without carpooling. As a result, the carbon emission caused by this will be decreased by 75% (20.95 billion pounds). This is crucial to saving the earth, as well as creating a healthier environment for students to live in. Sounds good?
Now that the carbon dioxide concentration has lowered in the atmosphere and the earth is slowly recovering, RIDE2SAVE is not over yet. Students in high school who are in a program, such as the International Baccalaureate Program, that needs volunteering hours in order to graduate can earn their hours by participating in RIDE2SAVE. With this being allowed, more and more students will be able to participate in this, and thus, less and less gasoline will be used. Every participating student will be given a RIDE2SAVE card that works nationwide. Each time he or she helps carpools another student, he or she needs to slide the card through the RIDE2SAVE Points Machine. Automatically, points will be imputed into his or her account. On his or her college application, these points will be calculated into the hours that they have volunteered.
RIDE2SAVE is great way to save the earth because the people who take part are students. Gasoline price is increasing continuously due to the economic crisis and has always been one of the problems that seem to bother families. With RIDE2SAVE, each family doesn’t have to spend so much money on gas every month. The carbon dioxide concentration will also decrease because fewer cars will be hitting the road in the morning and afternoon. Therefore, students will be able to live in a healthier, safer environment, without breathing into an excess amount of carbon dioxide. Earth is not just a simple word with two vowels and three consonants. Instead, it is a complex planet with severe problems going on. Most of the time, students think they can’t really make a difference, but if all the students nationwide bond together, we can make a difference. We can help the Earth recover. We can change the world.
Yes, we can.
