I’m from a small town in Florida, where the population is less than 8,000, but the distance between each building makes it impossible to walk anywhere. Unfortunately, this is a common theme in America. Since the invention of the car in the 1886 by Carl Benz, and Ford’s assembly lines in the early 1900s, the car has epitomized the American way of life. And when Eisenhower approved the 1956 bill that created our massive highway system, not only was the car cemented as a way of life, but another eco-unfriendly monster was created: suburbia.

Suburban areas, like Satellite Beach, Florida, are offshoots of larger cities where millions commute to and from work every day. The car made this all possible. Realistically, the car could be blamed for several of society’s evils, such as obesity and drunk driving. But what really makes the car, and subsequently suburbia, so malevolent, is what it’s doing to the environment.

Cars cause almost a quarter of current greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the 42,000 deaths from accidents, car exhaust causes 30,000 deaths and 120,000 premature deaths. And that’s just from one year in the U.S.

Pollution and smog are the reason for a high increase in childhood asthma and stunted mental growth in children. Lucky for us (if you can call America’s obsession with the automobile lucky), we have much stricter laws for pollution than many other countries, like Thailand or Mexico, where millions are severely affected by the overpopulation of cars.

Yet, we remained addicted to the socioeconomic value of cars. Globally, cars represent wealth and status, something for which humans have traded in their health and the health of our mother nature. Why do less than five percent of Americans use public transportation? Why do we love our long commutes and identical, indifferent suburban culture? Why are we willing to deny science and common sense and insist global warming is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people?” Because we are literally addicted to cars, and we’re unwilling to change our lifestyles to halt the eventual climate change that might possibly lead to human extinction.

So ask yourself this: is walking really that bad? Is the CTA so terrible? Are traffic and car payments and parking lots really that wonderful? All I know, is that since I came to Northwestern, I’ve had to walk everywhere or take public transportation, and I love it. I have time to really enjoy the life I’m living, and spend less time stressed about where I’m going.

During the summers, I live at home (Lake Leelanau, Michigan) and work on a small vegetable farm. This fact alone should be enough to hint at the size of my hometown, but for the sake of this post, let me outline it further. There are no stoplights in my hometown. The “town” is actually classified as a “village,” and consists primarily of a gas station, a small grocery store, one small restaurant (with limited hours), one bar, and a hardware store. Doesn’t sound that small? Let me put it in a way that truly sums up the “smallness” factor: I graduated from a K-12 school in a class of 42 students. We were the largest class ever to pass through the school. This was a public school.

Needless to say, the “crowded” aspect of Friedman’s book did not really apply to my summer. (Read more…)

I have always been the kind of person who drives everywhere. Grocery shopping? Hop in the car. Off to the movies? Let me find my keys. Like so many Americans, I have been caught in the mindset that if you need to get somewhere safely and efficiently you need to rev up your engine and burn some CO2.

Not so.

This summer I’ve been learning about the wonders of becoming car-independent and learning to rely on bicycles, public transit, carpools, and my own two feet. (Read more…)