Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. And today, I’m in Portland, Oregon.
We drove here in our old RV from Rhode Island. It’s a really fun vehicle, but the gas mileage isn’t great.
I wondered if we created more greenhouse gases driving than flying, which is what we usually do when we visit my family.
Here to help me answer that question is Stephen Porder, our founder and the provost of sustainability at Brown University. Hi, Stephen!
Stephen Porder: Hey, Megan, you made it! Congratulations!
Megan: Thanks!
Stephen: How was your trip?
Megan Hall: It was great! I loved staying in a different place every day. And, despite having a 1979 RV, we didn’t have any major mechanical problems.
Stephen: I’m really glad to hear that. I’ve definitely been worrying about you.
Megan: Well, we’re safe. We’re all fine. But, I really called you to help me figure out if we created more emissions on this trip than we would if we flew across the country.
Stephen: Right, so the four of you flew across the country, from Boston to Portland, it would be about two and a half to three tonnes of CO2 emitted.
Megan: Okay, but before I give you the data on the trip, there’s something you should know- This is a recording of me and my husband Ryan at one of our gas stops in Nebraska.
Megan: okay, so, um, our odometer stopped working. So we don’t know how far we’ve gone.
Ryan: But it’s great for the resale value.
Megan: Our trip odometer is stuck at around 1 thousand miles. It stopped working somewhere in Iowa.
Stephen: Well, I guess we’ll just go to Google for that.
Megan: Alright, so I know that we used about four hundred forty six gallons of gas.
And, if we just go off the distance on the map, we traveled three thousand, two hundred ninety five miles.
So, what does that tell us?
Stephen: You were averaging a whopping 7.4 miles per gallon. You might even do worse than a hummer. Not sure.
Megan: Oh no. Single digits!
Stephen: Yeah, single digits. Definitely not so good.
Megan: How does that compare to flying across the country to Oregon?
Stephen: Yeah, not so great. That’s four tonnes of CO2, versus two and a half to three flying.
Megan: Ok, so it’s making me kind of doubt our new plan to become RV people.
Stephen: Yeah, definitely living in a rolling house that gets seven miles to the gallon is probably not the way to lower your carbon footprint.
Megan: I will say, that although it sounds like we created some serious greenhouse gas emissions on this trip, it actually taught me more about conserving energy and water than any airplane ride.
Stephen: Why is that?
Megan: Well, everywhere we go, we have to think about where our energy was coming from. If we plugged into a campground, it was nice and quiet. And we could run all of our appliances. But if we were at a farm or something like that, we had to turn on our noisy generator.
And then one day, we ran out of water while my daughter was in the middle of a shower. So we had to pour seltzer on her head to get the shampoo off. So yeah, it’s made me a lot more aware of the limited quantity of all of these resources.
Stephen: Yeah, once you’re off the grid, or once you’re really counting the energy you use, it makes you think hard about all the waste that you have in the system.
Megan: So I’ve learned a few things, but maybe I shouldn’t drive this thing back.
Stephen: Do me a favor. I’m gonna worry if you drive the thing back.
Megan: Okay, thanks, Steven, talk to you later.
Stephen: Be safe.
Megan: Alright! That’s it for today. For more information or to ask a question about the way you recycle, use energy, or make any other choice that affects the planet, go to “the public’s radio dot org slash possibly.” Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and the Public’s Radio.
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