"I think I'm getting the Black Lung, Pop"

To breathe near Paul was an act of strength, and an act of technique....When you would breathe in near him your body would quit. Your lungs would rebel. Your olfactory senses would go into shutdown.  You'd inhale, you'd get half a breath in, and your whole body would go "No." It was like trying to inhale a Buick. (Henry Rollins, "Donate Your Bodies to Science You Fools")

As anyone who lives in Utah knows, during the summer the air seems harmless enough--but it goes caustic quickly once winter and the associated inversions arrive.  Suddenly you can see the "air" (but no longer the mountains) and, on many days, can almost chew it, or at the very least feel like a pack-a-day smoker within minutes of going outside.

Thankfully, people are now consciously making a concerted effort to improve the air quality in Utah, which has three of the top 25 worst cities for short-term particle pollution according to the State of the Lung Report released by the American Lung Associationin 2010 (SLC-Ogden-Clearfield came in at #7, Provo-Orem at #13, and Logan at #18).   

As someone who likes to exercise outdoors, I'd like to not have my activities end up as the equivalent to the time I spent sitting in bars before they banned smoking.  This year, since I was no longer living in the city, and so had lost my habits of riding my bike everywhere I went, I realized I had to make an effort to be one of the people who was conscious of the amount they drive, and try my best to limit it.  Conveniently the Clear the Air Challenge provided a way to keep track of how much I was driving/saving on driving.

During the month of July, there was an actual competition and challenge with a goal to:

• eliminate 300,000 trips
• save 2 million miles, and 
• reduce 3.4 million pounds of emissions. 

Sadly, the goals were not reached--but the results were still far better than nothing.  The final results were:

July turned out to be a hard month for me to not drive, so my efforts were a sad contribution to the overall total.  But the challenge helped me (hopefully permanently) change the way I look at driving and running errands; so in spite of the pitiful numbers, I expect them to improve significantly by next years challenge.

My Results

Though the competition is over for the year, you can still keep track of your miles saved by signing up here if you're interested.