Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation

Energy Crisis: High Energy Consumption Taking Toll on Health

Jul 27, 2001

Alternative modes of transportation - walking, biking, public transit - all are more energy-efficient than the "one-person, one-automobile" lifestyle most Americans lead. At the same time, most people who use alternative transportation modes expend more energy - walking, pedaling, hoofing it to the bus stop or train station - than do folks driving cars. An article by Paul Salmon, Ph.D., which appeared in the May, 2001 issue of Kentuckiana HealthFitness, examined the very real relationship between our national thirst for energy and our individual reluctance to expend energy. Dr. Salmon's article begins: "We are in the midst of an energy crisis, and I am not talking about our reliance on foreign sources of oil and high levels of energy consumption. Rather, the energy crisis I am most concerned about in terms of Mind/Body Fitness has to do with the distressingly low level of physical energy expenditure in the U.S" and concludes with..."The energy stored in the oil pumped thousands of miles away in Saudi Arabia may eventually be transformed and wind up in fat cells here in Louisville!"