According to Dr. Philip Wu, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente, " Mile for mile, you burn as many calories walking as you would jogging, but with far less stress on your joints." And walking makes your carbon footprint smaller in terms of green house gas emissions.
Of course nothing is simple. According to British scientist Chris Goodall, walking burns more calories, but those calories are typically replaced by eating beef, an energy-intensive food that must be fed, watered, slaughtered, and transported thus creating emissions exceeded the exhaust produced by a reasonably fuel-efficient car.
Goodall conveniently forgot to include the emissions incurred by getting the gas to the gas tank which includes pumping crude oil out of the ground and refining it. An analysis by California's Pacific Institute using more data concluded that, for someone eating the average US diet, walking a mile and a half generates 230 grams of carbon dioxide--less than one quarter the 1000 grams of the carbon exuded by driving the auto.
Lauren O.Foster, author of a walking guidebook of Portland, Oregon,makes a case for walking's psychological benefits,"In a car, people are basically an obstacle. Walking you notice how much time and energy folks put into their property and their homes."
In addition, you have a chance for some spokal networking, chance conversations with folks known and unknown that weave the fabric of the neighborhood. At least that is the truth for me. I've had more and longer conversations while walking or biking than I had in the three decades I was car bound in Riverside Avondale.
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