By Trajan Chalmers

I have a curiosity problem and once a question enters my head I have trouble getting it out. So, I have been wondering which has the greater carbon footprint, walking or driving... and now we will find out together.

Calculating the carbon footprint from driving is actually really simple. In fact, there are calculators out there that do all the work for me (see sources below).
After a couple of conversions, I discover my 1999 Toyota Corolla (baller!) produces...
1 mile driven = .73 lbs of C02 per mile

Ok, that was easy. What about walking? The thing about walking is there's no free lunch. You are still using energy, and that energy has to come from somewhere. For us, this comes from food of course. For my 170 lb frame, walking one mile burns about 90 calories, BUT you have to subtract out calories you'd burn anyway (basal metabolism) which means...
1 mile walked = 51 additional calories.

Now, to replace those 51 calories. I personally would prefer some beef. Say 85% lean beef which has 975 calories/lb. That means...
1 mile walked = .052 lbs of beef

Believe it or not, I was able to find an estimate that about 15 lbs of CO2 are produced for each pound of beef (this includes the grain that's fed to the animals, transportation, etc). With that we can calculate...
1 mile walked = .78 lbs of CO2 per mile walked

Results
Driving one mile: .73 lbs of CO2
Walking one mile: .78 lbs of CO2

It would appear driving is ever-so-slightly more friendly. However, my source for the beef (the food I chose before researching) says that beef has the largest carbon footprint of any meat (chicken produces 1/3 as much CO2) and that meat in general produces more CO2 than grains (which makes sense since many pounds of grains are being eaten for each pound of meat produced).

Ultimately it looks like this is close enough to depend on your specific variables (car you drive, how much you weigh, what foods you eat). Generally speaking though, it would appear walking does have the smaller footprint. On the other hand, you can always carpool, but there's no such thing as walkpooling, and who wants to walk alone?

Conclusion: carpool and drive if you care about the Earth.

Sources:
Carbon footprint per mile driven
(bottom of page) Calories burned per mile
Calories per pound of beef
C02 per lb of beef

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