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A
Star is born!
Project
In Brief
Transportation's
Impacts on Air Quality
Why We're Doing This Project
Fast
Facts
Project
In Brief
It's back to school for the staff of the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources. Knowing that the future of the environment lies in the hands
of our younger generations, the DNR has partnered with the students
and teachers of Marshall High School to produce an environmental education
video.
The partnership began with the Milwaukee school in spring 2000. Since
then, they have been developing a video and website to teach high school
students about transportation choices and how they relate to air quality.
The video, scheduled to be completed late this fall, is being produced
with the philosophy "Let Kids Lead" in mind. The DNR hired
the multimedia firm, Media Makers, to serve as mentors to the students
as they get hands-on experience videotaping, acting, editing, publicizing,
and creating a website for the video.
Students from Milwaukee's John Marshall High School, North Division
High
School, South Division High School, and Rufus King High School have
been
selected as the talent and crew of the video. They will be traveling
with
teachers and DNR staff to locations across the nation. Their skills
will be
needed for videotaping in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Houston, Texas; and
San
Jose, California.
Teens will identify with the attention-grabbing video, designed to be
shown in the classroom, as it introduces them to transportation/air
quality issues like ground-level ozone and technical solutions such
as hybrid cars or fuel cells.
The
final website, which will replace this temporary one, will be an interactive
site for teachers and youth alike. The site will:
- Answer
questions posed by the video.
- Provide
background information, curriculum resources, and connections to cutting
edge research.
- Pose new
questions about global air pollution issues.
- Encourage
teens to connect their personal choices with the environmental impacts
of those choices.
Grants from
the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States
Department of Transportation fund this project. Upon completion, it
will comply with Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards.
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Transportation's
Impacts on Air Quality
Why We're Doing This Project
Transportation
emissions are a major ingredient in global warming, stratospheric ozone
depletion, asthma, ground-level ozone (a.k.a., smog) formation and other
problems. We're responsible for these emissions. The way we choose to
get around today impacts our world tomorrow - the land, the water, and
the AIR.
Easy
Breathers looks at how air quality is affected by transportation.
Did you know… ?
- Vehicle
travel in the United States is doubling every 20 years.
- A vehicle
powered by gasoline emits its own weight in greenhouse gases every
year.
- Traveling
20 miles, the average car produces 20 pounds or more of carbon dioxide,
a greenhouse gas.
- Gas-powered
cars produce chemicals that, in hot, humid weather, react with others
to form ground-level ozone.
- Ground-level
ozone is an asthma trigger and pollutant that harms even healthy lungs
- Chemicals
from leaking vehicle air conditioners deplete the Earth's stratospheric
ozone layer, causing higher rates of skin cancer and cataracts.
- Seventeen
million Americans have asthma. Five million are children, and the
numbers are on the rise.
The
good news is that by learning how to make good transportation choices
early in life, we can fix these problems. Good transportation choices
include:
- Walking,
busing, biking, or carpooling to school or work one or more times
a week.
- Choosing
a fuel-efficient vehicle (>27 mpg).
- Properly
maintaining your car.
- Supporting
new transportation technologies like alternative fuels, hybrid cars,
electric cars, and fuel cells.
Easy Breathers
is about young people teaching their peers about transportation impacts
on air quality. We're focusing on new technologies, because as the next
generation of entrepreneurs and policy makers, young people will lead
the charge to create innovative solutions to air quality problems.
For
more information on air quality issues as they relate to transportation,
visit these websites or contact our project staff.
The
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Air Management Program
The
Environmental Protection Agency
The
Hypercar Center, Rocky Mountain Institute
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Fast
Facts
- Estimated
completion date: late fall 2001. To request an advance copy, click
here.
- Funding:
Easy Breathers is funded by two grants:
- From
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Office
of Transportation and Air Quality - A Mobile Sources Outreach
Assistance Grant
- From
the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) - A Congestion
Mitigation and Air Quality Grant
- Target
audience: urban/suburban teens ages 14+
- Products:
an educational video and website
- Distribution:
national - to high schools and groups/agencies who work with the target
population
- Major
air issues (others will be addressed to a lesser degree):
- ground-level
ozone
- particulate
matter
- climate
change
- Major
technology topics include (but are not limited to):
- hybrid
cars
- electric
cars
- fuel
cells and hydrogen fuel
- ethanol,
propane, and other alternative fuels
- the
"hypercar" concept (see http://www.hypercar.com/
and http://www.rmi.org)
- low
sulfur gasoline and diesel and the advancement in emission control
technology that the reduction in sulfur will enable
- transportation
alternatives such as transit, high-speed rail, bike and pedestrian
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