The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
You've probably heard about bad things that go along with idle hands and idle minds. But have you ever heard about the bad things that go along with an idling vehicle? If not, here you go. Every time you start a vehicle it produces emissions that cause pollution and contribute to climate change. Climate change puts our forests and water supply at risk, endangers certain plants and animals and harms human health. So if you are idling a vehicle when you don't have to you are unnecessarily contributing to an environmental and health problem. You're also contributing to a thinner wallet. "Nearly everyone who drives a light vehicle can help reduce the impact on the environment and save a few dollars by a simple change," says Carmelle Sikma of Climate Change Saskatchewan. "In Saskatchewan, transportation represents 43 per cent of our personal greenhouse gas emissions so reducing vehicle idling is one way for people to lower the greenhouse gas emissions that are linked to climate change." Many of us are guilty of unnecessarily idling vehicles. A look outside a convenience store, a fitness centre, a library, office building or just about any structure, will prove the point. We just find it more convenient to keep the car running than to turn it off and start it again. But it's a costly convenience. You use more fuel idling your vehicle for ten seconds than you would if you turned the engine off and restarted it. See 'Campaign' P.# Con't from P.# Ed Dean with Saskatchewan Environment says idling isn't even needed when the temperature falls. "Once a vehicle is running, the best way to warm it up is to drive it," says Environment's Dean. "When it's cold using a block heater is a more effective and efficient way to warm the engine than idling. You don't have to leave a block heater plugged in overnight to warm the engine, two hours is usually more than enough. With modern computer-controlled, fuel-injected engines most vehicles don't need any more than 30 seconds of idling on winter days before driving away, as long as the windows are clear." Saskatchewan Environment and Climate Change Saskatchewan have launched an information campaign urging people to reduce unnecessary idling. As part of that campaign students in schools across the province are being urged to spread the news. School grounds are a common site for vehicle idling because parents frequently stop to drop off or pick up students. Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution because they breath faster than adults and inhale more air per kilogram of body weight. During the idling awareness campaign students are being asked to monitor vehicle idling outside their schools. When they complete the monitoring the school will be presented with an outdoor sign declaring it a "vehicle idle free zone".
