• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

Cool Fix/Goloco

Air Date: Week of

Carpooling reduces carbon emissions, and now you can find a ride online, reports Living on Earth’s Mitra Taj.



Transcript

[CAR STARTING]

TAJ: When it comes to the carbon-emitting activity of driving, an Internet start-up is betting we care as much about our warming planet as we do our destinations.

Goloco has teamed up with the online social networking site Facebook to help passengers and drivers find each other. Members throughout the country post information about upcoming trips, look at where others are going, arrange rideshares, and lighten their carbon footprints.

The Department of Transportation says 86 percent of Americans drive to work alone. And for every mile driven, the average passenger car sends nearly a pound of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Goloco hopes to make carpooling—not just to work but to shopping centers, sporting events, and concerts—fun. Members can check out the pictures, interests, and riding histories of their potential car mates before working out the details of the ride.

Sharing the 56 miles from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island with Rima—a Beirut native who likes jazz and watching South Park—will save the driver $13 and spare the atmosphere 50 pounds of CO2. After every login, Goloco tells members—known as oLos-- how many pounds of carbon dioxide they’ve saved to date.

By sharing rides and getting closer to one another; oLos get closer to slowing climate change.

That’s this week’s cool fix for a hot planet. I’m Mitra Taj.

 

Links

Goloco Website

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

Creating positive outcomes for future generations.

Innovating to make the world a better, more sustainable place to live. Listen to the race to 9 billion

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth