Local climate change group promotes Internet carpooling

I'm writing this letter as part of a project by a new local group called "Climate Change Action Network" to promote carpooling. Everyone agrees that we need to cut back on our use of oil. Dependence on foreign oil is both a national security issue, and a drain on our economy. And then there's global warming to worry about.

Carpooling is one way we can cut back on oil consumption, and emissions from transportation, and save money at the same time. A 40-mile round trip daily commute produces around five tons of CO2 annually, with an annual cost of around $2,600.

Two people carpooling would cut both those figures in half. Carpooling can also cut down on traffic congestion, and parking problems. Thousands of cars travel between north Idaho communities every day. Almost all of them have room for more passengers.

A lot of drivers could use a little extra money to put towards gas. A lot of other people would like to leave their cars at home or don't have a car available.

The easiest way to carpool is with someone you know, but it may not be easy to find someone whose ride matches up closely with yours as to time and place.

To reach the larger community, you can use the internet to find rides. Its very efficient and its free. Go to www.ClimateCAN.org and click on the "carpool" link.

You will be directed to a site that provides the database and search tools to allow carpoolers to match up, and also gives tips for successful and safe carpooling.

If everyone from North Idaho that wanted to carpool, posted a listing to this site, it would make it much easier to find people, but we have to be patient.

At first, there will be very few rides listed for our area, so its important that you add your own posting.

Keep checking back, until you find your match, or they find you. Help spread the word!

We will be distributing fliers and contacting businesses and organizations to encourage carpooling, and using the www.ClimateCAN.org internet site.

Art Piltch

Naples