Here are the facts.

In 2020 there were 282 million cars on the road in the United States.

The average person in the US drives 13-15,000 miles per year. Let’s call it 14,000 miles. So each of the 282 million cars on the road in the United States drove an average of 14,000 miles in one year.

The average new mid-size vehicle gets 29 MPG. Let’s use that as an average.

That 29 MPG car releases 0.84 pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere for every mile it travels.

So in one year that average car getting 29 MPG drives an average of 14,000 miles and releases (14,000 X 0.84) 11,760 pounds of CO₂.

11,760 pounds of CO₂ in a year works out to (11,760 pounds ÷ 52 weeks) about 225 pounds of CO₂ released into the atmosphere every week. 225 pounds per week. 225 pounds pumped into our atmosphere.

There are 282 millions cars on the road in the United States. Each car driving an average of 14,000 miles per year. Each car pumping 225 pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Every week.

The average man in the U.S. weighs 200 pounds. So, each person driving a car is likely pumping more than their body weight in CO₂ into the atmosphere every single week.

That’s us. Add up all the cars on the road in the U.S. and we’re pumping over 8 billion pounds of CO₂ into the air every single day (0.84 lbs CO₂ per mile X 35 miles per day X 282 million cars on the road). And that’s just in the United States.

In summary. We are pumping oil out of the ground. Turning that oil into gasoline. Pumping gasoline into 282 million cars and dumping more than 8 billion pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Every single day. That’s a big footprint.

We can do better.

* Check out the UCS tool and read about their calculations here.