Carpooling for Caribou

It’s another Red Hot and Green Friday, and this week Aimee’s carpooling for caribou!

She knows that a major way to cut back on the use of climate change-causing fossil fuels is to move differently. Every gallon of gasoline you prevent from being burned in a car keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In addition to hitching a ride with others, you can take public transportation, walk or ride your bike to work or to school. Even if you leaving your car home just two days a week, you can reduce your impact on emissions by 1,590 pounds of CO2 a year. Not to mention the stress, time and money you’ll save!

Caribou graze the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain

Like many animals in the Arctic, climate change is making life hard for caribou. Harsher winter conditions in the region bring more snow and freezing rain, which can cover the ground with a thick, icy crust. Since caribou survive the cold months by digging through the crust in search of lichens, this means more work to reach food. With less access to food and more energy spent finding it, starvation is a very real threat. And it doesn’t get any easier when the snow melts – increased droughts in the summertime lead to more forest fires (destroying that same slow-growing lichen), and rising temperatures favor insects whose harassment can interrupt caribou feeding.

Carpooling can improve your commute, fight climate change and make life easier for these Arctic animals. What are the other ways you’re working to fight the climate change that threatens our wildlife and natural places? We want to know! Read these simple instructions and tell us what YOU’RE doing to protect wildlife from the harmful effects of climate change.