Editor,
The past year has been somewhat of a wake-up call for some of us. Highlights include President Bush admitting that our addiction to oil is a threat to our nation, Al Gore scaring us out of our wits with his documentary on global warming, and students howling in outrage at hikes in the cost of parking.
These are all threats to our present and future well-being. Fortunately, humanity's greatest strength is its ability to adapt. So what exactly are we doing to reduce our addiction to oil or to decrease carbon-dioxide emissions? And what, beyond writing incensed letters to the Daily Lobo, are we doing about parking fees? If my guess is correct, the majority of us are doing nothing.
So let me suggest something that we can do - eliminate the UNM courtesy shuttle.
Although the courtesy shuttle sounds like it's free, someone is indeed paying for it. I can't say how the shuttle's multi-million dollar annual budget is funded, but I can say that it has become increasingly expensive to operate over the past few years. From 2002 to 2006, oil prices have increased from $30 per barrel to $73 per barrel, and the price of natural gas, which some of the shuttles use as fuel, has also increased. I'd guess that some of that price increase is being passed on to parking fees. And if it's not, the cost of the 300 percent increase in oil prices is being passed on to someone, whether it's students or taxpayers.
If you're concerned about air pollution and carbon-dioxide emissions, then you should be horrified by the shuttle system. I'm hard-pressed to think of anything that could be worse than a fleet of massive buses with low fuel efficiency running nonstop, all the while belching out toxic fumes into our lungs and atmosphere. I'm baffled by people who worry about the effects of secondhand smoke on global warming yet don't even contemplate objecting to the shuttle.
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This shuttle system is emblematic of our addiction to oil. Instead of walking less than a mile from the parking lots to campus - a piddling distance for someone living in New York, Paris, Africa or anywhere 200 years ago - we flush our money down the toilet, sacrificing our lungs and air, maintaining our dependency on foreign-oil imports, and eliminating yet another potential form of exercise from our daily routines. Little would please me more than the students and administrators of UNM waking up and realizing these costs and echoing my cry to eliminate this insane system.
Josh Tybur
UNM student
