College student challenges Yukoners to take a fossil fuel diet

WHITEHORSE—Yukon College student Alex Therriault is challenging northerners to take a 24-hour fossil fuel diet. The 19-year-old Renewable Resources Management student completed his own diet last month as part of the Climate Change and the Circumpolar World course and it prompted him to switch his main vehicle and eat more local food.

“Our behaviour drives the visible effects of climate change we are seeing all around us in the Yukon right now. I get frustrated and feel helpless, but focusing on my fossil fuel consumption for just one-day really opened my eyes to the fairly basic lifestyle changes we can make to reduce our impact on the world.”

The Renewable Resources Management program student focused on transportation and food during the diet, which encourages participants to both reduce fossil fuel consumption and be more mindful of all the ways fossil fuels are necessary to their lives.

Living on campus at Yukon College, Therriault does not drive to class each day, however when he picks up groceries, runs friends around town or enjoy the wilderness, he relies on his 1996 pickup truck. During the diet he left the truck parked and used the bus and his legs to get around.

“Transportation accounts for over fifty per cent of the Yukon’s carbon emissions. We are really spread out and we love our cars and trucks. The diet forced me to do a lot less running around and think more carefully about what I errands I absolutely needed to do.”

For protein, the Renewable Resources Management program student relies on moose meat he brought back from a hunt in the fall, but spending the diet day tracking the origin of the other food he ate proved surprising.

“I ate apples from California and rice from Pakistan. The prices we pay in the store do not really reflect the epic distance food and goods must travel to reach us here in the North.“

Since taking the diet challenge, the 19-year-old has sent his truck back home to Mayo and brought down a 2010 compact car instead, reducing his vehicle carbon emissions by two thirds for city driving and by half for highway driving. He is also more committed to sourcing locally-produced food where possible.

Therriaut supports the new ride-share plan announced recently by the City of Whitehorse and Government of Yukon and believes a more robust debate about introducing a carbon tax is worth having. The place to start though is for more people to take the fossil-fuel diet.

According to Therriault the diet is as simple as spending one day tracking how you are using or are dependent on fossil fuels and come up with several personal strategies to reduce their place in your life. He also suggests the website carbonzero.ca for a useful carbon footprint calculator.

“I think a lot of people feel helpless, like I did, but just one day spent really considering your personal impact on the planet can really do a lot to change your mindset and do more to tackle our ecological footprint and the carbon emissions we generate. Just a little more effort by each person to make small changes could make a huge difference.”

“It’s worth it if we really want to preserve our way of life here,” said Therriault.