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Start Moving! Movement

The average American uses 500 gallons of gas a year. Gas prices in Miami average out to $3.77 a gallon (and weekly, it seems to be going higher), which means that most Americans spend $1885 dollars a year. Also, due to gas prices rising, companies have to sell their products at a higher cost to gain a profit because of the amount of money spent in shipment. Many people are losing their job due to the necessity of cutting spending, and schools are having to cut already low budgets. When will it end?

Global Warming is an ominous threat to civilization. Skin cancer is on the rise, animals are soon to be extinct, and extreme weather conditions are already present. Due to pollution and greenhouses gases, we are becoming infants trapping ourselves in plastic bags, soon to be suffocated due to ignorance. If we don't do something now, things will only get worse.

Another problem in the U.S. is health care. Prices for medication are becoming absurd as more and more Americans are becoming sick. Let's face it. Obesity is rampant in America and it is causing serious health problems. 127 million people are overweight, 60 million are obese, and 9 million are extremely obese. An estimated 400,000 deaths per year may be attributable to poor diet and low physical activity.

Therefore, I propose the Start Moving! Movement. It is an attempt to distance Americans from gas-powered cars and onto environmentally, economically, and healthy means of living.

There are so many other alternatives to automobiles that can be used in order to stop this chaos from continuing. For example, busing. Let's compare it to having a new car. Let's say you pay $200 dollars a month for the car, and $160 dollars in insurance a month. Not counting maintenance, you'd spend about $6205 a year if you count in gas. Now let's say you bus. If you buy a bus pass, it's $60 dollars a month. That means in a year, you are paying $720 dollars. You're saving a total of $5485 a year, and at least getting some sort of exercise as opposed to walking to your garage into a car.

Now, if you still consider that too much money, biking and walking are options. I bike to school and back home, and I live three miles from my school. Each trip, since I bike at a moderate pace for 30 minutes, I burn 183 calories. That's 366 calories a day. 5 times a week is 1830 calories. I have lost 12 pounds in roughly 10 months, and have maintained it off. I have gained muscle and become much healthier due to that. I get the amount of exercise I need without having to pay gym fees or exercise clothing or anything. I bought my bike for 60 dollars, and once in a few months I pay 50 cents to have my tires inflated. The benefits are tremendous. Biking is much faster and easier than walking, and for the price of a having a car, I can buy 103 bikes.

Yes, all these methods will take longer to get to the place you'd like to be at. But considering the way prices are going, this seems the most beneficial way to deal with the collapsing economy. By waking up a little earlier, you are adding longer, healthier years to your life because of the exercise and adding longer, healthier years to everyone else because there will be less pollution. So... start moving. =D

By: Alondra Torres