‘Today’ Hosts’ Carpool Stunt Shows Dark Side of Carpooling

Playing off the popularity of its "Ends of the Earth" jet-setting extravaganza in November, the "Today" show on January 22 kicked off a four-day series called "Today Goes Green" to encourage viewers to be more environmentally friendly.

In a segment supposedly meant to encourage carpooling, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry and Al Roker submitted to the degradation and humiliation that is a carpool - even if it is chauffeured. Vieira later admitted they carpooled only once, and Lauer never seemed too happy about it.

And unfortunately for environmental types (and Lauer), the crew would have to carpool every work day for more than eight years to offset the estimated carbon footprint left by November's "Ends of the Earth" series, when hosts jetted to the far reaches of the earth to show the alleged effects of global warming.

That series pumped an estimated 25 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. If the hosts lived an average of 10 miles from the office (Vieira reportedly lives 30 miles away in White Plains, N.Y., while the others live much closer) and it were perfectly efficient for them to carpool, they might save 1.2 gallons of gasoline per morning.

At 19.4 pounds of CO2 emitted for every gallon of gasoline burned, their carpooling would save the atmosphere from a whopping 23.28 pounds of CO2 every morning. At a rate of 5 work days, 50 weeks a year, it would take Matt, Meredith, Ann and Al more than eight and a half years of carpooling to offset the "Ends of the Earth" series. That doesn't even factor in Lauer's "Where in the World" segments!

And don't expect them to do their part. No, it's not convenient for the "Today" hosts to carpool, so they'll just do their part by encouraging you to carpool. And showing you how much "fun" it can be.

When Vieira proposed that "we could do this every day, guys," Lauer sarcastically added, "We could also live in a tree for the rest of our lives." Roker suggested, "Let's eat some Grape Nuts."

When Curry suggested that long-time carpoolers engage in good conversations on their way to work, Lauer retorted, "I hope we never get to that point." He was opposed to the idea for good reason, it seems, as the foursome experienced many of the reasons people don't like to carpool.

For starters, all the hosts except Lauer had to get up earlier than usual. A chauffeured car picked Vieira up first around 3:30 a.m. The lucky Lauer was picked up last, around 4:45.

Lauer experienced another problem associated with carpooling: being at the mercy of fellow carpoolers' punctuality. At one point he called Curry's cell phone to find out if they were running late.

Curry, Vieira and Roker were crammed into the back seat. And Roker exemplified the annoying carpooler by playing loud music and tooting on noisemakers during the segment, prompting Vieira to note, "There's always one, and that's why carpools eventually fall apart."