But I was talking with a friend of mine last night about how fuel prices will go up. While I realize this is not a tragedy when compared with the suffering that is going on by the people who experienced the storm, it is something that has been simmering in my mind for sometime. Unlike some of the liberal columnists I don't think that the hurricane is some sort of environmental backlash for GW's policies (although I think he's done a crappy job with the environment, among other things). I just think the impact that the hurricane will have on fuel prices shows how truly vulnerable we are to fossil fuel availability. The entire infrastructure of this country is based on car travel, with only a few isolated pockets of efficient public transportation. Don't get me wrong, I love my car. I love driving and taking off on road trips. But there's got to be a better way.
Why is it that in the early 90's the most important thing in the world was having a fuel efficient car and now no one cares? All of the manufacturers ran ads advertising the insane miles per gallon that their cars got in the city and on the highway. The manufacturers were racing for the best fuel efficiency, because those were the cars the consumers would buy.
Then came the advent of the SUV and no one cared anymore about fuel efficiency. Suddenly it was very important for every soccer mom to have an Expedition. Have you seen those things? These little 5'4" women with 3 little kids in the back driving these behemoths that almost don't fit in the lanes. Don't even get me started on the Hummer. And of course their fuel efficiency is abysmal
The thing is, alternatives do exist. 10 years ago in an Environmental Biology class we watched a short documentary on research being done in Europe on alternative power sources. My personal favorite was the corn oil-powered Volvo. The problem is, until these efforts are given more financial backing and become widespread, they will never be a viable alternative and will always be too expensive for the average person. The common man couldn't afford a car until Henry Ford came along with his mass production and his assembly line.
I just think if things continue the way they are, we're going to find ourselves too involved with other countries' economies and political systems and paying more than we can afford at the pumps to maintain a certain lifestyle. If these spikes in gas prices cause more attention to be paid to alternatives, then that's great. But it could have happened so much sooner.
(I can also give a pretty good diatribe about water usage in the desert, if you're interested)
So that I don't end all preachy, here's a great picture of Jen in Berkeley's baby boy, Memphis:
9 comments:
Your comments on transportation remind me of a documentary I saw on PBS a few years ago delineating how General Motors single-handedly destroyed America's rail trolley system in the 1930s so that they could sell buses. I mean here they were with this new vehicle that could move dozens of people within a city and to the suburbs. Problem was, most communities - even fairly small ones - already had a trolley system in place to do the same thing. What to do, what to do? How about forming a subsidiary company called something like The American Transportation Consortium (I think) with no visible ties to GM but with a hidden mandate to go across the country, buy up all the small and large trolley lines (on the pretense of reorganizing them for efficiency), and promptly drive them into bankruptcy. Then those communities would have to turn to the new GM buses to solve their transportation needs.
As a lover of all things railroad, I was ill for days after seeing that report. I kept telling myself, "Well, at least I drive a Ford." The ads GM used were pretty shady - showing the advantage of "Motorizing" (their term) downtown traffic. They'd show a photo of a busy intersection during rush hour with a big trolley setting in the middle of a solid mass of trucks and cars - looking like the trolley was holding everything up. Then would follow a photo of a not nearly as busy intersection with an orderly row of busses moving smoothly with the traffic. We've had spin-doctors among us for some time!
My goal it to move back to the Loop so I can use the El and busses again. In the burbs I have to drive everywhere for anything. I hate that.
Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle!
You know, there are some companies that care. Honda, for one, works really hard to bring fuel alternative vehicles to the market. I think they have three or four hybrid models available. Plus a natural gas powered Civic. And they recently developed a fuel-cell vehicle (kinda like battery-powered). The fuel cell vehicle isn't really available for the general market yet, I think they're still trying to bring costs down. I've heard rumors that right now each one costs about $1 million. Sure, they still make a few SUV's, but they do try to keep the fuel efficiency high. Anway, if you want you can read more about what they're doing here: http://corporate.honda.com/environment/index.aspx
(Sorry, I don't know how to do links)
OK- I'm one of those 5'4" moms with 3 kids who drives a Suburban. But, you know what? When you add a friend for each of them (that's SIX kids- all in car seats or boosters), soccer and lacrosse gear and my big dog, I actually am short on room. So, I can't just go out and get a little hybrid. I may not like the price of gas and you may think I'm being a typical soccer mom (I'm not, I'm also an attorney and do a lot of volunteer work) but sometimes that's the way it is. And, when we "soccer moms" carpool (to save gas, etc), guess what? That means lots of kids who need seats to sit in.
We have a "special" lane in the Chicago area on the Highways called the express. I think those lanes should be reserved for vehicle for 2 or more persons in them thus encouraging at least grouping family driving activities if not carpooling. As of today, I see loads of single drivers in the Express lane. I think it was in FL (not positive, my memory is lapsing here)there is a "carpool" lane where there has to be two or more people in the car to drive in the lane and boy can you drive FAST!!!
Great car. what kind of mileage does it get?
1 highway, 0 city
We have those HOV (high occupancy vehicle)--or carpool--lanes out here in Seattle. They're great when you finally have enough people in the car to be able to use them. Traffic is horrendous here, so unless there's an accident in the HOV lane (which seems to happen at least once a week), it's the faster way to go.
As far as fuel efficiency, I completely agree, Kelly. Back in 93, I was driving an 86 Buick Century that got about 20 mpg. I felt really badly that I didn't get one of the cars with the 40 or 50 mpg. Nowadays, I drive an 85 Jeep Cherokee, with--again--20 mpg. And there are people with brand-new SUVs that get worse gas mileage than I do. *blink* I hear my friends talking and saying they got such-and-such Volkswagen because "it gets 30 mpg! Isn't that great?" And it makes me wonder where those early 90s non-gas-guzzlers went. Now you have to buy a hybrid or a diesel to get that kind of mileage. It's confusing.
I totally agree with you about our lack of policies to push for less dependence on oil. Although hybrids are becoming more popular now, the technology has been around for years. I'm a believer in the free market system, but there was no reason that the government didn't push the auto makers into creating new types of cars years ago (other than the powerful oil and auto lobbies). The government is already doing something like that now with TVs -- forcing all networks to broadcast in HTDV by a certain year. Eventually, we'll all be driving cars powered by something other than oil, but it always takes either a disaster or the pocketbook to get anyone thinking about the future.
This isn't as much about the gas issue, although I agree that it's completely messed up. Do minivans get better gas mileage than SUVs? I ask because I know they're for sure cheaper, and I wonder if people who do need more space are choosing SUVs because they look cooler.
But on the environmental theme, we have small recycling bins next to all the trash cans in my building, as a reminder for people to put their papers, etc. in there. There's even this little "Wait! Could You Recycle That?" sticker on the trash cans. But I watch my coworkers dump paper in the trash can anyway! When I said something to someone about it yesterday, she said, "Oh, I don't recycle. I'm just too lazy. I figure it doesn't matter if I do it or not." All she has to do is move her arm 3 inches to the left, and she's too lazy ??
Greath thoughts on the need for an alternative energy source. This is something that we could have done if we put our minds to it years ago. I keep on wishing that someone would say in X years we will no longer make any cars that use gasoline. The future so far, seems to be hydrogen powered vehicles and thankfully toyota plans on having them available by 2015 and GM by 2010. The cars are true zero-emissions, the trick is just making sure that the fuel cells are filled by clean power (nuclear - not fossil fuel) and in making sure that the cars are affordable.
http://www.h2cars.biz/artman/publish/index.shtml
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392247&language=english
http://talk.livedaily.com/showthread.php?t=478579
Post a Comment