Naturalpath

Today I was watching the News which is a pretty rare occasion for me and the Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson was on the show talking about Environmental Responsibility. According to EPA, it is a responsibility of all human beings to care and protect the Environment. Green Consumerism is the new catch phrase that has taken hold in modern society. People are becoming more aware that the Earth can not continue to sustain the lifestyle we have become accustomed to. It is our social responsibility to care for our planet and teach the future generation to care for it also.

The first thing you can do is cut down on your automobile consumption. The EPA states that this is the number one contributor to Global Warming. One of the simplest things you can do is to not speed. Speeding means that more gas is being consumed. Also don't use your car as a storage facility. Take out your golf clubs before you head into work. Consider biking to work couple days a week. I had a friend who commuted to his law office everyday on his bicycle. He beat the traffic and always came home with a smile. Try walking sometime. Walking is one of the best way you can stay in shape and help the Environment. Another tip is to fill your gas up at night. Less emissions of gas and fumes. This is particularly important in the hotter months.

“If I was going to pick three ways that people can become more environmentally responsible in their transportation:

“First, I would say to stay out of a car when you can.

“I ride my bicycle most places, even in hilly San Francisco. I have a bicycle and a battery-assisted bicycle, because it’s a little known fact that the older you get, the bigger the hills get. Ride a bike, take the bus, take the train – any of that. Walk when you can.

“There are a number of myths that people have when you talk about plugging in cars.

“One is that it’s inconvenient.

“It’s just the opposite. You never have to go to a gas station. And once you don’t have to go to a gas station, you never want to go back.

“Another myth is that these are just little golf carts.

“Golf carts aren’t powerful, and we need cars to tow boats and drive through floods and things like that. Electric drive is actually more powerful in terms of acceleration than gasoline cars. Plug-in cars can out-drag Porsches, Lamborghinis, you name it. So power is not the issue.

“Our dependence on petroleum is so unhealthy in so many ways, both individually and for the world. In the United States, one third of the greenhouse gases that we produce comes out of vehicle tail pipes. Another third comes out of power plant smokestacks, so we need to clean them both up simultaneously.

“It just so happens that the quickest way to clean up cars is to plug them in, because even on the current grid, it’s cleaner than gasoline. But once we start producing more electricity from cleaner sources, like solar and wind, it just gets cleaner and cleaner, while gasoline gets dirtier.

“Individually, people may think it’s some kind of compromise to have to plug in a car and drive on electricity instead of being able to stop for gasoline when they want to. It’s really not. It’s kind of liberating. You no longer have nasty stuff coming out of your tailpipe. You’re no longer doing oil changes. We’re no longer feeding money into the countries that control the oil and petroleum, many of whom don’t particularly like us.

“So, it liberates the country, it liberates individuals from polluting and leaving a nasty legacy for our grandchildren. There is no real downside to driving on electricity.

“The only downside people have found with all electric cars is the range. How far can you go before you need to plug in? And although fast chargers do exist, so it could be just like pulling into a gas station and charging very quickly - that involves installing a whole new infrastructure.

“Rather, what we’ll see are the plug-in hybrids where you just plug in overnight while you’re sleeping, you drive most of the time on electricity, but you have a fuel tank as a back-up for long distance. And that can be biodiesel, E85 Ethanol, whatever we come up with that’s the best option in terms of liquid fuels.”