It's 6:44am. On a Saturday. And I have been awake for about an hour now. Sometimes I hate my life.
Anyway, in the words of a wise frog, It's not easy being green. And he's right - it really isn't easy being green these days - mainly because we hear differing point of views as to what is good for us and good for the environment. And these opinions can change daily. One day your Nalgene bottle is saving the earth and keeping plastic bottles from sitting in landfills, the next day it's giving you cancer.
I think we can all agree, we must start taking better care of the earth. We need to depend on non-renewable resources less, we need to save open space for our children to enjoy, we need clean air, clean water, and clean everything in between. Pushing the global warming issue aside, we still need all these things.
So I try to do my part. I use my re-usable grocery bags (I LOVE them!); to my husbands great frustration, I unplug appliances when not in use ; I recycle as much as I can; I drive a fuel efficient car; I even eat organic as much as I can, because god only knows what kind of chemicals I am putting into my body when I don't. My next quest is to get one of those small bags in a pouch that you can put on your keychain, and when you are just running into a store for a few small things you can put it all in your handy little bag and not take a plastic bag. I MUST find one.
In a few years I will need to buy at least one bigger car. I'm hoping to drive my Carolla into the ground and have it for a long time, so it will be the Sentra we are replacing. But what kind of car should I get? I need a little bit more room than a Carolla or Sentra can give me. But bigger cars have bigger gas needs which lead to more emissions... What's a Green Girl to do? (besides getting out of her in traffic and bashing in the windows of the hummer that's idling in traffic in front of her... I hate Hummers)
I found a site called greenercars.org (and no, I do not accept money to blog about specific things, so rest assured, NO ONE is paying me for any posts I write, positive or negative. I have little respect for people who post for money). It's a fun site to play around with and will probably make my next car purchase a little easier. Among many things, they have lots of lists. (I love lists. I love to make them. I love to read them.) These lists break the most useful of said lists down like as follows:
* Best Vehicles by Class
* Greenest Vehicles of 2008
* Meanest Vehicles for the Environment in 2008
I was happy to see that my beloved Carolla is the 7th greenest vehicle of 2008, with a green score of 45**. In comparison, the greenest car of the year is the Honda Civic, with a green score of 57. I was actually surprise to see that the Meanest vehicle was the Volkswagon Touareg, with a green score of 14. (**If you want to see how they come up with the scores, scroll to the bottom of this post, where I have copy and pasted it. Or go play on the site!).
I went into the Best Vehicle by Class to see how the Compact SUV's stand up. The best one is the Ford Escape Hybrid non 4wd with a green score of 42. However, I do want 4wd. I will probably only use it 3 or 4 days a year, but I want the option. So the best one with 4wd.... The Ford Escape Hybrid, with 4wd, with a green score of 40!! Obviously, these are the 4 cylinders, but I'm looking for space, not power.
So what that site is telling me, when the time comes, I can get a small SUV with rooms for skis, bags for our constant travels throughout NE to see family, possibly car seats and have a green score of only 5 less than my Carolla. Sweet. Hopefully in a few more years there will be some used (I'm sorry, certified pre-owned) ones lying about, or perhaps there'll be more small SUV's from which to choose!
** From greenercars.org: We analyze automakers' test results for fuel economy and emissions as reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board, along with other specifications reported by automakers. We estimate pollution from vehicle manufacturing, from the production and distribution of fuel and from vehicle tailpipes. We count air pollution, such as fine particles, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and other pollutants according to the health problems caused by each pollutant. We then factor in greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide) and combine the emissions estimates into a Green Score that runs on a scale from 0 to 100. The top vehicles this year score a 57, the average is 30 and the worst gas-guzzlers score around 14.
6 comments:
Good post. I don't know if you've seen 'An Inconvenient Truth' but it is pretty good. I'm not particularly knowledgable about environmental issues so it was pretty revealing. If you do want to see it let me know.
be proud of me. i just got recyclable grocery bags. this from the person who throws out aluminum cans.
I can't go visit people who don't recycle...
even if they get pats tickets?!
okay, maybe then
If they get Pats tickets I could forgive someone lighting fire to vast swathes of rainforest
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