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Are our efforts improving or harming the environment in which we live? Are we moving in the right direction or blindly speeding the wrong way? Even with the best intentions I have my doubts. I’m no rocket scientist, and all my higher math is done on a $2 calculator, but shouldn’t we be seeing a reduction in air pollution in the summer months when it typically gets so bad? If there are more folks driving more efficient cars, recycling more and using less, shouldn’t we be better off, and shouldn’t we be seeing the effect?
In other words, is green always black and white?
Take the Toyota Prius, a marvel of gas and electric automotive efficiency. Many consider this ride the shining light compared with all that is wrong in our gas-slurping carbon- belching society. Buy this angel on wheels and each mile you drive deposits one token into your love-the-world karma bag. It feels good just writing about it. However, with just a tiny bit of investigation a bit of soot begins to appear on this angel’s dress. According to Argonne (a US Department of Energy research facility), it takes approximately 1,000 gallons of carbon-spewing gasoline to manufacture one Prius. Seems like an awful big nut to carry, even in a Prius.
The alternative? Recycle a 1994 Geo Metro XFi, which gets the same gas mileage as a Prius and the original owner has already taken responsibility for its manufacture thereby saving you and the environment those 1,000 gallons of gas. Sure, a “visualize whirled peas” bumper sticker won’t look as good on the Metro as on the Prius, but we’re concerned with the environment, right?
The other worrisome environmental indicator that glows in the night is the use of electricity as a green alternative in everything from lawn mowers to transportation. The greenness of these alternatives, according to most, is almost indisputable. I’ve plugged in many an appliance and have yet to smell a hint of noxious exhaust emanating from the outlet. But I also believe that because the consumer is one step removed from the process it appears to be clean even though the production of electricity in the US is mainly a coal- based operation and, according to the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, coal is the biggest contributor to global warming.
The dirty alternative? Keep using electricity to power everything from margarita makers to Lynx trains, but make it with nuclear power. Yep: Three Mile Island and Chernobyl-melting nuclear power. Nuclear power is 520 times cleaner than coal-burning plants and just 94% cleaner that the next best fossil fuel alternative, natural gas. Maybe if I started making “Hug a Nuke” t-shirts and selling them at Ben and Jerry’s it would seem greener.
As the driver of a 1997 2-door V8 Chevy Tahoe with an estimated city MPG in the single digits, I have abandoned my right to a green vote. But if Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize for trying to save the globe after his son got a DUI driving his Prius over 100mph then maybe I still have a chance. I just hope that the green movement doesn’t fall from our collective consciousness and into a waste basket along with SARS, the West Nile Virus, and shark attacks, but honestly serves as something to keep us from becoming a global Easter Island floating through space.
~Todd Trimakas
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