Going Green in America - Giving Up Driving

In the United states, having concerns about the ecology of the planet is apparently akin to some sort of crime. Over a year ago, in the face of the highest fuel prices in history, I gave up driving. I gave up my vehicle, and since have allowed my drivers license to expire. I haven't had a regret about it.

I am in better physical shape now than I was a year ago, mostly a result of riding a bicycle when I needed to go somewhere. I am also in a better frame of mind, because the bike rides give me ample opportunity to reflect on the world around me - to smell the roses, if you will.

But when it comes to my friends and neighbors, it is a whole different story. Last week, I spent 20 minutes trying to explain to someone that I gave up driving voluntarily, and the blank look on their face told me that they never did comprehend the concept. Apparently, the only reason one gives up the privilege of driving is through DUI or some other legal intervention. There simply isn't an analogy for giving it up voluntarily.

No, I was not arrested for drunk driving, there are not a lot of points on my driving record, and no judge took my license away. I chose to give up the non-right of my own volition. In return, I am healthier, and have reduced my problematic stress level. And I save several hundred dollars every month in car, insurance, fuel, and upkeep. In my mind, it was a decision worth making.

If only I could get my fellow Americans to see that there is no crime in cutting the strings that tie you to the fuel companies and insurance companies. Only in America is it accepted that everyone who is anyone has to drive a car. In other countries, vehicles can be shared among the entire family, or not owned at all, but we Americans have somehow got the car fixed in our head as a symbol of personal freedom.

THERE IS NO FREEDOM IN A VEHICLE. The idea that having a car makes you more free is absurd. If you have a car, you are a prisoner of the car makers and dealers. Your are held helplessly in the grip of auto insurance brokers. You are forced to pay tribute to oil companies in exchange for driving your "little piece of freedom." A vehicle is a liability, it is a luxury that has somehow become confused with a carefree, lifestyle. It is a huge expense, and little more.

People expect me to be embarrassed about not owning a car, as though it were a mark of my poverty or sin. It perplexes them when I am not penitent. They quiz me at length, trying to determine what my hidden crime may be, knowing it must be a hefty one indeed, for me to lie so vehemently about it.

After all, no one gives up driving a vehicle voluntarily. The idea of saving those thousands of dollars every year is completely beyond the average person's comprehension. Nothing short of a court order can stay most people's right foot, and even that won't work for a majority who perceive driving as a symbol of their brave and bankrupt nation.

Yes, there are times when having a vehicle would be nice. But there are others who own vehicles, and when times are tough, most people are willing to drive you around for a few extra bucks in the gas tank. It is an inconvenience when I have to find such a ride, but nothing compared to the financial burden of owning my own car.

Reality Check: Electric Cars

Why are we driving cars with internal combustion engines? I have heard that it is because of the cost electric cars, and that our current battery technology is not feasible, but NONE of the reasons I have found have much, if any, basis in actual fact. Here is a reality check: Electric cars are affordable and available, and the long-term savings is far higher than any basic list price.

A Brief History Of Electric Cars
The very first automobiles were electric cars. For more than 80 years, electric-powered vehicles were considered to be the only feasible solution for self-powered transportation, and there were far more companies investing in electric carriages than any other form of locomotion. Thomas Alva Edison spent a decade working on electric motors and batteries, and achieved a large industrial following. During the first 10 years of the 20th century, electric vehicles were almost as common as internal combustion engines.

The Electric Car Fades Away
And then a man named Henry Ford began to mass-produce the first automobiles, instantly putting companies which still built vehicles by hand at a disadvantage, and Ford was using a gasoline powered engine. Within a decade, 90% of the electric car manufacturers had quietly faded away. Oddly enough, the final blow to the electric automobile came from another electric device, the electric car starter. Freed from cumbersome and dangerous hand cranks, the average person flocked to gasoline powered engines.

Auto And Oil Companies Have Resisted Electric Cars
Something you may not know is that the United States government has known since 1966 that electric cars were the most viable solution to mounting air pollution. Instead, oil and automotive companies, which had become to of the world's leading economic booms, lobbied to resist change. The result was an ever increasing cost of the vehicle, as more and more costly environmental components were added to the original engine. Today's automobile engine costs as much or more for it's environmental control devices than for the engine itself. 

What Does The Electric Car Lack?
The electric car has a zero cost environmental control system. It has no emissions. That means there is no tailpipe, not catalytic converter, no exhaust manifold, and no carburetor. There is no gas tank, and no engine coolant system, and none of the hoses that those systems require. It will not require a starter. The entire brake system is much too complex for an electric car, which stops when power is removed, and braking can be done using magnetic or centrifugal forces. And the electric motor is only about the size of a microwave oven, much smaller then a gas engine.

What Are The Negative Aspects Of Electric Cars?
So what is missing from an electric car? Until recently, they had a maximum range of about 60 miles, and this frightened people away from buying them, never mind that the average person rarely goes more than 50 miles from their home. They have also tended to be slower than gasoline powered engines. And to buy them, you had to purchase cars that were not mass-produced, and which cost a small fortune to make. Until recently.

What About Modern Electric Cars?
Things have changed a lot more than you might realize in the last 10 years. The maximum range for a fully electric car today is nearly 300 miles, which is not substantially different than a gasoline engine. And while there are not going to be any racing cars made that run on electricity in the near future, highway speeds on today's electric vehicles can be as high as 50-70 miles per hour, depending on the vehicle.

What About The Cost Of Electric Cars?
The Tesla Sportster is probably one of the most flamboyant electric cars on the, and has a list price of over $80,000. Economy electric cars can be picked up for under $10,00, and a sedan styled auto will run anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000.  If you are willing to give up the speed and range, take a look at some values for under $30,000. But that still puts a sedan model in the same general price range as a gasoline powered model. And doesn't even take the savings into consideration.

What Savings Can I Get From An Electric Car?
The cost of charging an electric car is around one dollar. You could fairly accurately estimate that you will spend around $3 for EVERY tank of gas you formerly used. The average person can expect to drive maybe 12 thousand miles in a year, and that would cost something close to $1200 or more in fuel, as opposed to around $100 for an electric car. And this doesn't count the 8 oil changes, 2 sets of brakes, antifreeze, transmission fluid, air filter, and other required maintenance of a gasoline motor. There are no emissions inspections. In all, your first year savings could very easily be in the neighborhood of $2,000, or more. And that is the first year.

Who Needs An Electric Car?
Anyone on a budget needs an eletric car. They are more than 10 times cheaper to own and operate than a gasoline or diesel engine, which much more than offsets the intitial purchase cost. Anyone who drives less than 20 miles to their job, or less than 1000 miles per month could drive en electric car without any inconvenience at all. Anyone interested in causing less damage to the environment should drive an electric car. Anyone who drives. Anyone who breathes would be healthier with an electric car.

Go Green to Save Green

I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again many times. We have all got to start paying more attention to what we use and how we use it. The word is CONSERVE. The clue is to REUSE. The choice is not going to be available much longer.

But you can also save a little green by going green. As an example, let's say that you like tomatoes. Did you know that growing two tomato plants can feed the veggie-like fruit to your family for several months, and cost about the same as buying a single large tomato? Or that a fishing license and basic fishing gear have about the same pricetag as buying fresh fish at the market? Did you know that by spreading your lawn cuttings out thinly and evenly on your lawn can reduce the amount of nutrients you must supply to it, AND they'll help hold in moisture so that you can water less?

There are a number of fruits and vegetables that can be grown in pots or flower beds. Tomatoes are excellent potted plants, if carefully pruned, but can also be grown as a climbing vine. In fact, tomato, cucumber, yellow squash, and canteloupe can all be grown on a trellis. Other types of gourds, such as acorn squash, can be grown in a flower bed. A single plum tree will provide more plums than a family can eat in a blooming season. And the price for veggetable and fruit seeds is very low. You can feast for a summer for the cost of buying the ingredients of one deluxe table salad. Onions, peppers, and many types of spices can be grown in pots or planters. And your fence becomes a truly effective hedge when you plant blackberry or other thorny fruit bushes along it. The thorns dissuade trespassing through the thicket, and they'll provide an abundant source of vitamin C for about a month out of the year- longer, if you care to make jams and jellies, pickles and salsas.

Veggies are great, but you'd rather have meat in your diet? If you live within city limits, this can be a problem, but the odds are very good that you can find a private meat packing house within an hour's drive. You'll find that these places offer better deals than you can get in your local chain grocer, and it may sound strange, but the meant will TASTE better. Commercially raised livestock is treated and fed differently than the way the same animals would be treated on a farm, and the result is a leaner, more flavorful cut of meat. If you happen to live on the outskirts of town, you may be allowed by local law to grow some of your own meat, in the form of chickens, rabbits, or even a goat. A goat makes especially good sense, as it can also be used for most household vegetable waste disposal, and to cut and fertilize your lawn. Of course, if you raise any of these meat animals, you'll probably still have to find that area packing house, but you'll still find that you save hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year over conventinal grocery shopping. You'll only think you can't eat an animal you raised yourself until the first couple of bites. Humans have been raising and eating animals for thousands of years and, after all, it's the idea of NOT raising your own food that is recently developed.

Go fishing. You don't need thousands of dollars of expensive gear, either. The fish are not impressed any more by being caught on a brand new $300 rig, than with a 5 year old Zebco 33. Are you fishing to play the "look at me" game, or are you trying to save money by putting food on the table and in the freezer? If you're going to use the millenia-old bait, you can keep a worm bed at home, they're very easy to maintain, and the one-time purchase of a tub of live worms can last you for months, or years. If you really want to go the recycle route, walk along the banks of where you fish, and gather hooks and floats and sinkers for later use.

So let's look at this. We've grown the veggies, and fed the greens and leavings to our rabbits, and used the refuse from the rabbits mixed with plain black dirt to grow our fish bait, which in turn gives us excellent fertilizer for our planting beds. True, each step has an inherent cost, but the overall total is the savings of hundreds or even thousands of dollars over buying the exact same foods in the market. And now, instead of being a dead-end point at the top of a food pyramid, we've become the coordinating center of a cycle that goes around for as long as we wish to keep it going. And the food will all be more flavorful, with a better texture and density.

And what have you saved? Well, there's the cost of the foods themselves, but only by a small margin. If you have a particularly green thumb or lucky hook, you may be able to sell or trade with friends or relatives for something they have an excess of. Bartering allows the distribution of items that would otherwise literally become waste. If you have a really green thumb, you can find a farmer's market in your area to rent a stall, or sell to an existing distributor. But you've also saved fuel, electricity, water, and chemical use, multiplied over EVERY item you have produced yourself. If you are lucky enough to live in a location where a yard goat is an option, you have even provided better lawn care without adding chemicals or using any type of conventional power. And you get to eat the lawnmower!! A small goat will cost LESS than a riding mower, and where the machine continually depreciates, the value of a goat increases as it grows and fattens.

Which part of the equation are we all having a problem with? The part where we come out ahead, or the part where we do less harm to the planet?

--Illusnist
ColGlobe Productions