The Power and Promise of Humane Education
Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs
So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help Animals
I read an interesting article in Newsweek about why it is that we won’t see cars on the market getting 50 miles per gallon any time soon. In addition to a professional interest, I had a personal interest. My Volvo station wagon, at only 167,000 miles –- barely past middle-aged for a Volvo — is making monthly visits to the mechanic these days. I’ve begun to consider my next car. My plan when I bought my Volvo in 1999 was to pass it down to my son, who would be getting his license around the Volvo’s 200,000 mile mark. Seemed like a good idea to pass along a car with the reputation as the world’s safest to my teenage boy just when he was starting to drive. I plan ahead.
I also planned ahead in this regard. When I bought my Volvo there were no fuel efficient options for station wagons. With several dogs and often several kids piling into my car, I wanted a vehicle big enough to carry us all, and I figured my Volvo would last me until a better option was available (this was long before the Prius). Just one more fuel-inefficient car in my life I assumed. But nine years later, there is still no fuel efficient station wagon on the market, and the two small hybrid SUVs (Toyota’s Highlander and Ford’s Escape) get barely more per gallon than my Volvo. Fuel efficient, hybrid wagons won’t be rolling off the assembly lines for a few more years. Not in the U.S. anyway. It seems that people in the U.S. aren’t willing to sacrifice all the other things we want, even for fuel efficiency.
I planned to feel indignant as I read the Newsweek article. Until I realized that I wasn’t willing to sacrifice much myself. I, who implore people to live according the MOGO principle, was no different than those I often criticize. I want the safety the steel in my Volvo affords. I want the space of a station wagon. I don’t want to spend $50,000 to get a lithium battery-powered, highly fuel efficient vehicle. And I don’t want to move from my beautiful, rural Maine community to a city, even though such a move would obviate the need for a personal car.
The technology exists for 50 mpg cars. In fact such cars are ubiquitous in Japan and Europe. They’re not in the U.S. because we want our big, safe cars more than we want fuel efficiency. We’ll get it all, eventually, hopefully before we cause too much more climate change, but there’s a good, free-market, capitalist reason why I still don’t have the option I want. Car companies don’t want to lose money for their stockholders, and that’s what could happen if they put the tiny, lightweight fuel efficient cars on the market, or, conversely, the highly expensive new technologies. We might not buy them, despite the Prius’ success. And to produce the fuel efficient vehicles we do want takes investment, personnel, and time. It’s risky.
There’s a way to get what we want sooner, however. Government investment. If we make the production of 100 mile per gallon cars a national goal and priority, and if we invest in such a goal (the way we invest in our military, for example), we’ll have what we want in a flash.
Personally, I’m eager for my tax dollars to be invested in the technologies that will help us reach our best goals, stop global warming, and protect people, ecosystems, and animals. Seems MOGO to me.
~ Zoe
Filed under: MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: cars, fuel efficiency, government investment, MOGO
Yes, more and more people are realizing that our world would be a much saner and safer place if we invested our taxes in the grassroots development of environmentally friendly technologies and educating our children in the art of peaceable, sustainable living, but in the mean time each one of us does the best he or she personally can. For starters, if people are at all capable of doing so, then they try directing whatever money then can towards tax deductible charities which support and encourage sustainable, non-materialistic living. And then there are the millions of FREE or nearly free things which individuals around the entire world do in order to make their own personal lives a little more earth and people friendly. For example, my two latest endeavors are organic gardening and garbage scavenging.
During the last month I’ve found lots of large plastic containers in piles of garbage put out at the curb in my neighborhood. If I’ve been able to carry these large plastic containers then I’ve brought them back home with me and cleaned them up. I don’t need all of them, as a matter of fact I’ve only found a definite use for one of them. They come in all shapes and sizes. Most are square or rectangular. Some are only a few inches square, others are several feet long and deep too. I’ve been collecting them because I know that these are great for storage, and they will sit in the landfill for a million years if we throw them out. Plastic doesn’t decompose the way that produce or paper does. Plastic just sits there forever.
If any of my neighbors expressed interest, I would gladly give them the containers, if I knew that they would use them instead of throwing them back into the garbage. There is another use for some of these containers. Planting.
I’ve decided to do what I always wanted to do. Plant a serious garden. I’ve tried to do this in minor form before, and so far I have had only minimal success. Maybe I didn’t turn the soil deep enough. I feel stronger this year, though I can’t explain why. I think I’ve been able to go down about six to 11 inches in most places. I’ve tried to break up the soil as much as I can, because I know that it is easiest for the plants to grow if they are in fairly loose soil with very few rocks, so I’ve also tried to remove as many rocks as I can. I am planting the yellow, orange and red pepper seeds I’ve saved from organic peppers bought in a local health food store, and I hope to get hold of some organic cantaloupe, honeydew or watermelon seeds to. Because I live in a northern climate, I’ve heard that I will have to cover the peppers with a row cover if I want them to turn red, and I would like them to turn red. In order to keep critters from eating at the peppers and melons I am planting marigold seeds too. I’ve heard that marigolds keep bugs away from the garden.
Why did I pick peppers and melons? Because I like them, and they are expensive in the store, so I thought I would try growing them myself. I am also going to try planting a few organic apple and orange seeds. I know that if I am successful with the orange seeds then the trees will have to stay inside all year round because the climate here is too cold for citrus fruits, but if the apple seeds do grow large enough then I will be able to plant them outside, and have apple trees in my front yard.
Yes, I also look forward to the day when the government starts to funnel millions upon millions more tax dollars into Humane Education, Environmental Sustainability, and all kinds of other holistic programs which turn children and adults into peaceable beings and conscientious consumers, and that day will come, because we cannot go on as we are.
But remember who and what you are. You are the catalyst of change. The catalyst of change exists because you are choosing to be the catalyst of change. The seeds of peace exist because you are choosing to be the seeds of peace. The hope exists because you are choosing to be the hope.
Every time you take a paper bag, or use your own canvas bag, instead of taking a plastic bag at the check out, your making a difference. Every time you choose to buy a soda packaged in glass or aluminum instead of plastic your making a difference. Every time you choose to clean a window with vinegar and water instead of using a store bought chemical “cleaner” your making a difference. Every time you pick an aluminum can off of the street and throw it into a recycle bin, your making a positive change in the world. The positive change exists because you are choosing to be the positive change. The hope exists because you are choosing to be the hope.