Our Gas-Guzzling Ways Are Giving Our Kids A Smoking Habit
Or, why driving cleaner is better for everyone — no matter what you think about climate change.
It’s wild that so many things related to the health of our children are politicized these days, but I can’t imagine any parent watching a third grader suck down a cigarette and thinking: Yeah, that seems fine. Yet that’s exactly the impact the cars we drive can have on our most vulnerable — and that’s a big reason why Hybridiot exists.
Regardless of how folks might feel about the impact of car emissions on our climate (despite the, you know, heaps of scientific evidence), no one wants little Johnny to become the Marlboro Man. But if little Johnny lives in an urban area in the good ol’ US of A, he’s basically smoking nine cigarettes a year worth of pollution. And five-and-a-half if he’s living in an “average” American town.
All of that isn’t the result of passenger vehicles alone, but one to one-and-a-half of those smokes are shooting directly from our personal tailpipes into Johnny’s system. One cig over a year might not sound like a lot, but it’s one too many for me — I’m a dad. Go ahead and picture your own kid slowly smoking a whole cigarette, like I did, then come back to me. Still with me? K.
We can do better — have a look at Norway. The Scandinavian country managed to reduce its overall CO2 impact by 17.5% since 2007 via a number of national initiatives, including electric vehicle adoption. No, the journey and execution haven’t been perfect, but the results are undeniable, and their citizens’ shift to EVs can take credit for 40-50% of those declines.
Wildly enough, if Americans had only reduced each driver’s annual emissions by 2.7% starting in 2007, we’d be right alongside Norway today. And noted climate radical George W. Bush passed legislation in his second term that was meant to subsidize hybrid vehicle adoption (although the purpose was more about independence from foreign oil rather than environmentalism). A separate bill also proposed an average vehicle MPG of 35 by 2020; by 2023, we’ve only reached 27.1. You can probably guess why that’s all gone to shit.
Climate change is real, and it’s a real reason why many folks, myself included, love the idea of electrifying our personal vehicles. But even if you debate the science around climate, I challenge you to present a rationale for knowing we’re poisoning our kids and deciding to not do anything about it. Here’s what you can do.
Let’s imagine that 25% of Americans drivers decided to move towards a cleaner, Norwegian-style fleet of passenger vehicles. It would only take an 8.4% increase in efficiency. It’s not a lot! That’s going from a 27 MPG vehicle to a 30 MPG vehicle. Across every single type of vehicle available on-sale today in this country, there’s an option that offers that level of increased efficiency over a standard gas model — or more! Or, there’s a fully-electric option, without any tailpipe emissions whatsoever.
And unlike in the 2000s, when George W. Freakin’ Bush was pushing hybrids, the cost difference between standard, non-plug-in hybrids and their gas counterparts is much tighter, especially when you factor in the fuel savings.
Just for a quick analysis, I focused on five popular vehicle types/models that have gas and hybrid (non-plug-in) options: Ford Maverick (pickup truck), Kia Sorento (3-row SUV), Toyota RAV4 (compact crossover), Lexus RX (luxury crossover), and Honda Accord (family sedan).
First and foremost, they all achieve a ton of added efficiency in terms of MPG:
Which leads to a big chunk of fuel savings annually:
Here’s how the hybrid price points compare to the gas models:
But, with the added fuel savings, you make up that cost difference over time (and most people, these days, own cars for 12.6 years!
Now, sadly, even with Norway’s aggressive maneuvers towards a greener future, little Johannes isn’t totally on the Nicorette: his annual habit still amounts to three cigs, with about a third of a smoke attributable to vehicular pollution. Still, that’s a third of what American Johnny’s sucking down.
Every twelve-step process begins with Step One. So, let’s begin.
Looks like I’m driving the wrong car.