04/22/2004 Entry: "Earth Day 2004"
Posted by Maynard @ 04:42 PM MST

Earth Day 2004

It's earth day today. I think I'll celebrate by driving my SUV to the office supply store and buying a ream of paper (keeping the engine running while I'm inside). When I get back to the office I'll put the ream through the shredder.

Kidding aside, I don't like to waste gas. Not for the environmental impact it leaves, but for the monetary impact. The stuff is expensive, no doubt. However, I am unpersuaded by arguments that driving an SUV degrades the air here in Tucson. My Explorer gets around 18-19 miles per gallon and if that sounds bad, you should see what comes out of the smoke wagons I see around town. Some of these things smoke horrendously, and I am sure that a 10 year old Honda Civic with a "Earth First!" sticker and a portable smokescreen generator is worse for the environment than my SUV.

So why don't I ride public transportation, like the bus? Simple: too expensive and too dirty. Buses cost me about four times as much per mile than my SUV. Also, have you ever been stopped behind a bus? When they get going again they smoke like a chimney, even the "environment friendly" natural gas buses. Besides, taking my own car to work allows me to arrive and leave when I want, instead of being a slave to some timetable. It also allows me to run errands.

Why don't I ride my bike to work, you ask? Simple, I don't want to smell like an ox when I arrive. There's this thing called professionalism, and I like to appear like a professional.

I like breathing clean air. But I don't like being told I'm a polluter by someone who smells like they took a shower four days ago and drives a car that can't be seen through the smoke at a red light. If that's an exagerration, its not a large one.

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