Bummer, dude, bummer. Clay Farris Naff tried. And failed
To Ease Climate Change, I’m Giving Up My Car — Or That Was the Plan, Anyhow
When I see people leave their cars running as they head into the supermarket with children in tow, I want to scream, “You ignorant, wasteful bastards! Don’t you know what you’re doing to your kids?” Me, I can’t help being aware that every gallon of gasoline that runs through my car pumps out 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Ack!
So, as a record-seeking drought wilted crops and cracked the earth under my feet, I vowed to change. When Sandy hit the Jersey Shore, my resolve redoubled. “World,” I announced on Facebook, “I’m done with driving!”
How’d that work out?
Lord knows I’ve tried to give up my car, but I’m like a chicken-skin addict with a big stash of China White sittin’ right there in my driveway. Every day, it seems, there’s another excuse — er, compelling reason — for me not to hop on my bike and ride to work.
One challenge is that at 56 I’m not as boundlessly energetic as I used to be. Another is that as the chief executive of a nonprofit, I can’t show up at meetings with state regulators all sweaty and grease-stained. It’s just not done.
You should quit your job to save the planet. But, he bought a bike!!!!
It really is that simple. If only the rest of life were. No sooner did I publicly issue my pledge to give up the car than a hundred reasons to keep it sprang up like drought-resistant weeds. Here’s one: date night. Somehow, I overlooked the fact that if my wife and I are going to go out on a Saturday night, I’m either going to need a tandem bike or I’ll to have to hold fast to the old jalopy. Somehow, I don’t see my dear one hopping onto the second seat in all her finery and pedaling off with me to the opera.
And, so he rides the bike now and then, but, 21st century life intrudes. And with every fossil fueled trip, he kills a polar bear.
Why not buy an all electric vehicle? Oh, right, they’re really expensive, tend to be tiny, and do not go very far. I posted the same thing in the comments at HuffPo. Kinda doubting it gets published.
