VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY -- The Natural Perspective

Vic is off teaching class today, so I’m grabbing this opportunity to

gripe about a few of my least favorite things. How about people who

blithely drive their huge sport utility vehicles right through stop

signs, yakking on their cell phones and totally ignoring traffic? Or how

about that construction on Goldenwest Street? And what about those prices

at the gas pump? Doesn’t it just chap your hide every time you have to

fill up the tank?

Burning fossil fuels is expensive. The cost of gasoline is going up

faster than my blood pressure when I see how much more it costs each week

to fill up the tank. I suppose we’re lucky compared to Europeans, who are

paying about twice what we pay, but somehow I don’t feel lucky. I’m mad.

The cost of burning fossil fuel isn’t just our out-of-pocket cost. All of

us are paying a much higher cost in global warming. The combustion of

fossil fuels contributes to the greenhouse effect.

The temperature of this planet has risen enough in the past few decades

to melt the Arctic ice cap. Sea ice is being lost at the rate of 37,000

square kilometers a year, an area larger than the states of Maryland and

Delaware combined. The permafrost is melting, too. And do you know what

that’s going to do? Release more greenhouse gases, which will speed up

the process of global warming, which will speed up melting of the ice,

which will cause the oceans to rise, which will increase flooding along

the coast. That brings this global issue right on home. Because when

houses on the coast flood, the Federal Emergency Management Agency steps

in and taxpayers get to foot the bill.

So what can we do? Prices at the gas pump may be encouraging some to

drive less, but mostly we just gripe and keep on driving. One part of the

solution may lie in our choice of vehicles. You’ve heard that someday we

may have electric cars? Well, the future has arrived in the form of

hybrid-electric vehicles.

You can go to Norm Reeves Honda on Beach Boulevard right now and buy a

Honda Insight. They’ve sold their first one already, so you probably

won’t find one on the lot but you can order one. This little beauty gets

70 miles per gallon on the highway and 61 in the city. A very positive

side benefit is that the car has ultra-low emissions, so you’ll be

contributing to cleaner air.

The Insight has a three-cylinder VTEC engine plus an electric motor,

costs about $20,000 with air conditioning, and comes in a sexy red, a

classy silver and a “citrus yellow” that’s more green than yellow and

looks like radioactive snot. Go with the red or silver.

Toyota is about to launch the Prius, their hybrid electric vehicle.

According to Frank Romano at the corporate office in Irvine, it should be

available for sale here by late summer or early fall, but it has been

available in Japan for several years already. Frank had just returned

from test driving the Prius in Palos Verdes and was really excited about

it.

The Prius is a four-door sedan that seats five people. It has a

four-cylinder DOHC engine plus an electric motor, gets about 51 to 66

miles mpg and will come in six colors. Emission reduction is 90% over

conventional vehicles, which categorizes the Prius as a super-ultra-low

emission vehicle. I can hardly wait to test drive one.

Ford is developing a hybrid electric vehicle, the P2000. Ford is also

working on a car powered by a fuel cell, a battery-like device with a

proton exchange membrane. It runs on hydrogen and produces only water

vapor as an emission. Talk about clean. The fuel efficiency will be

double that of an internal combustion engine. But these cars are still in

development.

Don’t get me wrong. I lust after one of those hulking SUVs. I would love

nothing more than to muscle my way through the grocery store parking lot

in a Lincoln Navigator. But I believe that driving a car that is a gas

guzzler or that has high emissions is socially irresponsible.

Heavier cars use more natural resources to build and tear up the roads

more, which costs all of us taxpayers. So do something nice for both your

pocketbook and our planet. This summer, take a look at the new options in

fuel-efficient cars.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 vicleipzig@aol.comf7 .