2008 Woodie Awards
Land of Unrestrained Consumption
Cut the engines: America is using more than its fair share of fossil fuel.
William Hines
Issue date: 11/3/04 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
America is the best country in the world, but that's no license to hog.
North America uses approximately 30 percent of energy consumed in the world each year, even though it makes up less than 20 percent of the world's population, according to the Energy Information Administration.
We import about 20 million barrels of petroleum a month, or about 5 million more than Europe, and most of it goes to power gas-guzzling cars.
Sports utility vehicles and sports cars are the perfect American possessions. Like their owners, they're thoughtlessly greedy and excessive in their usage.
Americans buy SUVs because bigger and faster is always better.
After all, the guy with the sharp car always gets the good-looking girl.
Owning a sports car as a primary vehicle doesn't make sense when you consider freeway speed limits.
And which part of L.A. requires four-wheel driving?
Often, an SUV will come to a complete stop before turning in or out of a driveway. For goodness sake, you've got an SUV, buddy. You should take curbs without pause.
Sunday drivers, off-road enthusiasts and speed-racers who commute on a daily basis have no reason to drive either of these gas-guzzlers as a primary mode of transportation.
Even though SUVs are the new station wagon, they deplete non-renewable resources and ruin the environment.
SUVs made by General Motors, Chrysler, Land Rover, and Ford average around 16 miles per gallon, as compared to the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius hybrids that get about 40 miles per gallon.
SUVs and sports cars have horrendous greenhouse gas emissions ratings, which contribute to global warming.
Sports cars don't exactly fall into the environmentally conscious or globally respectful categories.
It's understood that the car you drive has a lot to do with how cool people think you are, but the health of the environment is too big of a price to pay for an ego boost.
North America uses approximately 30 percent of energy consumed in the world each year, even though it makes up less than 20 percent of the world's population, according to the Energy Information Administration.
We import about 20 million barrels of petroleum a month, or about 5 million more than Europe, and most of it goes to power gas-guzzling cars.
Sports utility vehicles and sports cars are the perfect American possessions. Like their owners, they're thoughtlessly greedy and excessive in their usage.
Americans buy SUVs because bigger and faster is always better.
After all, the guy with the sharp car always gets the good-looking girl.
Owning a sports car as a primary vehicle doesn't make sense when you consider freeway speed limits.
And which part of L.A. requires four-wheel driving?
Often, an SUV will come to a complete stop before turning in or out of a driveway. For goodness sake, you've got an SUV, buddy. You should take curbs without pause.
Sunday drivers, off-road enthusiasts and speed-racers who commute on a daily basis have no reason to drive either of these gas-guzzlers as a primary mode of transportation.
Even though SUVs are the new station wagon, they deplete non-renewable resources and ruin the environment.
SUVs made by General Motors, Chrysler, Land Rover, and Ford average around 16 miles per gallon, as compared to the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius hybrids that get about 40 miles per gallon.
SUVs and sports cars have horrendous greenhouse gas emissions ratings, which contribute to global warming.
Sports cars don't exactly fall into the environmentally conscious or globally respectful categories.
It's understood that the car you drive has a lot to do with how cool people think you are, but the health of the environment is too big of a price to pay for an ego boost.
