Unpimp My Gas Mileage

I used to think that Hummers were the most wasteful vehicles on the road. Call me what you will, but I still think they are ecologically irresponsible. However, the Hummer can now rest comfortably in second place. Last week I saw a stretch Excursion. WTF is up with that?! Those things have horrible gas mileage to begin with. Then someone came up with the brilliant idea of making it even more horrible by making it 2 1/2 times longer. (Check out this link for an eye opening look at what it costs to drive a Hummer. This page show the same summary for a Ford Expedition. Keep in mind that driving an Excursion is even worse! Also, check out Treehugger.com’s commentary on the Excursion.)

I have to wonder if those who own this vehicle realize the impact something like this has. Going beyond the immediate environmental issues of low gas mileage and wasteful use of resources, how many other high mileage cars will it take to offset this one vehicle’s lifetime of use? Think about it. If you were to buy a hybrid vehicle today, you are not doing anything to put us ahead environmentally. What you are actually doing is helping erase the deficit created by this one wasteful vehicle. And so is the next person who buys a hybrid. And maybe the person after that, too. You can see the huge impact that this one vehicle has.

This is more than just an automotive lesson, however. When I asked myself why this incident bothered me so much, I realized that this was a reminder to me that the same thought process applies to everything we do. We sometimes wonder what we alone can do to make an impact. When we look at what we do from the perspective of how many people it will take to offset this thing, our decisions are suddenly much more meaningful.