Thanks Ericgo.
I really don't consider myself an environmentalist per say...but I am concerned about pollution. Especially in times when I'm in AutoStop and that F150 diesel pulls up next to me and the only thing separating me from a 3 inch exhaust pipe is a sheet of glass, right at eye level.
I'd love to reduce the level of auto-induced smog in the city, etc.
Perhaps my environmentalist definition is wrong but I'm against the more extreme views. For example laws that would mandate catalytic converters on lawnmowers, leaf blowers etc and have you put in prison if you remove it. I'm also against Kyoto as it appears to be a mechanism to punish America's progress while other major pollution contributors (China) enjoy a free pass while jabbing us.
Imagine being arrested by your local police chief to stand trial before a U.N. court judge only to have an expensive global warming fine imposed because someone saw & photographed your chainsaw blowing smoke as you cut down a house-threatening tree in your back yard?
Knowing the saw was constructed using prison or near-slave labor by a Chinese company that dumps untold amounts of waste in its rivers & blows unrestricted toxic fumes into the air...under blessing from Kyoto?
This won't likely happen with the good members here at Greenhybird but this
is on the list of the more extreme environmentalist organizations. And they are many.
I hold an opposite view of (I think) most hybrid owners that man-induced global warming is an unproven science. I'm not saying it's false, just unproven. I've logged many hours watching the PBS global warming shows but it's entirely one sided and at times parades some very extreme views. I wonder if this has to alot to do with large PBS donations or political posturing?
Last year my family recieved an email threat from another member here regarding my views, and even very recently a shooting-spree personal death threat on a different hybrid car forum.
All because I expressed a different view than mainstream.
I wonder how many of those extremists actually drive a hybrid car and drive it for maximum FE or adopt a section of highway and keep it clean as yours truly? Would they really take the time to volunteer and discard several bags of trash from the side of the road with a poking stick? I can't count how many "green" or otherwise environmental bumper stickers I've seen stuck to smokey cars driven in a careless manner, mainly teenagers, college students and thier professors from the university?
You're right in that I bought my car to save money on my long commute. I noticed the Insight capability and believed the HCH could also do very well, given the same technology.
I also find technology in general fascinating from 1800's time keepers to steam engines to mechanical phonographs to vacume tube equipment all the way up to modern hybrid cars.
My 74 year old father, a retired NW Airlines master mechanic is amazed that I'm getting better than 60MPG in a 5 passenger car, and especially because it has an automatic transmission. My mom tells me that he brags to his friends about it and that, in part, makes it all worth it.
