cars and stats

“The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it; the world, and all that lives upon it.” Psalm 24:1

Tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks account for almost a third of the air pollution in the US. So not all of us can afford hybrid cars, (although I do sometimes feel myself longing after the 60 mpg of the Prius as well as the ridiculous low emissions. . . ) so what can we do to make our current car more environmentally friendly (check out these websites for more: http://www.dailyfueleconomytip.com/ and http://www.gas-mileage-tips.com/)?

- Well, first of all, keep your tires properly inflated. According to AAA, driving with under inflated tires can reduce your vehicle’s gas mileage and fuel efficiency by up to 2% which, for a $3.00 gallon of gas, causes you to lose $.06 per gallon. This is especially important when it gets cold. . .
- Care for your car, proper maintenance will keep your car running properly and increase the life of your car. A poorly tuned car will pollute significantly more than one that is well maintained.
- Drive less! Walk, bike, carpool, combine activities into one trip, take public transportation. Not only is this good for the environment, it's good for your health and who knows who you will meet or what you will see being out of your car and more capable of interaction with neighbors.
- Don't own two cars, use http://www.austincarshare.org/
- Convert your diesel vehicle into a biofuel vehicle. It's fairly inexpensive for the long term benefits your receive: free or cheaper gas, higher gas milege, no more stinky car emissions (mmm fried chicken); check out http://www.vegpoweredsystems.com/ and http://www.drivingethanol.org/

So Rob Bell, from http://www.marshill.org/ is doing a series on 'God is Green' and here are some scary stats of the destruction that humans are causing:
- We, as Americans, only recycle a tenth of our garbage (you can begin to make this change, http://www.trirecycling.com/ is a recycling service that will give you containers and pick up at commercial locations for a small fee; if you don't work *students* begin to pay attention in your house to things that can be recycled, Austin offers curbside pick up!).
- 1.5 acres of rainforest are destroyed every second
- 70% of rivers in China are polluted (unfit for human contact)
-4.6 million people died last year from air pollution diseases (shouldn't the fact that people are dying be enough to spur us to action??)
- 50,000 species go extinct a year (plants, insects, animals)
- Americans produce 63,000 dump trucks full of trash a day (if you lined the trucks up they would go halfway to the moon); recycling could help
- During the holidays we dump 5 million tons of trash and 4 million tons of it is shopping bags and wrapping paper *there have go to be better ways to 'wrap' our presents!!!
- 14 billion pounds of waste went in the ocean last year

"And God said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it..." Genesis 1:28

If God called us to replenish the earth, what are we doing? Our sense of entitlement, selfishness, ignorance has taken over. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS DESTRUCTION. This includes the people of the church especially since we know the charge that God has given us to care for our world. Let's own up to this responsibility and head up the movement to live simpler, greener and more sustainable lives!