Greetings, There are a few people on the list that keep harping about all the ecologists that drive Subaru Foresters that get 25 mpg. The individual continues saying that if they were to drive their old Toyota Tercels that had five speed transmissions and got 35 mpg the world would be a better place.
Guess he's talking about me. I had a Toyota Tercel until it wrapped itself around a tree (my wife left is sitting in the driveway to go back into the house for a minute and it decided to go for a ride and the tree was in the way). I replaced it with a Subaru because I couldn't find any Tercels. But there seems to be a flaw in the argument. I'm pretty much the only ecologist that lives in my neighborhood. In fact, I'm pretty much the only ecologist that lives in my town and if I expand to the surrounding towns, there really are many of us that live in vicinity. The mix of cars in my neighborhood is broad, but I would venture to say, that my Subaru probably gets better mileage than many of the cars (Ford Explorers, GMC Suburbans,etc.). I guess if I wanted to act as a symbol for the neighborhood I could drive a Tercel, but then again that would be of little value because very few actually know that I'm an ecologist. In reality, I don't drive my Forester much, as I walk the four miles to work and actually stop to talk to folks along the way about a variety of matters including energy matters, politics, etc. My wife is the main driver of the Forester (she's not an ecologist, so I guess by the logic of the e-mail I'm referring to, it's perfectly ok for a non-ecologist to drive a Subaru) and I often catch a ride home with her and sync my schedule to hers in order to minimize trips. I guess my message is that "It ain't us ecologists that are causing most of the problems." In terms of numbers we are so few compared to all the rest of the professions, that our energy usage in the totality is small. Why not pick on lawyers or cell biologist, or perhaps people like Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates who have huge homes, fleets of vehicles and large boats. Cheers, Larry PS I live in a small energy efficient home that is heated by an efficient wood stove (soapstone with catalytic converter) and the total wood burned is less than three cord a year. Most of the wood has come from slash/trash and not from harvesting live trees. -- Larry T. Spencer, Professor Emeritus of Biology Plymouth State University ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
