The Single Most Immediately Effective Thing a TreeHugger Can Do
by TreeHugger 
on 05. 2.05
Stay at the speed limit. Not a bit more or less. Stay at the posted limit and the gasoline savings will range from 2 to 15%. We're herd animals, easily tempted to go "caravan speed", which is typically 5 or 10 miles per hour over the limit at rush hour. When our lives are hurried, we'll even do it on uncrowded residential streets. The price is paid doubly: wasted money and increased C02 emissions per mile of travel.
The lovely part of this "radical idea" of keeping to the posted speed limit is that it keeps us TreeHuggers out of the political trap being set for us by those who thrive on inefficiency. They want us to beg for a Federally mandated speed limit reduction so that any Congressinal rep who supports it will be trounced in coming elections. Don't go for it!
Doesn't matter if you drive a hybrid sedan or an SUV, the benefits are immediate and massively propagating. The more crowded the roadway, the more you force others to accrue the same benefits. Thinking about a bumper sticker that says "Slow Down and Save the Climate"? Fugetaboudit. No need to become a target for road ragers.
Think globally, act immediately.
by: John Laumer
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