A Few Thoughts

In case you can't already tell, I'm the kind of person who will randomly start thinking about something and have it hit me while I'm driving. Driving back from school this morning, I began thinking about well, cars (how appropriate right?).

I was thinking about why people are buying hybrid cars - or in fact not buying hybrid cars. Instead of looking at it in the way of "Hybrid = green", I'm looking at it as in "Hybrid = less gas = less money at the pump." The conventional way of thinking is that people, as a whole, are trying to save the environment and stop using combustible fossil fuels.

Is that true?

I'm not so sure, honestly. Sure the government is thinking that way, trying desperately to cut dependencies on foreign countries for fuel sources and even giving massive funding (and subsequent policies that force automakers to comply with newer regulations) to car companies, but does that translate to the thinking of the average American?

If we were truly environmentally aware, our world would come to a halt. Even relatively innocent looking products such as the keyboard I'm typing on right now came from crude oil. Yes, plastics are a crude oil product - and you very well know how much plastic there is in the world. We are all so caught up in convenience and (some) ignorance regarding how "green" our lifestyles are.

For the average person (even me), deciding to buy a hybrid car doesn't always mean they are trying to be green. It can, and often only means that they want to spend less money at the pump. Sure that's a pessimistic way of looking at things, but we are all guilty in some way or another in perpetuating this ongoing cycle.

It's unfortunate there's not really a solution to all of this.