As I was telling my friend David last night as I came back from Toronto to New York, we always have an intellectual understanding of our dependence on oil, but it wasn’t until our oil literally ran out that I felt it emotionally.  It’s a frightening thing to realize how dependent we are on something. And when that something is destructive and harmful, the message sinks in that much more powerfully. We pollute. The number one thing we pollute is carbon dioxide, the product of being reliant on fossil fuels for nearly all of our daily needs. But the number one source of our carbon dioxide is our cars. Hurricane Sandy may have just been a fluke, a far-flung data point drifting from the median. But it might point to a growing problem: that of anthropic climate change. The simple truth is that we are changing our environment. The Earth is warming, and as a result, devastating storms like Sandy will become more common.

A few weeks ago, before the storm, artist Allison Morris sent me this graphic, which illustrates the effectiveness of green cars on the environment.  By a simple shift of our most common conveyance, we can make a huge change in the planet for the better. If you share my views, then you’ll think it’s about time.  And if you don’t share my views, perhaps this illustrated graphic will convince you.

Allison Morris Green Cars Illustration