So I resolved to help in the way this expert
coal, but it still emits carbon dioxide when
recommended, whatever it might cost me in effort and personal energy. I decided to leap into the 21st century as an all-green citizen, with a solar home, an electric car, and zero
burned.) I intended to demonstrate, if true, that the time for this kind of change had arrived—that ordinary people like me could make this choice without paying too high a
trash, only recycling.
price.
To this end, I began conducting a sort of lifestyle experiment. My object was twofold: to see how lightly I could live on the earth, and
I found such a car, custom-made, through my friend Al Simpler, of Shelby Motors in Tallahassee. The maker, Wilde EVolutions of
to try to attract other consumers into the same ways of life by showing that they were not burdensome but exciting and fun. I asked for the privilege of writing weekly columns in
Arizona, bought a Taurus body, installed the necessary electric innards, and delivered it to me within eight weeks.
the local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat. The paper was happy to take me on, and promptly named me “The Everyday Environmentalist.” My columns began to appear on the 20th birthday of Earth Day, in April, 1994 and ran for six years. From the start, I promised readers that I would try to make changes in every aspect of my life from the ways I bought things to the ways I used and disposed of them. I pledged that I would report only on changes I, myself, had made—a project in
The E-car looked like any other car.
The price was higher that I’d ever paid for a car—$25,000, but there was no 7-percent sales tax on the car and I got a 10-percent rebate on my income tax. The net price of the
which my bemused husband cooperated fully. It did turn out to be fun, doing all this. And nothing was more exciting than my purchase and use of an electric car.
car, then, was $25,000 minus $1,750 minus $2,500, or $20,250 total, plus $1,000 shipping. I thought such a price might be acceptable to other drivers who, like me,
I did some research to find a car that would be affordable, practical and safe. It had to be reliable and repairable by ordinary nearby garages at a reasonable price and I
wanted to make their life choices more green. Tongue in cheek, I told readers: I stopped for gas last week for the last time. Nostalgically, I bent over the gas cap and inhaled deeply.
had to be comfortable and confident driving it. In return for those features, I vowed I would be willing to face some obstacles, if necessary. My reward would be the privilege
“I’ll miss this,” I thought wistfully. “No more stops at gas stations. No more exhaust fumes. No more rumbling engine, no spark plugs, no muffler, no carburetor—how will I live without these things?”
of driving more freely while producing less global-warming gas than I had ever done before. (Our city electricity was generated from natural gas, which is less polluting than
Nonsense. I thought nothing of the kind.
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