April 22nd- Earth Day
Earth Day was founded in 1970 as a day of education about environmental issues and has now turned into a globally celebrated holiday that some even extend in to Earth Week. Earth Week is a full seven days of events focused on green awareness.
By the early 1960s Americans started to become aware of the effects of pollution on the environment. Rachel Carson published a bestselling book in 1962 titles “Silent Spring” which raised awareness of the dangerous effects of pesticides on America’s countryside. Senator Gaylord Nelson was determined to convince the federal government that the planet was at risk. He is the one who founded Earth Day after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. As a result 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast to coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment.
Since 1970 Earth Day celebrations have grown. In 1990, Earth Day went global when 200 million people in over 140 nations participated! In 2000, Earth Day focused on clean energy and involved hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries and 5,000 environmental groups.
Many people are starting to consider the environment even when buying their vehicles. J.D. Power recently compiled a list of the top 30 environmentally friendly vehicles. Making the top 30 were the Ford Focus, Hyundai Accent, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda3, Mazda Miata, and the Nissan Sentra. All of these vehicles are available with the Preston Automotive Group.
Buying a greener vehicle is the first step in reducing the environmental impacts of a vehicle. How you drive also makes a difference. Think ahead and try to anticipate stops to let your vehicle coast down as much as possible. Plan trips to avoid rush hour, stop and go driving burns gas and emissions of smog forming pollutants. Make sure you unload your cargo, carrying around an extra 100 pounds reduces fuel economy by around 1%. Try using vents and opening the windows to cool off before turning on the air conditioning in your car. It increases fuel consumption, NOx emissions and involves environmentally damaging fluids. You should also try to follow the speed limit! Driving 75 mph instead of 65 mph will lower your fuel economy by about 10 percent and can dramatically increase tailpipe pollution in many vehicles. You should also try to combine trips. Instead of running and errand one day and also the next day you should combine the two trips. Combining two short trips can make a big difference.
