Idly Caring for Creation

Every auto maker including our local General Motors is scrambling to produce cars that will meet new fuel emission standards in the U.S. as well as meet consumer demands for vehicles of all sizes. Their solution is the hybrid, a car that runs on gasoline but uses batteries as well. Friends have a Toyota Prius and it is a nifty vehicle which essentially shuts the gas engine down when in traffic or idling, then kicks it back in for higher speed driving.

We may all end up driving hybrids someday, but in the meantime there is a simple solution to idling the engine. Don't do it. Turn the car off. Modern car engines are built to perform more efficiently as they move a vehicle forward, so idling in the driveway to warm the car up is not necessary, at least not for the engine's benefit.

This morning C.B.C radio -- appropriately named Fresh Air -- had a guest who encouraged listeners to shut the engine off if the car is sitting still longer than seven seconds. After this length of time it is more fuel efficient to turn the vehicle off. I have been doing this for years when sitting in backed up traffic or waiting in line because of highway construction. In some jurisdictions it is the law for delivery vehicles to shut off their engines rather than idling outside a building.

Dozens of people emailed into Fresh Air with their thoughts, and a mother in Trenton wrote to say that at her daughter's school kids hold up signs encouraging waiting parents to turn off their car engines.http://origin.www.cbc.ca/freshair/

Many of us try to figure out what we can do in our daily lives to take care of this world that God has created. It can be as simple as a flick of the wrist. Now if we could just ban drive-throughs...