Song for SUV's: Ride Black Rocket, Ride!!

When she was three-ish, the Diva christened our monster SUV, the Black Rocket. (Dancer added “Speeder!”) When they were seven and nine, respectively, the Dreamer and the Dude told me — as we were driving to school one day — something to the effect of “if we would get a smaller car, we wouldn’t be polluting the environment as much.”

Is that right? I asked them to note that the car-to-person ratio of the smaller car directly in front of us (1:1) was significantly lower than our own (1:5). I just harumphed at their rejoinder which was that it would be even better if we all had battery-powered Segways. . .

If you are having to do similar work de-programming your children when they come home from school, be sure to check out this great article. Kathryn Lopez of NRO interviews Steve Hayward of AEI on his recently released Index of Leading Environmental Indicators.

Turns out the sky is not falling . . .and I can enjoy my SUV in peace:

Kathryn: Is my SUV killing the Earth?

Hayward: No. It is a great myth that SUVs are greater polluters. True, they use more gasoline, but they now have the same emissions standards as all other automobiles, so replacing your old clunker with a new SUV will actually help clean up ozone smog in America. Because they use more gas, they do emit more carbon dioxide, but remember, carbon dioxide is not a noxious pollutant, but plant food.