When we talk about climate change we have to look at our everyday ways of life.

I just started a new job. My old job was 20 minutes from home, my new one is 75 minutes. I spent six bucks a day on gas, now I spend $15. If I were to get a new car, the $15 would probably go down to $10. If I were to move into the neighbourhood where I work, I could reduce my daily fuel costs to $0.00.

On my drive home I was thinking, would it not be great if we could reduce our impact on the eniornment by a third, or perhaps a quarter? How difficult can it be? I think it would just be a matter of making simple choices.

The largest visible impact we can make is in our transportation choices. Drive one third less , drive a car that is one third smaller, or one third more fuel efficient. Something that everyone should be pushing for is a law limiting the displacement of engines in cars and light trucks. There is no reasonable reason why any car of any size needs an engine that is larger than 3.5 Litres. Hey 2.5L might be too big! A light truck (under 1 ton) does not need an engine larger than 5 Litres. Trucks in the 1-3 ton range should be diesels only and should be sold as a bio-diesel ready vehicle.

How much energy use and what would the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions be if engines would shut down at rest? It would probably cost $15 dollars a car to install auto stop/start mechanisms in the throttles. It would probably result in $15 dollars a month savings in gas.

Maybe we need to get Rick Mercer back pushing the one ton challenge.