Family Planning May Prove To Be More Effective To Being Green Than Buying A Prius

The 2012 Toyota Prius gets the best EPA-rated gas mileage--50 miles per gallon combined--of any non-plug-in car sold in the U.S.

But the Prius hybrid sometimes gets a bad rap.

At least some of it is due to the notorious (and very funny) South Park episode in which a deadly attack of Smug afflicts the little mountain town whose residents all drive a hatchback called the Pious.

With its top-of-the-list gas mileage, a Prius hybrid is clearly a step in the direction of driving green--and all journeys begin with the first step. But by itself, buying a hybrid isn't enough.

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Steve - 8/10/2012 11:25:53 AM

+3 Boost

Well that's a huge "Duh!" Say that each North American human has an environmental impact of 1 unit on the planet. By becoming zealot environmentalists and altering all aspects of their lives to minimize negative impact, they reduce their impact to 0.85 units (a 15% reduction, which is hugely ambitious when we consider all aspects of impact, such as food, shelter, clothing, transportation, recreation, etc.) That means an average family of "environmentalists" with 2 adults and 2.2 children will have a total family impact of 3.74 units (2.2 x 0.85), or 1.87 per adult.

The decision to have just one child, while being a zealot of an "environmentalists", will give you a per-adult impact of 1.275. Deciding not to breed, and doing nothing to save the planet, gives you an impact of 1.0.

The answer is simple: Want to save the planet? Don't breed!

But the "urge to merge" is too strong for most to make that decision, so they may become zealots in telling others how to live their life, while they've already done far worse than any non-breeder ever could. Just something to chew on.

Agent009 - 8/10/2012 12:20:28 PM

-3 Boost

Well the larger the family the larger the footprint. Stuffing 4 people in a Prius for a lifetime is offset by the 1 extra person over time.

The solution is to have no kids or pets.

thetruth01 - 8/10/2012 2:03:50 PM

+3 Boost

Most environmentalists know all this, and some of them actually do drive Priuses, as but one small part of their desire to minimize their environmental impact. But I think time and again we see that most Prius purchases are simply more practical than the idea of doing good for the environment. When gas hits 3.75 to 4.00 a gallon, hybrid sales spike, as suddenly the benefits of a comfortable, roomy, practical car that gets 50mpg weigh a lot more heavily than one's carbon footprint.