Perhaps the single most important thing you can do to fight global warming is to replace your current car with a fuel-efficient one. Obviously, not everyone has the money to buy a new car this year. But when you do, we want you to remember this challenge. Why? Because buying a gasoline-powered car that gets excellent fuel efficiency or, better yet, an alternative-fuel car that runs on a renewable fuel does more than help prevent global warming and save you gas money. It also lessens our dependence on foreign oil imports, reduces air pollution, smog, and acid rain; reduces the chances of oil spills; and, perhaps most important, sends a message to car manufacturers that Americans want cars that don't harm the environment.

What You Should Know

• Because of the popularity of gas-guzzling SUV's, for the first time in U.S. history, the old cars being sent to scrap yards in recent years have better average fuel efficiency than the new cars sitting in the dealerships.
• Because trucks are traditionally heavier and bigger than passenger cars, they do not have to meet fuel-efficiency standards as strict as those of lighter passenger cars. Unfortunately, SUV's are classified as light-duty trucks (even though they are now being used as passenger cars), which is why our government allows them to have such horrible fuel efficiency.
• Even though fossil fuels are burned both in your car's engine and at power plants, your car's tailpipe pollution is more dangerous to your health than power plant pollution because of its proximity--you breathe the fumes in every time you're near a vehicle.
• By taking fuel efficiency into consideration when you buy your next car, you will personally help reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil in addition to decreasing your car's global warming and air pollution emissions. Ultimately, using a fuel that is renewable and that we can produce domestically (such as ethanol or other biofuels) is the only thing that will completely free us from our dependence on foreign oil.
• If car manufacturers doubled the fuel efficiency of SUV's from the current average of 16 to 32 miles per gallon, every new SUV would save 70 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
• Recent breakthroughs in aluminum technology allows cars to be built 40% lighter than ones built with steel, while testing safer in crash tests. For every 10% decrease in vehicle weight, fuel efficiency improves by 7%. So buying a car with this new aluminum siding will save you more than $1,500 over the life of the car.

Easy Things You Can Do

• Get the most fuel efficient car you can afford. This is the most important factor to consider when buying your next car, in terms of saving money and the planet. It's plain and simple: The more gas your car uses, the more CO2 it emits and the more you will contribute to global warming. The solution then is to buy the car that gets the best fuel efficiency and fits your needs.

• Don't be tricked by diesel. Cars that run on diesel fuel usually get better fuel efficiency than gasoline-powered cars, but don't think you're helping the environment by buying a diesel-fueled car! A catalytic converter--the thing in your engine that reduces tailpipe pollution--doesn't work as well with diesel fuel. Also, diesel exhaust is 10 times more carcinogenic and has many more lung-clogging particles in it than gasoline exhaust.

• Lighter is better. A heavier car needs more gas than a lighter car, so to cut down on your carbon dioxide emissions and save gas money, buy the lightest car you can. Some people think a heavier car is safer; however, air bags, seat belts, and a safe structural design all increase your chances of survival much more than additional weight does. Also advances in lightweight aluminum technology has produced cars that, in some cases, are 40% lighter yet has HIGHER rigidity and crash worthiness than the body of a similar car made of steel.

• Hurray for hybrids! Hybrid vehicles currently get the best fuel efficiency of any gasoline-powered cars on the market. That's because they're not JUST powered by gas--they're also powered by electricity. A hybrid vehicle combines the internal combustion engine of a gasoline-powered car with an electric motor to produce incredible fuel efficiency and less tailpipe pollution. The hybrid car's battery recharges itself once the engine is running. And because hybrids get twice the fuel efficiency of regular cars you'll need to fill up only half as many times as you would with a regular car. And compared with your typical car, a hybrid reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 50% and tailpipe pollution by 80%, and it will save you at least $3,000 in gas costs over the life of the car!

• Put ethanol--or other biofuels--in your car today! Gasoline is dirty. Diesel is dirtier. But there are cleaner, less polluting fuels out there that you should know about because, chances are, they will soon replace gasoline as we know it. Ethanol is the most widely used alternative fuel. Because it is made from corn it's renewable (unlike fossil fuels). Furthermore, because it's made from a plant, ethanol has no net carbon dioxide emissions, since the corn soaks up as much carbon dioxide when it's growing as the ethanol emits when it's burned in a car's engine. Most cars today can run on gasoline that has been blended with a little bit of ethanol, making it a slightly cleaner fuel. This blend, called E10, has become more widely available across the nation--check your owner's manual to see if your car can run on E10.

• Buy an electric car. Electricity is considered an alternative fuel because it releases no emissions when used to power a car. Since fossil fuels are burned when the electricity is created at the power plant, however, electric cars are not completely emission-free. Still, even taking into account the fossil fuels burned at the power plant, electric vehicles emit 67% less CO2 than do gasoline-powered cars. Plus they bring tailpipe emissions down to zero. Also, electric motors are three times more efficient than gasoline ones, which is why owning an electric car is 40% less expensive than owning a gasoline-powered car.

Source: You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) 51 Easy Ways, by Jeffrey Langholz, PhD, and Kelly Turner.