Green Tip #70: Snow Day

You know me, I like to be topical. And by that I mean I usually don't have any idea of what I'm going to write until I wake up and see my calendar says either Tuesday or Friday and I start trying to come up with ideas that I can use for the IGR. Well, today is no different than any other Tuesday. I had almost forgot that I was going to write one of these Green Tips until about an hour or so ago. So what do I do? I look around at what's happening in my life and in the world to get ideas. Well, those of you in Ohio right now know that the weather here can be summed up in one word: typical.

Yup, a February in Ohio would not be typical if it didn't come with a whole mess of snow and poorly plowed roads and Snow Advisories. And since this snow is all over the place here, I can't think of a better motivation for a Green Tip.

This isn't related to Green Tip #70 at all, but let me just say that I really like snow days. Snow days mean that less people will be out on the roads which means that less gas will be consumed by all these cars. Also, people are driving slower, which is better for the gas mileage. And if we don't use as much gas, Global Warming won't happen, so we'll continue to enjoy more snow days!

Okay, on to Green Tip #70. If you do find yourself having to drive anywhere whenever snow is around, don't be lazy with scraping off your car! Every single snowflake or crust of ice is adding completely unnecessary weight to your car. And that means that much more gas that you'll be burning lugging around all that snow. It's like when I had most of the unimportant parts of my car removed to make it lighter. (Doors, who needs doors? They just slow you down from getting in your car!)

So be vigilant! If you want to avoid having to explain to your grandkids what winter was before Global Warming took over, you need to get that snow off your cars! Or just stay in and drink Cold Hot Chocolate (saves electricity if you don't microwave it). Either way, be safe out there and totaling your car in a snow drift means one more hunk of metal in a landfill somewhere.