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Idaho Transportation
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P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563

 


Young letter-writer challenges eco-friendliness of electric cars

Note: The following is a guest opinion printed in the Idaho Press Tribune. Writer Tyler Kent is the 12-year-old son of Sharron Svir who works in Financial Services at Headquarters.


There is a lot of this recycling stuff going around in Idaho lately.

People have been advertising how good it is to have an eco-friendly car that runs on electricity. People just think that it is good for the environment, when it really isn't.

The electric cars may sound like they are the perfect little things because they don't burn fuel and don't give out exhaust. These electric cars are better for the atmosphere than normal cars, but they still pollute the environment. The electric cars still pollute our planet because much of the electricity on Earth comes from burning coal.

All of the recycling plants may save trees, which is good, but their machines that recycle everything have to run on something, and that something is gasoline or electricity. Gasoline is one of those fossil fuels we hear about all the time on the news, talking about how they trap heat inside the gases in the air that they create and cause global warming.

Global warming is a big thing that no one in the world can fix in this period of time because not enough people are willing to make the change in their lives. Our grandchildren might be able to change if other people in the world act soon.

We have to learn to not drive cars as much. We need to walk or ride bicycles or we need to find an alternative source of energy instead of fossil fuels. Or instead of finding an alternative energy, we can find a new way to make the same amount of electricity for the entire world without burning coal.

So maybe next time you think of buying a new car, you should think of how that car would affect our planet.

Tyler Kent,
Meridian

Published 1-8-2010