Car Pool Pollution (Not From My Diaper)

I'm talking gas, and not mine.

I'm just a caveman baby. I poop in my diaper. I drink milk. I can't type more than 60 words per minute. But even I know that cars turn off with just a quick flick of the wrist. Keys are for more than just eating. Every day, actually three times every day, I am amazed as I sit in the car pool line that people do not turn off their cars!

Let me explain how the car pool works. In front of the school, there are four marked spots on the one way driveway. All the cars line up and the first four load or unload their kids. Then they leave and the next four go, etc., etc., until all 100 something kids have been dropped off. Now, in the morning, it's understandable for people to keep their cars on. Not everyone comes at the same time (there's about a 20 minute window around 9 am when the teachers are there to take the kids), and there's usually only one or two people in front of you. But in the afternoon, the world comes to a standstill. Let's just say, it's easier for the teachers to figure out how to take kids out of carseats than it is for them to figure out how to get them in. You can be in that line for a good twenty minutes, and it takes up to five minutes for the four front cars to get fully loaded, so you have lots of stopped time.

I was curious. I called the EPA, texted my buddy Al Gore. I thought, maybe these grown-ups know what they're doing and it actually uses less gas to keep the car on for twenty minutes than to turn it on and off a few times. They're wrong. I found several sources that said that if you're idling for over a minute it's the same as turning the car off and back on. It's ridiculous the amount of gas that is being wasted and the amount of pollution that is going in to the air. And this is every day! At schools all over the place! It may not seem like much for a few minutes here and there, but it really adds up. Today we got there early at 11:45. Some non-eco-douche pulled up being us driving their Hummer (actually, it was just a regular SUV, but they're all the same to me--I'm little). Now, we weren't going to be going anywhere until at least 12:00 because that is when the kids come out. But, they left their car on the whole fifteen minutes! What a waste. Dante must have imagined a circle of Hell reserved specifically for these people.*

Apparently there are truths more inconvenient than the load in my diaper.

Good day.

I know how to turn off my car.

 I said, good day!


*Douchebags