Convert 47,471 Cars from Gas to Electric

For the cost of one day in Iraq, Americans could convert 47,471 cars to run entirely on electric motors.

(Based on the estimated cost of $7,000 per conversion - June, 2008)

Gas prices in the U.S. are at an all-time high. It's true, they are! But you could be one of the 47,471 car owners to never complain about gas prices again - if we took the money spent over the course of one day in Iraq and put it toward electric conversions.

The average automobile in the U.S. puts out 1.5 tons of carbon per year. At this rate, we could reduce the U.S.'s carbon emissions by 71,206.5 tons per year for the lifetime of those cars - for the cost of one day in Iraq.

Converting to electric energy would also save the driver $1800 a year on average (at early 2008 gas prices). Electric engines have a virtually infinite lifespan, but electric car owners do have to chip in some money to replace the batteries every 3-4 years.


Sources: Environmental New Network, Environmental Defense Fund

Thanks LK for the tip!

52.5 Million Trees Planted

For the cost of one day in Iraq, we could plant 52,662,441 new trees through a Dell/Conservation Fund partnership.

(Based on Dell's projected cost of $6.31 per tree)

Dell's Plant a Tree for Me initiative, a collaboration with carbonfund.org and the Conservation Fund, allows consumers to offset the carbon emissions from their computer purchases. The project estimates that each tree planted will offset 1.33 tons of CO2 over 70 years. Of course, this is the amount of CO2 generated by a desktop computer in only 3 years.

With 15 million computers are purchased annually in the U.S., for the cost of just one day in Iraq, we could plant enough trees to offset the carbon emissions from all new computers bought between Jan. 2005 and the present.


Sources: Greener Choices, Treehugger.com