How "Green" can you go?

It wasn't long ago when the color "green" was widely defined as puerile, silly and funny. Some of the best jokes I've heard were from this connotation.

Nowadays, green takes another meaning as environmental issues flood news reports more than ever before. With the onslaught of what I call "weird weather", it has become impossible to ignore the effects of what pollution has done to our climate. The clamor for "green awareness" has never been stronger.

Yet in the realm of Motoring, there is still an erroneous support for cars and its century's old internal combustion engine.

But these days a car's efficiency is as important as the way it looks or how fast it goes. Where once car-buying decisions were made through throttle stumping stunt ads or fancy glam brochures with stars like Britney Spears and Brad Pitt, now we're more likely to read the reviews and stress on the mileage per kilometer.

Car Manufacturers, of course, knowing that the selling points of fuel efficiency through innovations are ever stronger than before, are pushing the bounds of how economical their products can squeeze from a single liter of fuel. It's now a market driven phenomenon that will continue as long fossil fuel market is unpredictable and green awareness is high.

The small "Kei" Cars that makes as little mileage as big bikes are very well in the showrooms already. Breakthroughs such as variable valve timing and hybrid technologies that combines combustion engines with electric motors are now very popular in the US. They all play a big part in what we call the answer to the call for a green revolution. Yet these are all dependent of the highly volatile fossil fuel market.

It is now timely for the Automotive Industry to venture to newer sources of renewable energy. According to Jeremy Clarkson, and of course you know the lad, "Hybrids are seen as the solution, because they are a quick fix. "

But for now, we can only guess what lies ahead. Perhaps a mass transport system that runs on water as one Filipino claims his car can do. A flying hydrogen fueled sedan… not in my lifetime.

As of the present, the way to go green is to either buy a four stroke motorcycle or a bicycle, or better yet, walk. I should end this note by saying, "You're only as green as your last ride."