Environmental Fact of the Day

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suvs4.jpgAmerican drivers burn 380 million gallons of gas per day, up nearly 20 percent from a decade ago. American cars are less and less fuel efficient, and Americans are driving more—despite the increasingly absurd cost of gasoline. The average driver logged 15,000 miles last year (that’s 3 trillion total miles of car travel). In 1985, the average driver covered less than 12,000 miles.

I didn’t drive 15,000 miles last year and my ride is a Honda Civic, but I’m guilty of automobile addiction, too. Driving seems so easy and convenient, but when you factor in traffic, road rage, gas prices, and, uh, life on Earth as we know it, it’s not really such a great deal, is it?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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