Child’s Letter to Santa: Give the Planet Gas-Free Cars
Editor’s Note: Jennifer Lance is the Editor over at Eco Child’s Play, another blog in the Green Options Network. Her daughter’s letter was originally posted over there and I thought readers here might find it as cool as I did.
From my daughter’s very first Christmas, we’ve told her the truth about Santa. Regardless of what you think about this personal decision, it has posed some interesting situations. For instance, our county has only one weekly newspaper, and that newspaper has a tradition of printing letters to Santa.
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So, when this time of year comes around, my daughter’s school has the children write letters to Santa as an assignment, and I have to prep my daughter not to tell other children what she knows about Jolly Saint Nick. I worry that I’ll eventually have to make her stop writing letters, but this year she surprised me. Here’s the text of her letter:
Dear Santa,
First of all I have some things I want, so may I please have a Chincoteague pony. Then I would like a Japanese marbling kit. For my brother, I would like a ride-on backhoe trailer. For the planet, I would like people to drive cars that run off something that is not gasoline.
Your friend,
M******
I wonder how many other children will be asking Santa for gas-free cars? Perhaps we have a future Gas 2.0 writer in our home? If only the CEOs of Chrysler, GM and Ford had as much foresight as my seven-year-old daughter.
Image Credit: Norwegian Buddy Electric Car photo courtesy of aslakr’s Flickr photostream. Used under a Creative Commons License.
I like the child’s letter. It does however reveal that she has been spoon fed ideologies that are based on wishes of her teacher rather than historical or scientific fact and ignorance or refusal to accept that there are some forms of transportation that require concentrated and quickly refillable energy sources.
I also know of no one who uses a hybrid pickup to tow his travel trailer, although Chevrolet does actually sell one of them.
I have no objection to GAS 2.0 pushing for more efficient vehicles, but I do object to arbitrarily ruling out some systems that are still very promising, and I really dislike all of the American Automobile Manufacturer bashing for failure to quickly embrace the latest untested technology when there are legal and labor contractual reasons for the delay.
ChuckL,
Firstly, I’m sure there are plenty of folks using hybrid pickups/SUVs to tow their trailers. Just because you don’t know any doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I’m guessing here, but I’d be willing to bet that, at the VERY most, you know 1000 people well enough to make that determination. 1,000 people is about 0.000006% of the United States’ driving population. That means you know 6 people out of every million in this country (this completely excludes the people of other countries where hybrid trucks are sold, so in reality, you know even less). Making a judgment based on knowledge of what 0.000006% of the population is doing is foolhardy.
Secondly, the above point is almost completely pointless because Jen’s daughter didn’t say that she supported only electric or hybrid cars. In fact, based on her letter, hybrid cars would not be supported by her because they run on GASOLINE. What this means is that a car she would wish for would be something like a fully electric car or a car that ran on biofuels. Yes, that’s right, biofuels.
So, in answer to your rather arbitrary conclusions, I believe biofuels fall under the category of “concentrated and quickly refillable energy sources.” Obviously, the girl thought about this when she made her statement. She didn’t say “only electric,” she didn’t say “hybrid electric,” she said “not gasoline.”
I know that she and her family live out in the country and lead a rural lifestyle so they fully understand the limitations of electric cars in that situation. So, I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you say you object to “arbitrarily ruling out some systems that are still very promising,” but there’s none of that going on here.
I think that telling a child the “truth” about Santa at too young an age has a ring of saddness to it. Yes, I fully understand the desire to be totally honest with your children, but too much cold, hard truth at too young an age can have to net effect of raising joyless cynic who ends up “Bah, Humbugging” everything. A real spoil sport who may have troubles fitting in later in life. That is not to say that one should raise a dillussional dreamer, though. There is a balance, and it has everything to do with parental timing.
Yes, tell them the truth, but let them be kids for a while. It makes them smile more often.
Imagination is the elixer that waters the seed of invention. It is the foundation of childhood joys and dreams. Allow them that much of their childhood.
Stifling a child’s imagination at a very young age could deny them the ability to imagine.
It is not a lie to allow a child to fanticize. At some point in their lives, reason and logic will develop and they will figure out for themselves that Santa isn’t a real person, nor do reindeer fly. Then the parents can expalin the intangibles of hope and charity Santa represents.
Having said that, I congratulate the author on raising an ecology-aware daughter. Just as imagination begets invention, complacency begets neglect. Children raised to respect our planet become her stewards. Those left ignorant of the effects of careless consumption become her destroyers.
But, please remember that it is not just “from the mouths of babes,” but also from the “minds of babes” that great thing emerge.
I have read that Orville and Wilbur believed manned flight was possible because Jules Verne’s fictional writings told their childhood minds it was, when all the adults around them clucked “If God intended man to fly, He’d have given us wings.” Aren’t we glad they had imaginations. I’m betting they believed in Santa at a young age, too.
Yes, Jennifer there is a Santa Claus. He resides in the imagination. His existance can fuel (pardon the pun) young minds to dream beyond the cold, grey tangible world and into the realm of possibility, where their imagination asks “Why not?”.
I know that is true, because somehow Santa knew I loved building model cars as a kid (and still doo) and he brought me several every year.
That gave rise to my love of high perormance cars and my desire to start an eco-friendly business using “other than gasoline” fueled engines for such cars. Because I asked “Why not?”
See how that works?
(P.S. - My wife and I raised two very talented and well balanced children who believed in Santa as a person when they were children and now believe in him as a metaphoric purveyor of hope, charity, good will and joy. So do I.)
Chuck, we have hauled a trailer using biodiesel (B99) in our Dodge.
Lonnie, thank you for sharing your beliefs. We have taught our children to enjoy the story of Santa and let it “reside in their imagination”. They enjoy holiday stories, movies, decorations, parties, etc. as much as any other child I know.
As far as an electric car goes, it would be perfect for our daily trips to school (20 miles roundtrip), but it would not get us to town and back (220 miles round trip), or we would have to sit in town and wait for it to charge before running errands or heading home. An EV would be great for the majority of our needs, especially since we live off-the-grid and could charge it for free off our micro hydro turbine. We also require a serious 4WD most of the year to get to town, so this is another problem with lighter weight, efficient vehicles.
Jennifer,
I have no doubts that you have raised a happy and emotionally healthy child. In no way did I mean to impugn your parenting. We all have our methods and I’m sure yours work as well for you as mine did for me. Kids are resilient and tned to be kids, regardless of what we parents do.
I apologize if I dwelt on the Santa thing. I sometimes wax overly loquacious (rolls eyes!).
Another soapbox I keep handy is my belief that Jerusalem Artichokes are an ideal non-food, renewable alternative fuel crop.
Since this is an archive for cellulosic ethanol, I would be interested in your thoughts. I have posted more in depth on this in another thread about non-food crops in this archive.
I think ethanol would qualify as “something that is not gasoline”, don’t you?
BTW-I failed to mention how thoughtful your daughter’s letter was. You are obviously raising her to be “selfless” and not “selfish”.
Jennifer, your daughter is friends with Santa?
Sweet.
LonnieB, no offense was taken.
Jerusalem artichokes, that’s right up my alley! They grow like mad in my garden; it’s a problem. We do eat them.
Hi Jennifer,
I am surprised how little attention Jerusalem artichokes (JA) get. To me, they seem the perfect choice for ethanol. They grow anywhere and the entire plant can be used.
Farmers can get a yield of approx. 5 tons of tubers per acre, and that can yeild up to 1,200 gallons of alcohol (compared to 400 gallons per acre from corn).
Down here in Texas, farmers curse ‘em as a weed for being so prolific. They’ve been sucessfully raised in the poor soils of Wyoming, of all places. Previously, their cultivation has been restricted because of a lack of effective harvesting equipment, but now there are several folks who have come up with solutions to that, making it more viable as a cash crop.
Ethanol isn’t the only use, as you mentioned, and not only do humans eat them, but they can be a good suppliment, or maintenance food for livestock.
But I guess that until Big Agriculture (the agrarian version of Big Oil) is able to see past the money that silos full of corn bring them, we the people will continue to be at the mercy of corporate and political short-sightedness.