According to the Oregonian newspaper, the root cause of global warming, whether you live in Oregon or the Orient, is excessive carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is literally emitted by us daily as we breathe, as you may well know. It is also emitted from daily activities such as when we cook, do our laundry, and take our showers. But most of all, global warming gases are emitted when we drive our vehicles.

In the Oregonian's global warming report, the average Portland area family of 3 with 2 automobiles (05 Subaru Outback at 12,500 miles per year, and a '98 Ford Taurus at 6,000 miles per year) emitted 42,949 lbs of carbon dioxide annually. 24,884 of those pounds were from the automobiles! These figures are startling, since I have to admit, we drive more than the 18,500 miles represented above, and I thought the newer vehicles would emit less global warming carbon dioxide, but these facts don't encourage me.

Another major contributor to global warming are airplanes and jets. For a family of three to fly round trip from Portland to Disney World in Orlando, FL, 5 tons of carbon dioxide (10,000 pounds!) are created and released, according to the US. Department of Energy. The carbon dioxide that we create ( I hate to use the word 'create' for something so destructive!) in 11 hours, takes five residents of India, or nearly 3 Brazilians an entire year to generate!

I was harshly reminded of the seriousness of global warming when I read a few days ago that they might close Hwy 35, due to a glacier on Mt. Hood melting. Exposed sand and rocks that were under the ice came crashing onto the highway and spilled into White River causing the river to change course and about 10 miles of road to become buried under millions of cubic yards of rock! If global warming continues, with glaciers and polar ice caps melting, coastal cities will be gone, including New York. I am quickly abandoning my apathy about global warming! Britain has recently released a 700 page report to world superpowers saying there is no future without quick action! I am amazed but understand our addiction to modern conveniences, since, lets face it, nobody here wants to live like those in third world countries. But we have to realize that global warming is to the point of destroying our earth, so we must find alternatives. We DO have an alternative, one that those that have made money selling gasoline and petroleum products, have managed to stifle. This alternative will not only help prevent global warming, but I believe it will help to reverse it, because it actually cleans the air!

I am fortunate enough to have been exposed to this technology earlier than most, because I have a friend who was married to someone who invented a way to bypass the gasoline tank, and run his car on water. At that time, he was shot at, and his car was destroyed. This incident happened about 20 years ago. Intimidation from big oil is why there is no patent on such a system. Here is where we have come to gain hope concerning global warming. We have come to know of a scientist who has written a manual on how to build a fuel system that will run a vehicle using water. He is almost giving this technology away, knowing that the more people that start using it, the less anyone will be able to do to stop this wonderful invention from being used. This one powerful idea would slow and possibly reverse our current descent into global warming. I nominate him for the Nobel Prize!

What I propose to slow global warming will cost you the price of the manual and a trip to the mechanic. But it will save you whatever you spend on gas, (isn't that huge?!) and more than cut in half the amount of carbon dioxide a family of 3 puts into our atmosphere. I say more than cut in half, because this system releases the oxygen out of the water (the hydrogen is burned), back into the atmosphere! Fresh air in the cities? Can you imagine? Save money and slow global warming?

I urge everyone to look into this invention. I have written this article earlier than I intended, stirred by Hwy 35 being destroyed due to global warming. I have not installed the fuel conversion system yet, however, I have the manual, and my husband, who knows a thing or two about mechanics, thinks its ingenious, and this is definitely his winter project to reduce global warming. Wouldn't it speak volumes to our world community if the country who bears the greatest responsibility for global warming, has now taken such a drastic step toward the cure?

To our children's future.