Dear Tom,

I think the Tesla is a wonderful car. It has the body of a Lotus sports car, but it is 100% electric. It gets 245 miles per charge, and will go 0-60mph in under 4 seconds ( www.teslamotors.com). It will go as fast as 125 mph. It costs more than $100,000 and in my opinion is worth every penny. I have 3 friends who are on the waiting list for the car, and I am excited to drive it, if they’ll let me.

But I am not going to purchase a Tesla. If I didn’t already have an EV and it was the only full electric car on the market, I would buy it. But I have my 2001 Toyota RAV 4 EV (Vietly would you put a link to a photo of me with my RAV? Thanks!) that gets me 100 miles per charge and goes 80 miles per hour. The only maintenance I have had to do in 5 years is change my tires, rotate them regularly, and get new brakes. I have 86,000 miles on the car and I am expecting to drive it 150,000 before I need new batteries.

Since being a good environmentalist is also keeping what you have and not buying new stuff, I am committing to keeping my current EV for as long as possible. Kudos, however, to all the Tesla owners out there who will be driving pioneers in the new lithium ion battery technology. It will change the perception of electric cars as “golf carts”.

Thank you for your interest in electric cars.

Alexandra

Dear Summer,

Since the ban went into effect in 1986, over 25,000 whales have been killed, which means the ban is not being strictly enforced by any country. Right now, despite the worldwide ban on commercial whaling, Japanese, Norwegian, and Icelandic fisherman are going to kill over 3,000 whales in addition to 20,000 dolphins and porpoises this year, and sell their meat for profit. The Bush Administration has not worked to stop the killing of whales, even though 75% of Americans oppose whaling. Last month, a whale was killed off the coast of Washington State. A couple arguments used to get around the worldwide ban on whale slaughter are, “We need to whale for scientific purposes” or ” Whaling is part of my ancestors culture so I have a right to do it too. It keeps my culture alive”. I don’t believe either of those arguments are strong enough to justify killing whales.

When I grew up in the 1970s. “Save the Whales” was the most popular slogan around. Most people think the whales have been saved, but that is not true. Hence the campaign “Save the Whales Again”.

Jeff the Whaleman, founder of The Whaleman Foundation ( www.savethewhalesagain.org) , is a friend of mine and a passionate crusader for whales. I highly recommend that anyone wanting to save whales and dolphins go to the website.

Summer, thank you for caring!

Alexandra

Thank you for your supportive words. I am touched that you wrote to say such nice things. You made my day!

Alexandra