High speeds. Cool looks. Exotic names. That is what a typical American looks for when buying a car. This is a wasteful method because the cars we buy don’t fit our lifestyles of thriftiness when we spend a fortune at the pump. But we feel powerful when we drive huge cars, so that’s why we buy them.

More people should drive hybrids. You may whine, “They’re not cool.” But what are you going to say when your planet’s so fouled up that you need a gas mask just to go outside? Well, that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t act soon. Hybrids may cost more, but they will end up saving our life one day.

Gasoline cars are inefficient monsters that chew up cash. The best ones get only around 40 miles per gallon, the worst finding themselves in the teens. We need to change our habits or we are going to run out of fossil fuel, and then no cars will be traveling down the street. Gasoline cars also foul the air and create breathing problems for many. This increases the incidence of asthma and lung cancer in heavily populated areas. Gasoline cars are also less reliable, since they don’t have a back-up system if they run out of gas (unlike hybrids), making them artifacts of the past.

Some problems we will have in the future if we continue using gasoline cars are global warming, high levels of air pollution and ground water toxicity. We will also use up our supply of fossil fuels, putting us back at the mercy of horse-drawn carts. A portion of civilizations will wither and many will die due to air pollution and the poisoning of groundwater sources. We may also cause a large increase in the speed of global warming, which will result in a rise in temperature and in turn bake our planet and all its living things.

Hybrids are efficient vehicles that produce less pollution because they use batteries and electricity as well as gasoline. They normally average around 50 miles per gallon, and some 2008 hybrids get over 100 miles per gallon! With them, you can save money and get about 60 percent more mileage because if it runs out of gas on the highway, it will switch to its batteries.

Hybrids are the way of the future because they aren’t gas-guzzlers. Some might say that they don’t have the ability to carry heavy loads, but how many of us actually haul things with our cars? The usual driving we do is to the grocery store. Gasoline cars are crude Stone Age machines compared to hybrids. Hybrids provide cleaner energy that can help us prolong the life of our civilization.

Cars should not be bought based on looks, but because they work well and help save the environment. Hybrids fulfill this. If enough people used them, we wouldn’t be as worried about global warming. We are at a point where we can only do one thing: reduce the amount of fossil fuels we consume. If we don’t, we may spell our own doom and end up creating natural disasters that spiral out of control.