Stick it to your car's carbon footprint

Rising gas prices are biting everyone in the ass — I initially tried to save costs by diluting my gas with chocolate milk, but my well-tested hypothesis (if: chocolate milk makes me happy, then: chocolate milk makes cars happy) didn't work out so well in the real world.

Luckily, Slate's Brendan I. Koerner explains in his column "The Green Lantern" how a diligent stick-shift driver can improve gas mileage and reduce their carbon footprint by as much as 15 percent. These techniques are collectively called hypermiling, a term which I plan to now sprinkle liberally throughout my cocktail-party conversations because it sounds ultra-cool.

Aside from paying constant attention to RPMs and trying to reach high gears quickly, you should also try shifting into neutral and coasting when safe. And it'll obviously help your cause to follow the basic tenets of hypermiling, which also apply to automatics: Keep your tires properly inflated, avoid stop-and-start traffic, and remove unnecessary weight from your trunk and back seat.

It's debatable as to whether hypermiling is really worth all the effort, but combining it with driving stick over a year will cut down your CO2 output by two-thirds of a metric ton. And when people ask why you're so phenomenally good looking, you can say "hypermiling, baby." I know I will.

Jesus Would Drive a Stick Shift (Slate)

Hypermiling: Driving to save gas