1585577 said:
This illustrates the problem quite well. People look at the incremental change and see it as good when what we need is a sea change.
As well as an understanding of the resources which have been trashed in the making of a new car which still produces 105 grams per km.
When you consider the power needed to push a car along a road can be anything between 10kW to 100kW depending on the car, there's no way that many cars as we know them currently can be described as 'green', although some are 'greener' than others.
To put this in perspective:
800-1kW - Power needed to heat an electric oven
1-2kW power needed to boil a kettle.
7-10kW - power needed to heat an electric shower.
I completely agree with this. My little Light Bulb moment came chatting with a former boss who wanted to be congratulated because he had reduced his emissions by selecting a more economical car for his 160-mile daily commute. I don't think he expected "If you want validation, don't drive 800 miles every week just to get to the ****ing office!"
In a later discussion, he asked why I cycled the 10 miles to work and wasn't it "a bit tiring" to do it every day. My response, and my light bulb moment, was that climbing 300ft on a 10kg bike with 5kg rucksack and 120kg of rider made me realise just how much we waste energy by carting 2 tonnes of safety cage around with us.
Fuel is an amazing thing. The way that it has been formed over millions of years, the way that we first discovered it and the way that we continue to discover and extract reserves, the way that we refine it, transport it and the way that we use it to produce power in vehicles, homes and factories are all, IMO, fascinating. To piss it up against the wall by driving 800 miles every week just to get to work should be a criminal offence.
