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On 14 Jan 99, at 10:08, Steven Ayres wrote: > The results I find most > interesting are from a continuing study of exhaust emissions in traffic > using a mobile laser spectrometer, which is able to identify specific > exhaust content from specific vehicles in motion. This study, which > has been peer-reviewed, has shown that something like 90% of the noxious > gases emitted by passenger cars come from a little less than 10% of the > cars, and there is no reliable correlation by age of the car. In other > words, 10% of cars of *all ages* are by far the largest polluters. This is very interesting; I have not heard about it. Can you tell me where we could find this study? I assume the cars were measured against some absolute scale to determine which were the "gross" polluters. Were the cars randomly chosen? This seems to indicate that the modern cars, which are supposed to stay "clean" for 100,000 miles without maintenance (other than oil changes) aren't working. > But even if you don't buy that, it seems clear to me that the numbers of > older cars on the road as a proportion of all cars does not warrant the > special attention given them as scrappage targets. I agree with this, but it need to be understood that it is only the result of the fact that EVERYONE EÆð' uying new cars fairly often. > => I love my cars, but I also love the environment > > As do I, and I have the street cred as a tree-hugging activist to prove > it. I agree with you utterly on taking personal responsibility, but I > will not allow the suits to get away with political shell games and > murdering the environment while I regularly assuage my liberal guilt at > the recycling center. My cars are part of the problem, sure, but they're > not a big enough part to deserve crushing to benefit the shareholders of > Unocal. It makes more sense to me to start with cleaning up the largest > sources of pollution. I'm really happy to hear that I'm not the only one on the list who is a dedicated recycler. I strongly believe that the appropriate philosophy is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I save, use, and sell used parts wherever possible, and I repair things that no one else would bother with. Both my car and my TV were made in 73, my stereo I built in 68. I believe we all need to develop a sense of that fact that almost everything we use in our daily lives is a LIMITED RESOURCE and come to an understanding of what that REALLY means to our planet. Toby made the very good point that we need to consider the pollution involved in the production of a car. This is the one thing that really stretches the (non-sentimental) lifetime of a car, as well as many other things. The recycling of automotive plastics, however, looks to me to be a long way off in this country. The German automakers are indeed making great strides in making their cars largely recyclable, but I don't think there is a significant movement here, so far. Jim MacNaughton mentioned his older cars which were clean. I believe you, Jim, but you only mentioned unburned hydrocarbons. My impression is that it has always been easy to get these down in a well maintained engine. The trick, and where all the automotive engineering money is going, is to get HC, NOx, and CO all down at the same time. I don't think you9—Ín or mine, can do that. > => IMHO, there is really just one main problem out there and that is > => overpopulation. > > I look at this in a different way: it's not what you do so much as how > you go about doing it. Me-firstism is the problem, and it only grows > more obvious with more of us meez trying to be first. Clearly it is better if the people we have are responsible. Even better, would be if there were fewer people, also responsible. I really agree that Me-firstism is a modern plague. I see this every day and I hope that more and more of you come to be aware of it. It comes out in the form of "Who cares, as long as gas is cheap?" as well as "I don't want used parts; only NOS is good enough for me." A coworker told me today that he sees no reason to turn off his computer at night or weekends because HE doesn't have to pay the electrical bills and if something wears out the company will just buy him a new one. At least he's consistent, he leaves his own PC on 24 hours a day also, and will just expect the world to allocate him the necessary resources to buy a new one whenever he chooses. The same people occasionally complain that they don't get paid enough to live on. Yes, I believe we have too many people. Those who point to other parts of the world that have more people should consider whether they really believe that we should wait until we are in the same boat before we do anything about it. My wife and I have exactly one child, and I would very much like to do a little MORE than my share to make the world just a little better that I found it. Sorry, I ramble.... But for me this is a really important thread. Jim - ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------- Search old messages on the Web! Visit http://www.vwtype3.org/list/