Ok so in London, particularly in richer areas (such as South-West), you get these people who drive huge 4x4 off-road cars.
It pisses me off so much, they take up so much room on the road, use a ton of petrol and pollute the atmosphere more than any other car. I have a small little Renault Clio, has a 30 litre tank and will cost under £30 to fill (and last up to 2 weeks). Those stupidly big cars cost like £60 to fill (if not more), and last alot less time, say 1 week.
I can’t stand all those **** private school mothers who take their only child to school in a car that is ment for driving up a mountain.
Personally I think they should be banned, or at least heavily taxed.
It’s pretty funny when they get stuck in places they can’t move from (like down a narrow street or something), then I can’t help but laugh.
I sometimes see those HUGE American cars, they are insane. Why does everyone need such a big car??
@aknatn: That’s what the law in most democracies is based on - you’re allowed to do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. Now, though, there is increasing evidence that driving a large car and emitting huge amounts of CO2 does and will harm people fairly soon in the future. If you graph temperature change against CO2 levels for instance, the graphs match each other almost exactly (with a slight time lag) - and now CO2 levels are higher than they have been in thousands of years (Here’s an example graph, although I’ve seen better ones before: http://www.ecotopia.com/news/attachments/1829/2513/771/graphA.jpg), and even a small (3°C, for instance) rise in temperature will harm an awful lot of people around the world.
(That wasn’t a rant against you, but more towards “I hate when people come in telling other peiople what they can wear, drive, smoke, think, say, whatever just because they are “offended” by it.”. I’d agree with that statement, but if what you’re doing is harming others then people should be able to tell you what to do ;))
λ - I exhale C02… does that mean I’m hurting the environment? The C02 level in the atmosphere has fluctuated throughout history. Why is this any different? So the temperature raises a little bit… the ocean rises a tad… who cares? People and animals will either adapt to the changes, or they will die. This is the way the world has worked for millions of years.
Where do you draw the line on what is too big? Should we limit all engines to say 3 cylinders? Can’t be longer than 10 feet or wiegh more than 500 pounds? Where will it stop? Maybe we should all stop driving all together. The 2 moms driving hummers may polute less than your car if they are properly tuned and yours is not. What if they are driving propane conversion vehicals… Lets take gas out of the equation, lets say we are all driving electric cars…is a hummer too big then? Are you just jealous you aren’t driving one? Are those parents wrong for wanting to have the car on the road that will survive getting in an accident with you?
You exhale an insignificant amount of CO2 compared to an SUV/factory/etc, and the level of CO2 now is much, much higher than it has been in human history.
Maybe the millions of people who live in lowland areas around the globe might care just a little bit?
Are they wrong to buy a car that is likely to kill the other person if they’re not driving an SUV? And sure, if they’re driving propane vehicles, or LPG vehicles, or eco-friendly vehicles, then their impact on the environment won’t be so large (although very few people have vehicles like that atm).
Would the world be so much worse if we did? Obesity rates would plummet, and there would be a lot less motor accidents…
But λ where does it stop? You can say that my exhaling is hurting you. What if I own a farm, the cows produce methane. Should we outlaw cows? Why is your cars polution ok but mine is not? What about airplanes, kill the whole industry?
@Yeldarb My thoughts exactly. As the great George Carlin said “One day the planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas”. This of course is not to say that gross polluting is ok, but think about it, too much C02, come on. We expell vast quantities of Methane, an extremely lethal gas that destroys ozone, should our butts be illegal? (lol)
Besides, the trees LOVE C02, think about the trees people!
It’s quite possibly higher than it has been in millions of years, although I haven’t checked that… and it’s almost certainly only higher as a direct result of us pumping out the stuff…
And the people that are killed by the floods? It’d probably be hard for them to migrate if they were dead… and many of the lowland areas are also less developed, so they’ve probably caused a lot less global warming than the people in higher areas.
I don’t know about the amount of pollution produced by airplanes, so I can’t comment on that…
You could say that you exhaling is harming me, although you not exhaling is likely to hurt you more than I’m hurt by your exhaling But the point is that a car emits many, many more times the amount of CO2 than a person does.
Are they wrong to buy a car that is likely to kill the other person if they’re not driving an SUV? And sure, if they’re driving propane vehicles, or LPG vehicles, or eco-friendly vehicles, then their impact on the environment won’t be so large (although very few people have vehicles like that atm).
Any car can kill a person. Why is their car wrong and yours right? Why is your small car “the standard”
Also, you can convert any car to LPG. Just ask all the Arozona people here. There are hundred of large SUVs (suburbans) on the road there which run on LPG, you can tell them by their blue license plates. Are those vehicals ok? Is it the size or the fuel?
I don’t know about the amount of pollution produced by airplanes, so I can’t comment on that…
Aircraft use a high octane diesel fuel. They polute at a just like cars, they burn fossile fuel only on a larger multi engine scale.
But the point is that a car emits many, many more times the amount of CO2 than a person does.
