[LINK] 'Smart' cars as fuel-efficient as hybrids

[Ivan Trundle]

Try this for a real eye-opener (using US figures, but it's still  
impressive - and you can't deny the visual aspect is alarming):

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=?view=XXX_09NNN/

A summary of what is there (all USA-related):

1. Plastic bottles - 2.5 million used every hour
2. Cigarettes - 65,000 new kids under 18 addicted every month
3. Jet trails - 11,000 every 8 hours
4. Mobile phones - 426,000 discarded every day
5. Pain killers - 213,000 admissions each year to emergency wards  
after misuse of prescription pain killers
6. Handguns - 29,569 killed by handguns in 2004
7. Brown paper supermarket bags - 1.14 million used every hour
8. Plastic bags - 60,000 used every 5 seconds
9. GMC SUV sales - 24,000 'Denali' model SUVs sold in 6 weeks
10. Prison uniforms - 2.3 million incarcerated in 2005
11. Aluminium cans - 106,000 used every 30 seconds
12. Office paper - 15 million sheets used every 5 minutes
13. SUVs sold - 3.6 million in 2004
14. Money spent on Iraq war - $12.5 million per hour
15. Shipping containers - 75,000 per day in American ports

Check the pictures - food for thought...

iT

On 16/05/2007, at 5:06 AM, Howard Lowndes wrote:

> It's other things as well.  I saw a study recently that showed that  
> to deliver a 1 litre bottle of water to a household in the US took  
> 26 litre of water in manufacture and transport and, I think IIRC,  
> 5lb of CO2.
>
>
> Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> Cars are not the issue.
>> In Australia, greenhouse emissions from cars is less than that of  
>> cows and sheep.
>> Granted, every bit helps, but we should focus our attention on the  
>> real polluters: coal-fired power stations, and electricity  
>> generation.
>> If every household installed just one compact fluorescent light to  
>> replace a single incandescent light, the savings in pollution is  
>> the equivalent of taking 130,000 cars off the road (all figures  
>> quoted from greenhouse.gov.au).
>> And we should convert all of our electric water heaters to gas for  
>> even more savings. And turn off electric devices left to idle on  
>> standby when not in use. These make measurable differences to our  
>> electricity consumption.
>> Interestingly, the use of electric vehicles in Australia is seen  
>> as counter-productive for our overall greenhouse gas emissions -  
>> at least until we bring clean-coal technology online.
>> Warmly
>> iT
>> On 15/05/2007, at 10:02 PM, Eleanor Lister wrote:
>>> Antony Barry wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 13/05/2007, at 4:31 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> And therefore, I suppose, since a hybrid uses petrol as well, it
>>>>> could be made more efficient by the same techniques...
>>>>
>>>> And if we also cut the speed limit and banned SUVs for city  
>>>> driving....
>>>>
>>>> Tony
>>>
>>> why not go the whole hog and ban all cars from cities?  public  
>>> transport
>>> can be effective, safe and cheap.
>>>
>>> i know this is heresy, but in a world of Peak Oil, it's just too  
>>> damn
>>> useful to burn, it should be reserved for chemical feedstock.
>>>
>>> yes, you probably want to have some delivery vehicles running  
>>> about, and
>>> some taxis; but these could all be electric.
>>>
>>> the big advantage of electricity is that it comes from a handful of
>>> power stations, thus isolating the fuel/waste/pollution problem to a
>>> handful of places that can have money thrown at them to solve these
>>> problems, instead of cleaning up millions of cars including dodgy  
>>> old
>>> rustbuckets.
>>>
>>> i know some folk will say that they live in places that never  
>>> will have
>>> much public transport, or they need to be able to go to various  
>>> places
>>> by some whimsical route, so clean up their cars, let them  
>>> drive .... but
>>> keep them out of cities, have carparks at the transport nexii  
>>> around the
>>> edges of the cities.
>>>
>>> all these sorts of problems can be solved with a little careful
>>> planning, but we absolutely must stop pumping pollution into our  
>>> air ...
>>> and imagine the improvement in public health (and hence the  
>>> associated
>>> costs) without the smog.
>>>
>>> regards,
>>>     EL
>>> ------------
>>> Eleanor Ashley Lister
>>> South Sydney Greens
>>> http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
>>> webmistress at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Link mailing list
>>> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>>> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>> _______________________________________________
>> Link mailing list
>> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
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>
> -- 
> Howard.
> LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http:// 
> lannetlinux.com>
> When you want a computer system that works, just choose Linux;
> When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
> --
> Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian  
> states.
>
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--
Ivan Trundle
http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com
ph: +61 (0)418 244 259 fx: +61 (0)2 6286 8742
skype: callto://ivanovitchk