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

[Ivan Trundle]

On 17/05/2007, at 10:57 AM, Stewart Fist wrote:

> Ivan writes
>>
>> In Australia, greenhouse emissions from cars is less than that of
>> cows and sheep.
>
> This is an old furphey.
>
> The real problem is not the production of CO2 since most living things
> produce it constantly.

I was referring to greenhouse gas contributions. Figures from http:// 
www.greenhouse.gov.au/ show that Australia's total greenhouse  
emissions were 564.7 million tonnes recorded in 2004 (the latest data  
available). Livestock contributed 65 million tonnes of greenhouse  
gases (mostly CH4), while passenger cars emitted 41.7 million tonnes  
of total greenhouse gases (predominantly CO2).

Methane contributes more to the overall greenhouse gas potential  
since each kg of methane warms the Earth 23 times as much as the same  
mass of CO2 over a 100-year period (though there is currently 220  
times more CO2 in the atmosphere than CH4). Methane has a large  
effect for a brief period (about 10 years), whereas carbon dioxide  
has a small effect for a long period (over 100 years).

>
> The problem is the production of CO2 where the carbon atoms have been
> sourced from fossil fuels (coal, shale, oils, natural gas) or from  
> calcium
> carbonate (acid-rain on limestone), which increases the number of  
> carbon
> molecules in the biosphere.
>
> Cows and sheep don't do this, and nor do humans, or other living  
> things.
>
> This comes from industrial production of energy, using non-biomass  
> fuels
> (those with carbon atoms in the hundred-year carbon cycle) as a  
> source.
>
<snip>
--
Ivan Trundle
http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com
ph: +61 (0)418 244 259 fx: +61 (0)2 6286 8742
skype: callto://ivanovitchk