Activists demanding urgent action on global warming plan to take to the streets Saturday across the United States and beyond, with hybrid car parades, parties and marches. The demonstrations are planned to coincide with a 10-day United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Montreal.
There, the Bush administration has been criticized for refusing to sign on to international agreements that cap industrial emissions.
President Bush has called for an 18 percent reduction in the U.S. growth rate of greenhouse gases by 2012 and has committed $5 billion a year to science and technology to address global warming.
Correct me if I'm wrong. But; isn't a parade of hybrids somewhat hypocritical and pollution causing in itself? Hybrids still pollute. If these parades weren't going on wouldn't these cars be off the road and cause less pollution? Shouldn't we drive more out of necessity and less for the want of just driving?
It's kind of like the guy that torched those SUV's because they pollute. In doing so he pollutes the air with carcinogens by torching them.
Maybe it's just my realistic views but it just doesn't make sense to me.
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The idea is to promote hybrid cars. That means getting them out in the public arena, and getting people's attention. If it means a little driving to accomplish a greater goal of replacing many "worse polluting cars" then I'm sure even the Greenest consumers would appreciate the broader goal.
Of course LESS driving or NO DRIVING is better than any driving at all - but realistically, in today's America, people MUST drive. They may as well drive a car which is 80% cleaner than average.
I think the Global Warming issue will probably come to a breaking point in another 10-15 years. I heard a story on the radio that stated that the Gulf Stream current has reduced in intensity by 30% since 1992. The flow reduction is a result of the polar ice caps melting (pure water is heavier than sea water, and this mass of heavier water is disturbing the Gulf Steam flow.) If the Gulf Stream stops, all sea life in the Atlantic Ocean will also die (because the current is what carries colonies of plankton, which feed small fish, which feed big fish, which feed huge fish, etc.) If anyone thinks tailpipe exhaust is bad, that's NOTHING compared to the outgassing from an ocean full of dead animals all decaying at the same time.
Of course, if that happens, our civilization will basically be shot.
I think the Global Warming issue will probably come to a breaking point in another 10-15 years. I heard a story on the radio that stated that the Gulf Stream current has reduced in intensity by 30% since 1992. The flow reduction is a result of the polar ice caps melting (pure water is heavier than sea water, and this mass of heavier water is disturbing the Gulf Steam flow...
Salt water, due to the increased density imparted by the sodium ions, is much heavier than pure water. This is the reason one can float so much more easily on the Dead Sea - the water there is naturally heavier, enabling the less dense human body to be more bouyant. I think the major adverse consequence of polar melts is disruption in the temperature of the Gulf Stream - the extra cold water coming from the Arctic (ironically enough, caused by a global warming trend) would cool the unusually warm waters of the Gulf Stream, whose most significant function is to serve as a heat conduit to transfer thermal energy in a SW->NE direction.
Bottom line: global warming isn't good either way. Drive a hybrid, pollute less, reduce/reuse/recycle, think globally/act locally, etc.
Last edited by Civic Duty; 12-02-2005 at 03:03 PM.
Reason: Added a bottom line
Politics seems terribly polarized these days. You have Greenpeace that focuses on Global Warming to the exclusion of all else, then you have people driving gas guzzlers that dismiss the concern as a fad that will be forgotten in ten years, gas will still run at $2 a gallon....
I'm like a serious US energy policy that social engineers fuel efficient vehicles that satisfy the pragmatic needs (as opposed to status symbols). Also have promotion of alternative energy, conversation at home and work.
lol if they are ralliing, then they are gonna go very slow speeds... that means EV mode = no tailpipe emissions =D
i got around 20 km a liter when i drove a civic 5 spd using advanced hypermiler techniques
and now I drive a salvage nwh20 prius that gets almost to 25 km/l with 195,000 km to date.
Rallies Planned to Combat Global Warming
You have Greenpeace that focuses on Global Warming to the exclusion of all else, then you have people driving gas guzzlers that dismiss the concern as a fad that will be forgotten in ten years, gas will still run at $2 a gallon....
