I don't have the numbers at my finger tips, but driving older less efficient autos contribute a disproportionate am't of pollutants. Many people suggest that we are at the point of diminishing returns in our attempts at making autos more efficient. Now may be the time to get more bang for our buck by buying and retiring the dirtiest autos. In looking at problems, our society tends to find the villan (personally most offensive causative agent) then excuse all others. We solve problems in a linear fashion by attacking one facet at a time, even though the chosen target may not be the greatest contributor. Logically we should manage all sides of a problem simultaneously, but put our greatest efforts at the worst affenders as well as the most easily correctable ones. We need the big picture. A dozen jet skis on the water may pollute more than the busy segment of freeway carring thousands of autos that borders that water. The owners frequently upgrade the size of their vehicles to haul these toys and of course drive this the rest of the time as well. The noise that these produce is also disproportionally large. Being such disproportionately large polluters makes jet skis a logical target allowing a good reurn for our effort. Two stroke mowers and blowers are other targets with a good bang-for-buck profile. Some scientests are now saying that corals may be largely gone in 25 years due to global warming!!!! The Alteutian kelp forests just died off from the sudden disappearance of large numbers of sea otters allowing urchins free reign. Warm currents in 1997 disrupted the food chain resulting in a shift in feeding habits of key preditors which saw the otter as suddenly worth their effort. Global warming seems to be here and impacting sea kayaking,too. We should be aware of our choices, but I don't think we should feel guilty if we drive efficient cars to recreate with human powered craft, as well as taking other measures, especially considering the incredibly low national awareness and poor choices made as the norm. I use a push mower and put in an ecolawn. We live in a nice house which is smaller than most of our peers own. I support ending gas subsidies and therefore pollution subsidies. More emphasis needs to be placed on highway safety that also helps environmentally, ie. penalize vehicle owners who chose passenger vehicles that are more than 1.5 the weight of the lightest vehicle, narrow the range of bumper heights. OK, I'll get off my soap box now and go to bed. Bill *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 07 2000 - 23:29:21 PST
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