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By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
October 27, 2000 (ENS)
Auto Emissions
For years, auto makers and conservative politicians have claimed that state and federal auto emissions standards are too high, resulting in higher prices for cars and poor vehicle performance.
Public opinion has been influenced by these claims. Most people see smog checks and mandated repairs as an inconvenience and a denial of individual freedoms. But emissions standards for cars and trucks have been heavily influenced by the auto makers, and so many exceptions exist that auto air pollution is still the biggest threat facing our atmosphere.
Mercedes SUV the ML 430 (Photo courtesy Mercedes)
For example, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are classified as light trucks. This designation was originally intended for trucks that were primarily used for hauling around the farm or construction site. In 1975, when those standards were set, only about 20 percent of the vehicles on the road were light trucks. Today, SUVs and minivans are included in the light truck designation and account for over half of all vehicles sold. Few are used to haul anything other than groceries and children, being driven tens of thousands of miles more than light trucks were projected to travel each year.
SUVs get as little as 13 miles to a gallon of gas and emit huge amounts of pollution. A Ford Excursion gets 13 miles per gallon (mpg) and will put out 134 tons of carbon dioxide over a 124,000 mile lifetime. By contrast, a Honda Insight gets 65 mpg and emits 32 tons of carbon dioxide over its useable life. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas considered a major factor in global warming.
Many technologies exist that could turn a Ford Explorer from a 19.3 mpg guzzler into a 34.1 mpg vehicle. Carbon monoxide pollution could be reduced by 43 percent, and other forms of air pollution could be reduced by 76 percent, all for only a $935 increase in the price tag.
Incredibly, cars made before 1975, often the most serious polluters, are totally exempted from government smog rules.
We must put behind us the false belief that environmental protection and the elimination of toxic substances from our earth, air and water are just another set of tradeoffs to be weighed against economic growth.
Human and ecosystem health are not options - they are the first and most fundamental considerations to make which must outweigh all others.
Profitability cannot be measured only by how much one's bank account grows. Healthy earth, air, and water must start appearing on the spreadsheets of industry. If prices reflected the ecosystem devastation caused by development, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal of most products, we might think twice about making them at all.
Environmental protection and the reduction of toxic substances must be the priority. What good is a strong economic bottom line if our planet's life support systems are trashed?
We must demand that creating healthy ecosystems become our planet's primary business by retooling industries, retraining workers and providing food and health care to the sick and the poor. Our conscience should be the only bottom line.
RESOURCES
1. For the complete Sierra Club report, "Seeing the Forests for their Green," visit
http://www.sierraclub.org/
forests/report00/index.asp#intro
2. For an excellent example of the environmental impact of products, see Corporate Watch's analysis of the environmental impact of computer manufacture at
http://www.corpwatch.org/
trac/feature/hitech/computer.html
3. Read a report on the issues with SUVs at http://www.sierraclub.org/
globalwarming/suvreport/
4. Check out the Anti-SUV Fan Club at http://www.howard.net/ban-suvs.htm
5. What if the money used for the military world wide were applied to solving the Earth's problems? See how it could be done at
http://www.worldgame.org/
wwwproject/
6. See an up-to-the-minute estimate of world resource use at http://www.worldgame.org/
worldometers/worldfuel.html
7. An up-to-the-minute tally of environmental destruction is at http://www.worldgame.org/
worldometers/worldenv.html
8. For a profile on the Northern Spotted Owl, visit http://endangered.fws.gov/i/b6k.html
9. Look at what one state has done to acknowledge the costs of environmental pollution at
http://www.me3.org/
projects/costs/
10. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them that the time is now to start mandating building materials recycling. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at
http://www.visi.com/
juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/
jhoffman/congress-email.html. You can also find your representatives at
http://congress.nw.dc.us/innovate/
index.html.
[Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at
jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at
http://www.healingourworld.com/]
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2000/2000L-10-27g.html
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