Jul
10
From Investors Business Daily via HotAir.com
The Government Accountability Office have reported that hybrid and electric cars are not the saviours of the world that the environmental lobby would have us believe:
A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another.
If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country’s electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?” asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: “Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy.”
The GAO report says a plug-in compact car, if recharged at an outlet drawing its power from coal, provides a carbon dioxide savings of only 4% to 5%. If the feeling of saving the environment from driving an electric car causes people to drive more, that small amount of savings vanishes entirely.
I am sceptical about AGW. But if I was fully accepting of it, I would want my Government to make substantive efforts to reduce the risk. Unfortunately, what we seem to be getting are costly and ineffectual measures, whether it is a Cap and Trade plan that will have no effect on global temperatures, or making a bailout of GM conditional on the production of the hybrid and electric cars that the GAO refer to.
The problem of what to do has been discussed in the comments thread of a previous post and the debate has been fascinating. The trouble is, most of the measures that might alleviate AGW are either ineffectual (solar/wind) or too expensive (nuclear). I think the AGW advocates have made a rod for their own back. The sensationalist scare-mongering and heavy handed centralised approach to the issue has probably minimised the one remedy that I think could work: the voluntary hairshirt.
As more and more information on AGW was being made available, a public consensus was developing that accepted the premise of AGW and the fact that we had to ration our consumerist activities. If the AGW lobby had focused entirely on education and encouraging us to consider how we use energy, it is likely that we would have started the process of disciplining ourselves. We’d consider mileage as a factor when buying a new car, we’d use our cars less or more efficiently, we’d upgrade to more efficient lightbulbs, we’d turn off our electrical appliances rather than leave them on standby. And this self-disciplining would have fed into the private marketplace. As we’d start to demand more efficient appliances and products, industry would adapt to the new demand dynamic and provide us with what we’d want. And this would be an accumulatory process. As new efficiencies became available, we, the newly concerned citizens, would demand even greater efficiencies. Even sceptics like myself could be persuaded by arguments about energy independence or the polluting effects of excessive energy consumption.
But the environmentalists and their liberal political masters aren’t able to trust us. When a perceived crisis presents itself, the left wing machine kicks into overdrive, the crisis becomes an opportunity to empower the political classes and impose itself on the public. Mandating immediate and dramatic change becomes the strategy, rather than gradualist volunteerism. And this causes resentment and distrust which diminishes our desire for, and support of, self-rationing. If our political masters are acting on our behalf, why do we need to act ourselves? And when the actions of our political masters fail, our own inaction then exacerbates the problem.
Left alone, we might well have saved the world. But if the world is truly imperiled, the overarchingly didactic approach and incompetence of those who wish to rule us has put us at an even greater risk.
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6 Responses to “More Non-Joined Up Thinking on Saving The Planet”
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Cabbie Good post
I just don’t believe that the markets alone can sort out huge global issues like AGW, although I believe that they have a very important part to play, especially with technological fix.
BTW The Planet will be fine it’s us the human race that you have to worry about.
THX1138,
Your last sentence is quite correct.
Maybe this is the start of another great extinction!
Given those tipping points referred to over on “Giving Witness” of 9 June.
For my denier friends can I suggest that you watch these easy to digest video’s that take you through the standard denier talking points and debunk them.
http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/denier-vs-skeptic/denier-myths-debunked/climate-denial-crock-of-the-week/
And all without shouting!
Its amazing how electric cars are sold to the gullible…”You just plug it in…you don’t use that ‘nasty’ gasoline”..like its free or something. In reality, it takes oil or coal to power the electricity that keeps the batteries charged…and battery manufacturing and disposal will turn out to be a big environmental problem.
Guys I’m off to our place in the Peak District I’m doing something called the White peak walk this weekend a 30 mile walk through the best countryside in England.
Have a great weekend everyone.
OT
Before I’m out the door a link for my religious friend OT
Evangelical Environmental Network
http://creationcare.org/
What car would Jesus drive?