The Car Culture of Today

[Esperante]

i agree that cars polute significantly but doesnt power stations polute more significant? Have you also noticed how China are building lots of coal powerplants? I am sympathetic towards my shortfalls in being more envirenmentally considerate however feel disheartened by our neighbours not even sharing this concern.

Absolutely not. Cars are far and wide the largest emission producers, followed by fires. Power plants, while dramatic, don't have nearly the kind of widespread mass pollution that cars do.
And yes, neighbourly ignorance is a big problem, somthing that could easily be changed if the US took any sort of enviromental stance. Clinton essentially drafted the Kyoto Accords only to have Dubya wipe his ass with it because of concerns that it was too radical. And China is quite an unusual case. Their construction methods are really quite impressive, recyclable materials, density and good transit, but yet energy wise their seems to be no end as coal is a nearly bottomless resource for the Chinese. I think by the time cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong literally become covered in soot like Dickens' London (which won't be long, at the pace of Chinese growth), China will rethink its energy policy. It's surprising that little to nothing has been done to address the awful water quality in China, though.

I work for an oil/gas sevice provider and i am noticing a huge cultural change. these companies are turning from oil/gas companies to energy companies. There is significant ethos changes and structural changes being undertaken by BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron,...all are at least preparing for change really soon. I never believed it until we started recieving big money for technologies and contracts that reduce envirenmantal footprints and exploit renewable resources.

I really hope this is true, but at this point I still have plenty of disdain for oil companies. The oil companies slow retooling is more of an emergency preparation, not so much a green-consiousness driven product. When oil is exhausted and finally becomes a niche market, the majour companies will swoop in and make their switch, as they won't make any profit on expensive green technologies until then, and profit is all that matters when it comes to oil.

[h00t_h00t]

Absolutely not. Cars are far and wide the largest emission producers, followed by fires. Power plants, while dramatic, don't have nearly the kind of widespread mass pollution that cars do.

Cars are way down the list of big polluters, just because you see them everywhere doesn't mean they are the ones doing the damage. Power plants, factorys, aircraft, volcanoes and even cows produce more polution than cars.

[Esperante]

Cars are way down the list of big polluters, just because you see them everywhere doesn't mean they are the ones doing the damage. Power plants, factorys, aircraft, volcanoes and even cows produce more polution than cars.

Cows contribute fertilizer and volcanoes reverse global warming. And yet neither don't come remotely close to beating out cars as the top pollutor. That is a fact.
Air pollution due to fossile fuels contributes 90% of all air pollution. Cars alone provide no less than 70% of overall air pollution. Tell me cows pollute more than that...