I LOVE cars. I love cars in the same way that Kel loves Orange Soda. I waited not-so-patiently from the age of fourteen to get my licence and my vehicle has been my second home ever since. My brother is a race engineer on a GP2 race team, and my dad has a history of vehicles to rival any museum. It’s in my blood.
The process of getting in and turning the key, followed by the low rumble of the car’s lifeblood excites me to this day. I feel linked to a mechanical being far beyond my recognition, with the power to take me wherever, whenever. I enjoy driving to the point that sometimes giving housemates a lift isn’t that much of a bother, even if Neighbours is on.
Whilst I understand that not everybody will have the same perversion for aluminium that I do (save those who go and enjoy Sex With Robots), I defy anyone to turn down a lift to university in favour of a lengthy spell on an early morning Magic Bus. The horse-less carriage is one of man’s greatest triumphs, and something that I believe every being on this planet should be able to take advantage of if they so wish. Unfortunately my belief is under attack, and has been for quite some time, principally by the furore surrounding climate change.
Now before anyone identifies me as Clarkson and Ecclestone’s hippie-hating-bastard-love-child, I’ll be the first to say that climate change is a worry. I watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth with open-eyes, and it (briefly) changed my outlook on life. With graphs the size of bungalows backing up his findings, who could not be taken in by the figures? I wanted to recycle and hug trees and fondle moss, seeing as it wasn’t going to be around much longer. My enthusiasm died however when I came to the
realisation that every single person on this planet would have to contribute.
The problem I have is the way in which my beloved has been made a scapegoat for the long-standing practices of all of the productive economies of the world. Five separate British companies have a CO2 output equal to that of the entire fleet of cars on our roads, the European energy corporation EON in particular having an output equal to that of Croatia (at least we beat them at something). Depending on whose estimates you take, cars are attributed to between five and twenty percent of the worlds CO2 emissions. 47 percent of that is from America, where the 6.7 litre HEMI V8 reigns supreme, and people drive vast distances in search of the perfect hamburger. That leaves only two to ten percent of Earth’s murky ceiling being down to standard motoring emissions. For me, it seems unbalanced to tax the daylights out of people who enjoy driving, and a downright disgrace to those who require the use of a car for their livelihood. Corporate pollution is to blame, and not the average motorist who is making use of the tools put in front of them.
The motoring industry is currently struggling through new EU regulations restricting the CO2 output of new cars to 130g/km, down from 162g/km in 2005. In their attempts at meeting these targets, the cost to the consumer is on the rise. I am right behind the prospect of cleaner cars, but is a twenty percent reduction going to make the difference that saves the world? What about the millions of cars already on the road that will continue to run and pollute as they have for years? Where are the new restrictions on industry?
The reality is that if there is to be change, it has to come from the top-down and not the other way around. It is far easier for governments to simply tax motorists and push the blame our way. If they really want to change things perhaps it is time they stopped
enjoying the perks of assisting the conglomerates and did something about it. I will
recycle and only boil enough water for a cuppa, even put on a jumper rather than turn up the heating, but I for one will not be curtailing my petrol usage unless the ever-growing cost prices me out of the market, or those in positions of power start setting an example.
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