Going A Bit Green In The Head

First of all I never thought that my buying a car will endanger this world.

When I had to buy a car,I had to.

Power windows, power steering, keyless entry, spaciousness, adjustable steering, collapsible seats, etc etc, whether these mattered or not, were discussed.

Carbon-dioxide and his brother 'monoxide were never mentioned, neither by the salesman nor by me. Then we haggled about the discount and tried to outsmart each other openly.

Regarding emission standards of the vehicle,I always thought it as - Euro III as more car for the same money as compared to Euro II. If it was Euro IV compliant- a still better bargain for me. It was as if I was getting the latest gadget.

Environment figured nowhere in my head.

But then this article on the "Cash for Clunkers" scheme in the US makes me think about how deeply, green-conscious, people are. (Cash for clunkers is a scheme which encourages the car owners to discard their old cars and avail hefty discounts on buying new ones)

On the basis of a better fuel effeciency, it seems it takes on an average of 5 years for the new cars to sort of break even with the higher emission caused during the production of the new cars. Since the average american uses a car for around 10 years (and I thought americans just threw their cars away after a months use) the positive effects for the environment are not much.

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"Was spending $1 billion a particularly cost-effective way to achieve those CO2 reductions? Probably not. Assuming the above calculations are correct and that each consumer keeps his or her car for 10 years, then the total savings should be a little less than 5.7 million tons of carbon dioxide. That means each ton of carbon dioxide would be worth about $175.53 to the U.S. government. As the Washington Policy Center pointed out, a ton of CO2 currently goes for about $17.50 on the European Climate Exchange."
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And finally in the process of writing this, I discover how rich India is.
With CO2 at, $17.50 a tonne, India certainly is a rich country.


http://www.slate.com/id/2224306/