A typical driving year with a Toyota Prius and CO2 emissions.

[NNadir]

While the Toyota Prius has been something of an environmental victory, it is worth noting that driving the car a typical 15,000 miles per year will still inject 4 MT of carbon dioxide into the air.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/17634.shtml

The per capita CO2 emissions of Mexico is 1.63 metric tons/year for all purposes, and Mexico is in no way the poorest country in the world.

Thus, whatever satisfaction it might bring, a typical American family with just one Prius would still be injecting more than twice as much CO2 into the air merely to drive as a Mexican citizen injects for all of his or her energy use.

[skids]

1. Why we need plug-in diesel hybrids.

I always viewed the Prius as an investment in the hybrid portion of the technology, rather than a final solution. The plugin stuff I'll look into after the warranty is out. Unfortunately it will never be able to burn biodiesel -- if a good diesel hybrid is available by then I might make the jump.

We can only hope that BushCo doesn't manage to snuff out the deadline on low-sulfur diesel so the SULEV market in the U.S. can go diesel -- that will open the door to a signifigant contribution by biodiesel along with a liquid-fuel demand mitigation by plugin.

[screembloodymurder]

2. What kind of car do you drive?

Or do you walk?

[NNadir]

4. I drive a Honda Accord, with a 4 cylinder, 6.9 tons/15,000 miles.

I have taken to walking as much as I can, as well as bicycling more often. I'm a fat fuck, and these efforts are not only good for the environment, but it's good for my health as well. Hopefully it will have some aesthetic consequences for my wife's benefit as well.

I conduct much of my business out a home office, so I really am not using my 6.9 tons/per year just to drive, and when I go to meetings with my business partner, who lives a good distance from here, I take mass transit - which allows me to work on the train and minimizes the CO^2 that I personally inject.

However much I might wiggle and rationalize though, the fact is that fat fucks like me are certainly consuming more of earth's resources than is really fair. I do need to look at my energy consumption, and I am trying to improve upon my piggish ways. I'm glad that the price of energy is rising, since it encourages conservation. There is absolutely no ethical reason that I intrinsically deserve the right to dump more CO2 into the atmosphere than a Mexican does.

Fifty three percent of my electricity comes from nuclear power, so some my electric bill - measured in tons of CO2 injected - is not really as bad as some of my fellow countrymen. Hopefully they'll build some more nuclear plants near here someday so that we can do even better in New Jersey.

[dcfirefighter]

3. Cars are, unfortunately, inherent to the current American Way of Life (TM)

American 'mass transit' cannot compete with the convenience, speed, comfort or destinations offered by an automobile.

NIMBYism, xenophobia, Zoning Laws, fear of density, and allodial property rights resist the kind of dense, multiple use communities that would make a car trip a once-a-week affair rather than a several-times-a-day affair.

Not many communities can offer:
sufficiently varied housing
sufficiently varied employment
sufficiently varied shopping
sufficiently varied entertainment
and sufficiently varied recreation
within walking distance. Inevitably, in locations that approach this level of convenience, the housing is expensive, the employment fleeting, the shopping upscale, etc.

Even if the automobiles ran on mechanical flywheels charged from fusion reactors, the network of roads and parking would be an energy (carbon?) intense operation.

Give me small-lot detatched homes, duplexes, rowhomes, flats, stores, offices, light industrial, urban parks, etc. all within a 6 minute walk from a transit station connecting to other similar developments. Surround them by playing fields and a greenbelt of forested parks. Surround those by smallhold organic farms. Surround those by managed forests, natural preserves, and wilderness areas.

NNadir: how far from a town must you locate a Gen IV reactor? I want waste heat to heat my town in the winter. (and cool it in the summer).

[GumboYaYa]

5. Exactly, if people hang onto the drive-thru suburbia dream b/c

of the Prius, we are just putting a band aid on a gaping wound. While I am glad to see the Prius replacing SUVs on the road, the real answer is to live in walkable communities where cars are not needed. I got rid of my car over a year ago. It took some adjustments at first, but has turned out to be very liberating.

[phantom power]

6. You should write about your experience. Publish it on line, or in

some newspapers.

[GumboYaYa]

7. I am going to do that.

Yesterday, a small publishing company that I work with went live with a new website promoting its first book. Here is the link if you are interested: www.whenidreamtooslow.com

We are going to expand the website to offer blogs and places to market and sell additional books.

I am working with the author of the current book we are promoting to write a new book entitled "Older but Wiser" where we use quotes from senior citizens to develop the theme that the current generation of Americans has forgotten the notion of personal sacrifice for the common good.

We also plan to have me do some writing on the blog about my experiences going carless and then going solar (we are currently working with Ameren UE to develope a grid tied system for our house) and maybe publish a book on those subjects if I have time to write that much. My biggest problem these days is time. I also am co-producing a documentary film that is on the cusp of being accepted at Sundance, so I have had to focus on that a lot lately.

[phantom power]

8. sweet.

[skids]

9. Well, I hope you put that meme in perspective.

Many of us younger folks also notice that we make "sacrifices for the common good" automatically and involuntarily, the way the system is set up today. We're paying into retirement pools that give us less reward than they did back when older folks got hired, for example.

[GumboYaYa]

10. That really begs the question of whether that would happen but for

people being required to do it. Given the ascendence of individual consumption as the driving value of American society, I venture to say that many would not. Those are the people we are talking about. Nevertheless, we just started developing this notion so I'm not sure where it is going right now.

[skids]

13. Or it could have the opposite effect.

FWIW, if the younger among us did not view the world through the lense of a sense of inequity, and lack of confidence that the future has anything good in store for them, they might "pay forward" more.

[GumboYaYa]

14. Good point, I don't purport to have the answer....

I am just inquiring and seeing where it takes me. It does seem that as a society we need to do more to preserve the wisdom of prior generations regardless of the manner and reason it becomes important to each of us.

We have been gathering advise for two days now so I don't have much to go on so far. It will be interesting to see if common themes develop as we get more.

[iconoclastNYC]

11. What retirement pools are you talking about?

If you refer to SS you should stop believing the GOP chicken-little scenario which is all based on the notion that the USA will NEVER RAISE TAXES, no matter what.

[skids]

12. In my case, Mass State Retirement.

People hired before I was get much better rewards from the system.

[iconoclastNYC]

18. Sorry to hear that.

When I hear my mother bitching about the state of affairs and having to wait til 65 to retire I just remind her that my generation will probably never be able to retire.

[skids]

19. Yeah we get the shaft in the contracts too.

Compared to older coworkers, progressive benefits notwithstanding, I got less vacation days, less sick days, tighter sick day accrual limits, worse severance terms, and probably we were paying more into health, though I never looked into that aspect.

It was all done to help a state "budget crisis." "New hires" got different terms. Happens a lot of places, and disproportionately affects younger workers, naturally, though older job-hoppers do get to share in the pain.

[iconoclastNYC]

20. Well can expect more of that. We're competing against China

You know...so we have a ways to go until we reach 40 cents an hour for our labor.

[htuttle]

15. I only generate about 0.2 MT per year driving

...because I drive a scooter that gets about 108 mpg, and only drive about 1500 miles per year. I also live in a neighborhood where I can (and do) walk to just about anything, save for one or two 5 mile trips every week or two. And commuting to work (2.5 miles away), of course.

Living in a 'walkable' neighborhood, and living close to work were both important factors in deciding where I was going to look for an apartment -- so don't dismiss this with "Oh, you're just lucky". It wasn't luck -- it's been by design.

So I can't go over 55 mph, and I get wet in the rain (or my rainsuit does) and cold in the winter. However, I only spend $2 or so per month on gas, and aren't killing the planet (well, not as quickly) on my daily commute. All in all, it seems worth it to me...

That points to the crux of the issue. American's expectations are just too high. There's no earthly reason we all couldn't be happy with vehicles that had a top speed of 45 mph and didn't have air conditioning, except for the fact that we are a nation of impatient brats. 80 years ago, 45 miles per hour would have seemed quite fast (in fact, I think 45 mph was about the top speed of a Model A Ford).

Thing is, we're going to have to change our expectations sooner or later -- there's not going to be any choice in it. You'll either be ready for it or not, but you can't wish it away by simply stating, "Oh, I could never put up with that." Well, you'll have to.

Most unfortunately, politicans who state the simple truth like this rarely get elected -- people don't want to hear about how they might have to give up things. So this emerging world is going to smack us upside the head like nothing before.

[NNadir]

16. Good points here.

[GumboYaYa]

17. Htuttle, I use a scooter too for longer trips.

Like you, I live close enough to walk to work and the store. It creates incinveniences, but it is alos much more enjoyable in total. I have gotten to know many people in my neighborhood because I see them when I walk. What initially started as a mere hello has developed into genuine friendships in some cases. I also feel much more tied to the environment around me. 42 degrees and raining means something tangible now, but I also notice when the bugs start to appear in the spring and the first bulbs begin pushing through the frozen ground. Getting out of the comfortable environment of the car has its drawbacks (see the 42 degrees and rainy day), but the benefits far outweigh the hardships.

Another benefit is the savings. Adding up personal property tax, insurance, maintenance, car payments, license fees, and gsaoline comes to a big number. All that money goes in my bank account now.