[geeks] Global Warming questions...

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
" 
" Sandwich Maker wrote:
" > car crusher bills are an example of this.  every one i've heard of
" > doesn't call for actually measuring the emitted pollution of the
" > crushed car but is based on some gerrymandered estimate of what it
" > might possibly emit, and further ignores the recycling pollution and
" > landfill pollution of unrecyclable bits [as much as half the car] -
" > not to mention the manufacturing pollution of the car that replaces
" > the crushed one.
" > 
" > i've heard of studies - with names like the epa on them - that state
" > that if you really want to be green, the lightest use of resources is
" > to maintain your old car and keep it on the road.
" 
" The other side of the coin is clean-air measures that impose even
" tighter restrictions on the barely-polluting 70%-or-so of new and nearly
" new cars on the road, but simply ignore the 5% to 10% of old clunkers
" and smog-exempt classic cars that are (by some estimates) responsible
" for up to 60% of the total vehicular air pollution.

but i recall a calif epa study back in the '80s, when iirc crusher
bills were first proposed, that showed that -all- the crush-eligible
cars and trucks [iirc 15yo+ - and ca has -a-lot- of them] emitted less
than just the fraction of newer vehicles that were poorly maintained
as shown by smog-check stats.  iow older vehicles may have polluted a
lot individually but in aggregate they were not a significant pollution
src.  this is the reasoning behind exempting old-enough vehicles from
smog checks in some states, ca included.

" One could, of course, assume that they're simply hoping for attrition to
" eventually take care of the clunkers.

that is one of the sanest, and as a result probably least likely,
approaches.  close on that would be incentives for pollution-reducing
retrofits.  it's easy to do modern efi on by far the majority of cars
back as far as the '60s at least.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought