The Shires Go Carbon Neutral
Carbon Neutral – For The Land Rover Owner
So what is Carbon Neutral? Well it’s actually Carbon Dioxide – the gas we are talking about here – known as CO2 (pronounced See Ohh Two)The neutral bit, well if with our lifestyle such as driving a car or heating your house produces carbon dioxide, then you should do something to absorb it.
Why is carbon dioxide bad? It basically forms a blanket around the earth, causing the earth to heat up – Global Warming – which we’ll come back to.
What makes carbon dioxide? There are lots of things, but this is a Land Rover article, so let’s cover them first. When the engine is running, and the fuel is burnt, CO2 comes out of the exhaust pipe. If you run LPG – you still emit CO2, a bit less than petrol vehicles, but still a helluva lot. Diesels are typically more fuel efficient, so less fuel burnt means less CO2 emissions but still enough for it to be a problem.
Bio-diesel still emits about ¼ of the CO2 of a more conventional fuel, it’s only vegetable oil when used in a diesel Landie that comes anywhere close to being Carbon Neutral.
But despite what the eco-warriors might say, we 4x4 drivers aren’t the sole cause of the problem; conventional cars and transport in general have the same issues. The heating in our factories, offices and houses produces CO2. Planes full of business people and holidaymakers produce huge amounts which the airlines are only just beginning to address.
Industry is also making massive amounts of CO2, and has been for the last couple of hundred years. America is famous for its energy consumption, and therefore for its emissions. But more recently we have seen China transform itself from a small energy consumer to a massive one, and I think it’s fair to say that they are concentrating on economic growth, rather than any effects on the planet.
The astute amongst you will be saying nuke USA, raze it to the ground, and then do China, that’ll sort it. As I’m not sure there has been much study into the CO2 emission of a nuclear strike, best we gloss over that particular option.
The really clever out there, will be pondering how to use this CO2 “blanket” to plug the hole in the ozone layer!!
So let’s come back to the global warming. Even those of you that live in a cave (I’ve seen the membership database – there are a few cave-dwellers out there!) cannot fail to be aware of at least the phrase. But what does it really mean?
Continued...