Are you Green?, HA! Options

[naro914]

HA, I have to share this....

I was in the back of my building doing a few tweaks to my race car Papa Smurf. Running it up and down, etc. (2.2 high compression 6 cyl engine, headers to megaphones...) Then I went over to the 69 911 and had to change the piece of cardboard underneath because it's soaked in oil (next project). I was on the phone with another guy regarding my street 914 "Huey" and the fact that it's running very rich and needs some carb adjustments....

So I come back to my computer and get a spam email asking "Are you Green? How is your Carbon Footprint?"

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

Uh....kind of like Bigfoot's....

[VaccaRabite]

Prior to my MBA class tonight I had to take an online exam to find out my carbon footprint. There was not an option for playing with old cars, so I suspect my score was artificially low.

Zach

[CliffBraun]

The main issue I have with "Green" is that there's no real spec. I have a professor who was talking about how he was working with a plastics company to make a biodegradable product and, failing that, suggested they dye the film green. That passed the wal-mart standard.

Honestly, even though these cars run dirty as hell, if you look at the environmental cost of building a new vehicle we're probably ahead.

People suck at big picture though, My engineering program emphasizes sustainability, and we don't even know what the hell that is.

[sww914]

I'm not green, I'm red and sore.

[zymurgist]

Carbon footprint, schmarbon footprint. When I see large jets flying around in all directions every day, burning copious amounts of fossil fuels to get to their destinations, it only reinforces my view that I should not have to lower my standard of living for some nebulous "green" benefit when there are much larger "offenders" out there whose emissions would cancel out my yearly contribution in a matter of seconds.

[JmuRiz]

I'd say my carbon footprint is tiny at the moment...I have 3 cars, 3 motorcycles a mower and 2-stroke string trimmer.

Only the mower has run regularly in the past few months...and it just died because the gas went bad.

So basically in the calculators I have a huge one, but in reality, if you don't drive/use gas/oil then your footprint isn't too big eh?

[degreeoff]

ummmmm @ 6mpgish whadda you think?

[VaccaRabite]

Prior to my MBA class tonight I had to take an online exam to find out my carbon footprint. There was not an option for playing with old cars, so I suspect my score was artificially low.

Zach

After seeing my score compaired with the other scores in my class, it is fair to say that I am not green.

Zach

[Mr.242]

ummmmm @ 6mpgish whadda you think?

ummm, big footprint that can be heard STOMPING its way toward you..............

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

I hear ya and I like it.


The next thing is my dad is a farmer and is being looked at for a positive by big companies. It's not the crops he produces; it's the green vegitation he grows. The government tries to balance the polution they allow companies to violate our atmosphere by purchasing "Carbon Credits". There are companies trying to buy or lease farm lands to create a "carbon credit" to balance out their polution. Meaing if a company is fined if they go over limit (illustrative purpose of 100), say to a level of 140, then they have to buy or create 40 "carbon credits" to bring their impact down to a 100 balance. How about they just cut back AND get their "carbon credits" to make it an advantage. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif)

So with that, Where can I buy some "carbon Credits" due to my 914-6.

[Rav914]

Carbon footprint? You bet.

[EdwardBlume]

My neighbor proudly displays his SmartCar for the world to see, and is interested in getting a second one. Good for him.

I guess he can wince when looks over the fence at our Class A motorhome, /6 twin plug race car, premium powered Acura RL, and surprisingly cruddy mileage getting 4Runner.

Honestly, I like the idea of 50 mpg but Prius drivers seem too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif) driving in the left lane absorbed in their green o meters.

[naro914]

So lets see:
- 1971 914/6 2.7 liter pseudo race car/street car w/carbs that runs on premium, no smog anything, headers, etc.
- 1973 914/6 2.5 liter race car w/carbs and headers and straight pipe exhaust
- 1974 914/6 2.2 liter race car w/carbs, high compression race fuel only with headers and straight pipe exhaust
- 1969 911 that leaks oil faster than I can put it in, carbs, no smog prevention
- 1995 993 with cat bypass
- 2002 Chevy Tahoe

Yep, I have a carbon footprint, but it sure ain't green...

Oh, and they all are North Carolina emissions compliant. NC does not check emissions on cars older than 1996....

[zymurgist]

Since we are itemizing:

Daily drivers:
1994 Toyota Camry, subject to Maryland emissions testing, passes by wide margin
1988 Mercedes 420SEL, subject to Maryland emissions testing, passes by wide margin
Both are well within compliance with the law.

Historic cars (no emissions testing required):
1977 Corvette, driven less than 6000 miles in the past 5 years
1970 Porsche, driven less than 10,000 miles in the past 6 years (estimated - broken odometer)
Both of these are also within compliance with the law.

Other stuff:
1970 John Deere, Kohler K321 14hp engine
MTD lawn mower, 5hp Briggs engine
Stihl 2-stroke brushcutter (think weedwhacker on steroids)
Briggs powered pressure washer, has not been run since I got it (a friend gave it to me)
Propane powered grill for cooking (burgers n' dogs)
Propane powered Cajun cooker for homebrewing (no fire, no homebrew)
Not covered by state emissions laws.

I could not realistically replace any of the lawn maintenance equipment with electric counterparts (although about 1/3 of my electricity comes from NUCLEAR POWER, which the greenies don't like even though it has a low "carbon footprint").

[Shade Tree]

If I shut my 914 off at stop lights, put it in first gear and take off by using the starter motor, I'll be driving a hybrid right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Katmanken]

The beauty of it all is that all of your sins can be absolved by simply purchasing carbon credits with dirty old money.....

Carbon credits can be purchased by sending the money directly to:

"The Carbon Footprint Cleanup Fund" care of AlGoreEnterprises. Make all checks payable directly to Al's Swiss bank account.

All this money will be used wisely to green the planet by: paying for Al's big 100 foot houseboat, supporting the green movement by paying for huge "carbon credit income is coming" parties on his houseboat, paying for his 30k a year home electrical bills, paying for the purchase of carbon credits to offset the boat and electric bills, and purchasing "zinc credits" to offset the toxicity of his zinc mine.

[naro914]

funny you should mention "carbon credits"
Duke Power here in NC runs a lot of coal burning power plants - HUGE carbon footprint I suppose.

So, in order for them to be carbon compliant, they must purchase carbon credits - i.e. pay off the government for their emissions, but not actually do anything about them. The amount of credits they are going to have to pay for will then be passed on to their customers obviously.

They have estimated that each users power bill will increase 75% if the plan is imposed as currently stated.

That's one hell of a way to help and economic recovery. My electric bill in the summer months is already $300 +/- per month, so now they want to add another $225 to that? And do we get cleaner air AT ALL????

Nope....

[zymurgist]

Keep your eye on Maryland. The owner of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant (2 operational reactors) is applying to build a third reactor. The outcome of this process may well presage whether or not we will have a nuclear power industry in this country in the future.

[balljoint]

If I shut my 914 off at stop lights, put it in first gear and take off by using the starter motor, I'll be driving a hybrid right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Sometimes that's the only way to get my car up the driveway.

[ahdoman]

Not sure if this is true but I have run into it a couple of times from different reports and different angles but they all essentially say the same;

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the dead zone around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside, said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesnt end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce nickel foam. From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven't even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust, the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

[zymurgist]

Don't know whether that's true, but it sounds good... I think the comparison would be even more favorable if the Prius were compared to a car that gets decent gas mileage, like a Camry or Accord, rather than comparing a Prius to a Hummer.