By Ingo Overmann
It is my sincere belief that thereason we are NOT making the urgently needed progress on climatechange is because far too many people do not understand the ABC’s.This applies to residents of remote areas like Smithers and Cortes Island just as much as someone living in the densely packed suburbs of GreaterVancouver. If you want to test that statement for yourself, please ask the next 10 ordinary people you meet ‘How many POUNDS of CO2are created by the use of 1 litre of gasoline?’ Prepare to be amazed.We may be prey to the greenwashing and misleading statements of climate change deniers, but the lack of knowledge lies with us, and is ours to change.
Mankind, our children and grandchildren, can live about 5 minutes without clean air (OXYGEN), about 5 days without clean potable water, and about 5 weeks without healthy nourishing food grown on fertile unpolluted soil. So we already know WHAT is truly essential, and needs to be revered and protected. Maybe the WHAT no longer includes big oil, coal, unnatural fracked gas, LNG, tar sands, or biofuels like wood pellets. We could do SO much better electrically with clean hydro, solar thermal turbines, PV solar roofs, off-shore wind turbines, geothermal steam turbines, highly efficient heat pumps, and better solutions yet to come.
CO2 – an odourless, tasteless greenhouse gas, which is added to our atmosphere each day, and acts as a clear, fuzzy blanket that allows the sun’s heating rays to shine on earth, but doesn’t allow the sun’s excess heat to escape into outer space. That’s global warming in a nutshell. It’s probably THE most important of the ABC’s of climate change whichmost of us ignore or don’t fully understand. Do we need it? Sure; – itstops the earth from being a frozen wasteland, and allows plants to grow,and produce new OXYGEN by photosynthesis. BUT – until 1750 it was at about 280 parts per million; today it’s at 420+ parts per million, and still growing due to ever more fossil fuelled cars, and increasing forest fires which create MASSIVE heat AND CO2. Plus we’ve cut down half of the world’s forests for lumber, paper, land clearing for farming, cities, hydro right of ways, highways, railways, pipelines, and electricity production, etc.
Your motor vehicle doesn’t really run on gas or diesel – it’s roughly 3 parts OXYGEN and 1 part gasoline or diesel. That’s the same essential OXYGEN you and I and our children need to survive. In a documentary from 2007, EV and solar expert Steve Heckeroth of California states that a U.S. gallon of gasoline (4 litres) wastes enough OXYGEN to keep a child breathing for about six months. New parents might want to give this some thought.
EVERY litre of gasoline we burn combines with OXYGEN to create 5 pounds of CO2 added to our atmosphere. Some climate scientists tend to talk in terms of gigatonnes and megatonnes of CO2. Most of us realize those are HUGE numbers, and assume there’s nothing we can do so the information goes in one ear and out the other. Perhaps if we thought in terms we can relate to, we’d realize 5 pounds is the same weight as a bag of apples. So every time we fill another 50 litres of gasoline in our cars, we’ve just finished adding another 250 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere.
The world has about 1.5 Billion (that’s 1500 MILLION) Internal Combustion Engined vehicles. That’s like most of us driving around in gas and diesel vehicles with a campfire burning under the hood of our vehicles. If you’ve ever burnt your hand on a hot vehicle radiator, you know what I mean. Anyone who claims that 1500 MILLION daily campfires aren’t adding to global warming is either misinformed or ignoring common sense. Those numbers don’t include ships, diesel electric trains, and prop or jet aircraft.
BEVs (battery electric vehicles) during operation DON’T burn fuel, or OXYGEN, have ZERO tailpipe emissions, and about 85% energy efficiency. ICEs (internal combustion engines) lose about 50% of their energy to waste heat, and 25%to friction losses for a 25% energy efficiency. A reasonable calculation is that every $100.00 spent on gas or diesel, would cost about $20.00 for electricity. Plus NO regular tune-ups, spark plugs, oil changes, or transmission flushes.For anyone considering a new personal car (or involved with fleet purchases),the message is resoundingly clear. Go Electric!!
That’s a condensed version of a few of the important ‘ABCs’ of climate change. I’ve found another 12+, and some potential solutions. But I’m not the brightest crayon in the box, and you will hopefully do much better. If there are errors in my comments, I hope you will write and tell me.
For the children. Please share so more will care. Sincerely, Ingo Oevermann,
Top image credit: Gas Pump by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and Jeepers Media on YouTube via Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Do you have copiright protection on this document or can I freely reproduce it to expand it’s impact?
I just sent an email to the author. It’s his call.