[lbo-talk] more on fuel economy

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 19 13:34:56 PDT 2007


Wojtek:

There something atavistic, especially in the male psyche, to own a big and powerful vehicle, the bigger, the better. Due to that atavistic desire, the efforts to popularize a wimpy Prius would not get nearly as afar as the effort to popularize SUVs.

[...]

With that in mind, your [Jordan] argument to coerce only corporations but not individuals simply does not hold water. You need to change the individuals as well, because they are us guilty of the hummer/SUV craze as the corporations. ........................

I am only concerned with rapid carbon output reduction.

All tangential sociological and philosophical points are almost completely irrelevant.

If the "atavistic desire" satisfying Hummer was carbon neutral, it would still be a road hazard (a problem which could be addressed as a separate concern) but not a carbon output vector. I could live with a carbon neutral Hummer and would leave commentary on the failings of the "male psyche" to others.

The goal is to change the standard power plants and fuel sources of all vehicles to improve their carbon output profile. If that's accomplished, it won't matter what you choose to drive because each and every vehicle's impact upon the atmosphere will be consistently light (or as close as technically feasible).

Your approach is focused on retraining people's behavior. My focus is on re-engineering the infrastructure to de-carbonize its atmosphere altering components.

Both are difficult undertakings but changing machines is a great deal easier (and less costly) than changing our stubbornly "atavistic" selves.

.d.



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