Gas, Green or Gone?

Chapter 2 – Gas, Green or Gone?



The conference is over and my mind has been altered whether I like it or not. I sit on the train, heading home and look at all of the cars motoring along. They remind me of my new desire – to know the facts about what my car is really doing to the world. I knew that it was not good, the question was how not good?

When in doubt, ask the Internet. Just remember to ask it a few different ways, check the sources and read more than the first search result….

This I did and the results all said pretty much the same thing. A car takes a bunch of energy to make and an entry in Google Answers reckoned the average is 70 – 75 Giga-Joules, we’re talking 70 billion Joules. Now according to the Canadian government 1 Giga-Joule equals the amount of energy contained in about 30 litres of petrol, so making a car uses around 2 100 litres of petrol worth of energy - if that makes it a bit more comprehensible. It also works out that the amount of energy used to manufacture a car is usually less than 10% of the energy it consumes in driving around during its lifetime, depending on how long the car lives of course.

OK, so my shiny, lovely, stylin’ car was not the planet’s best friend, what were the options? After a bunch more of research there were three viable choices; Convert to gas (LPG), sell the car and not drive anywhere, or get another car that was more eco-friendly.

The gas option is a pretty good one. Rebates for conversions are helping people chose this slightly-better-than-unleaded-fuel option (although the Australian Greenhouse Office reckons it’s only about 3% better in terms of carbon dioxide emissions). Also LPG is often burnt as a waste product of oil mining and it is a by-product of oil refining, so using something that could otherwise be wasted is always a good thing. Unfortunately though it is still taking Carbon molecules that were innocently locked away in the ground and pumps them into the atmosphere. So the verdict was: better but perhaps not best.

Sell the car and walk/cycle/public transport everywhere was another option. Great if you live in the city where there is some decent public transport infrastructure, no good if you live where I do. Cars cost a heap of cash when you add up insurance, registration, fuel and mechanical stuff, and when you're talking a 40+ year old car, you get to know your mechanic well enough to invite them to you BBQs – true story.

A 2006 study by the NRMA (http://www.mynrma.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/mynrma/hs.xsl/2856.htm?cpssessionid=SID-3F5768EC-B646E169) reckons that when you take into account all the costs of having a car it works out to be between $110 and $370 per week. Obviously little cheap-o hatchbacks that run on the smell of an oily rag are at the lower end of the scale and chunky 4WDs are at the other. Mine worked out around the $150 mark as depreciation was no longer an issue, in fact it was heading up in value due to collect-ability.

I guess the moral of the story here is; would you spend more than $110 bucks per week getting around in buses, trains and cabs?

So that left the option of finding a more eco-friendly car…. Bugger.



Tune in for Chapter 3 – The Cost of Going Green.