Saturday, 8th November 2008
Goliaths of pollution defeating the Davids
To transport and change iron ore and aluminium ore into final workable ingots and recycle metals and plastics, etc. needs a tremendous amount of polluted air/energy combinations.
A knowledgeable, technical person who maintains his old car must now scrap it due to the new tax levels on aged cars. Age is not enough reason to suggest that a car engine is inefficient.
In 1960 my old Morris 1000 car, in Kent, England, impeccably adjusted and carefully driven by myself, covered 51 miles (not kilometres) to the gallon and a 30-year-old petrol Morris Marina 1300 with a well tuned SU carburettor, in hilly Malta, covers 35 miles to the gallon. The calorific value of fuel in Malta in not the highest, and more electronics in my car would not produce more energy - the best electronic engine management unit and spraying injectors introduced in the car would perhaps increase the mileage from 35 to 38 per gallon, if at all.
I find it most unfair that a technically qualified family man who religiously sees to the engine efficiency of his car is now being blamed as a giant polluter of air, much more than the financial giants who run five-litre cars, massive container trucks, jumbo jets and other air buses, air forces, cruise ships, private power stations, smelters, chains of hotels, etc.
One modern jet engine can swallow, breathe, burn and pollute about two tons of fresh air per second and one large Bessemer smelter in America, India or China consumes about 10 tons of fresh air per second. And the thousands of tons of imported detergents in Malta find their way into the sea along the coast from Ċirkewwa to Marsaxlokk, which killed all the octopus breeding grounds I hunted to eat, in my youth.
The detergent and drainage pollution on our coast is tremendous, while the pollution volumes of the thermodynamic gigantic fresh air guzzlers, even if they operated at the maximum possible thermodynamic efficiencies, will pollute more voluminous fresh air in one nanosecond than my old Morris 1000 ever used in its lifetime.
If the vehicle were scrapped and smelted or left to rot at Magħtab it would produce more poison in the air or in the water table, with much more expense to cure the resulting pollution, than if left on the road in my experienced hands, running it free of tax.
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Comments
Why does Mr Pule' and the rest of us have to pay for the incompetence of the Gonzipn Government because it is a fib that the licenses were increased to protect the environment.
Seems to me Mr Fenech miscalculated wildly - he should have made new cars much cheaper (and had plenty of leeway) I confidently predict take-up on new cars will be pretty slow.
Robert Caruana
I agree with you 100%.
But then, apart from the Government not being able to try to balance its budget deficit brought about by its incompetence, foreign vehicles manufacturers and their importers in Malta will not continue to milk millions from the Maltese citizens.
What is the most environmentally friendly option - one consistently well tuned and maintained vehicle with a small capacity engine being used for 30 years or getting through 4 or 5 "modern" cars in that same period of time with the full environmental costs (resources and energy) involved in processing, manufacturing and disposing of, or recycling 4 or 5 vehicles?
Taking good care of a well tuned small engined car and making it last is plain common sense and environmentally friendly, but this option will neither sell vehicles nor boost the economy of car-producing European countries, and even worse will not reduce the national deficit!
Cars are like human beings. You can have a 65 year old lady doing aerobics with a 30 year old woman, because the former has kept herself physically fit throughout her life and therefore can cope easily with much younger people!
I had suggested that the fairest mode to tax cars for CO2 emissions is to put a probe inside the exhaust pipe and measure the amount of CO2 given off from ALL cars immaterial of being old or new. An old TUNED SMALL car engine should produce LESS CO2 than a MONSTROUS car with a 20cc engine.
Many people are misled that modern cars are virgins! But what guarantee do we have that all the seemingly new cars on the roads are the same ones that left the factory or showroom 2 or 3 years ago? How many car enthusiasts tamper with their engines to make it more powerful (and noisy) ?
Moreover, modern cars are fitted with catalytic converters which convert the toxic CO into CO2.
Viva Europe!