It seems that in the United Kingdom we are using less petrol and diesel fuel. I have not noticed the roads getting less busy (except during the Olympics when some roads were very quiet and others choked with traffic) but the figures show that half a billion litres more fuel was sold in the second quarter of 2012 than was sold in the first quarter of 2012.
In this period petrol prices fell by about 10 pence a litre; they have since risen again.
The reduction in fuel sales is probably a result of the combination of a number of factors. Older cars which are very inefficient in their use of fuel are leaving the road and newer more fuel efficient cars are being used. Fuel prices are very high in relative terms and the average person is spending an increasingly larger share of his or her budget on petrol or diesel. That means that people are making economies in the amount of journeys for which they use their cars.
Half a billion litres of less of petrol and diesel has not been burnt in the second quarter, which is half a billion litres worth of less environmental damage. A litre of petrol weighs about 0.711 kilogram. If you burn a litre of petrol you create about 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide. You will observe that the weight of carbon dioxide created from burning petrol is more than the weight of the petrol itself. This is because when you burn petrol oxygen mixes with the carbon to create the gas.
Diesel weighs a bit more than petrol and when burnt produces around 10% more carbon dioxide. Diesel usually gives you more miles per litre but its burning creates more harmful particulates.
I will leave it to you to figure out how much carbon dioxide was saved and how much carbon dioxide is produced by the UK’s annual burning of around 32 billion litres of petrol and diesel fuels.
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, global warming Tagged: | burning petrol, carbon dioxide cretaed from burning a litre of petrol., cars, diesel, oil, petrol, UK petrol and diesel consumption
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/10/03/climate-skeptics-to-once-again-get-airtime-on-pbs/
You can fix older cars yourself, or at least I can, my older cars, by the side of the road many times, I once worked for the RAC, where we used to be able to get at least two thirds of them away on their journies home again.
Today that figure id less than a fifth, which need a flat bed truck, running at around 15 miles to the gallon to take them to a service center, this alone costs the planet dearly, the people in it that is.
I have many contacts in this industry, who say modern cars are so much heavier and more powerful, and anyone who knows you cannot have power and performance without more fuel, they are heavier than they used to be, due to the modern safety rules, they also say that cars overall are getting less reliable now year on year, on the electronic side of things.
Having to contend with flashing lights and fault codes, which is in general a scam, because the vehicle has a get you home mode, which allows you to drive it until you fall for the bait, and have to pay a fixed 50 quid on average to have them turned off again.
Enjoy the film clip above folks, the awakening has begun.
Isn’t it telling that the Lovelock AGW scare predictions simply haven’t happened.
Apparently, some South Pacific islands were soon to be sunk below the waves due to AGW and melting ice caps. Now French scientists have found that the visible sinking is due to tectonic plate shifting.
A rise of 1.8mm per year in global sea levels was predicted but where is it? Has anyone seen it?
Governments have pursued us with ever more taxes on our use of energy and all because it, allegedly, it will lead to a climatic disaster.
We have waited more that 20 years but nothing of any significance has happened.
So, all of the government departments and scientists whose incomes depend on keeping the fiction alive look for other portents like weather events.
For me, and most people, its clear that whilst CO2 is an acknowledged greenhouse gas its presence in the atmosphere has not caused any noticeable change to our climate and is not driving any disatrous climate change for the foreseeable future.
Again for those interested in Chemistry:
Igniting petrol causes a chemical reaction in which carbon ‘combines’ with oygen in the air. Carbon can mix with oxygen til the cows come home but it will never become carbon dioxide. Try leaving a burnt piece of toast on your plate.
As to older cars being very inefficient in their use of fuel. In my view that is very myopic and considers only the energy used when the car moves. It ignores many other benefits of older cars;
(1) The energy used to make a car is not wasted if the useful life is at least 20 years rather than 10. A new car ‘might’ be 15% more efficent in use of petrol but that does not equate to being efficient in its use of energy. In my calculations scrapping cars which are 10 years old will more than wipe out any petrol savings in day to day petrol consumption.
(2) Older cars might not have such fuel efficient engines but they are generally smaller, less complicated and easier to maintain. Overall that will minimise use of resources, (including human) and energy.
(3) Purchase of new cars is driven mainly by consumerism not fuel efficiency. Manufacturers use marginally better fuel efficiency as a false benefit to tempt and urge a new car purchase.
(4) Frequent new car purchases buoy up the car manufacturing industry which is dedicated to using petrol and transports its components and products all over the world at significant energy cost.
(5) If we kept cars for much longer the car industry would not make so many cars and this alone would drastically reduce the energy used to mine ore. bauxite, oil etc. Also, it would drastically reduce manufacture in energy intensive factories: eg, steel, glass, rubber, plastics, aluminium which all have enormous energy appetites .
(6) Lets face it, for many people cars are an expression of status and that is what generates new car sales. Otherwise, why would anyone spend say £10000 to trade up to a new car just to save £1000 in petrol?
The old AGW parable. Taxing and indoctrinating the carbon life form, it really is a master stroke though in fairness. Giving us a huge measure of guilt upon
ourselves for poisoning the planet, and then taxing us for the benefit. And we
now have some salvation, as we are paying the tax, and all is well on the land.
The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.
Not to be confused with the 17th century military role, but a person who was paramount to the smooth running of things without a profit upon any person.
One who was rich beyond their wildest dreams, by what they were given, not by what they demanded or took, but by the people they helped and were fully respected for.
The planet is our only true articifer, she asks for nothing, nor respect, gives but never takes and uses free everything and gives everything for nothing, for ever.