Canada Customs has just issued a new travel advisory: Don’t drag up and down the streets of Copenhagen in a crew-cab pickup with Alberta plates. Maybe even leave your sealskin fur hat at home this time, and certainly keep tire smoking burnouts to a minimum.
Apparently Copenhagen is currently hosting some kind of UN conference about something called “climate change,” and many attendees are not blowing kisses in Canada’s direction.
They don’t like our tar sands, they don’t like it that we’ve already stated that we’ll only sign what the Americans sign, and they particularly don’t like the audacity of us publishing an Anne of Green Gables prequel.
An unofficial group made of non-government types, even awarded Canada the first “Fossil of the Day” award, given each day to a country that, in its estimation, is adept at blocking progress at climate summits.
There are lots of flash points to this issue, which could be debated until those methane-producing cows come home, but I’m more interested in how Canadian automobile users feel at this juncture. Do you suddenly feel like you have a target on your bumper? Is this weighing on your soul?
Making choices you can live with has a big bearing on how you feel, and I think drivers sometimes forget that our choices are not limited to driving. The choices we make in other aspects of our lives could even have more impact on global warming than our driving habits.
First, let’s go over that carbon dioxide deal again. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is not the only contributor to global warming, but it is by far the biggest one. CO2 is released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, by decaying and/or burning wood, and by disturbances in the soil’s carbon-holding organic matter, through erosion, plowing, mining, etc.
When it comes to man-made causes of CO2, the percentage attributed to passenger cars, pick-up trucks, SUVs, vans, and minivans is about 12-13, according to a 2006 air pollutants study by Environment Canada.
A good-sized chunk, but there other equal or larger chunks — the energy sector accounts for about 52 per cent, transportation (other than light vehicles) accounts for about 13 percent, agriculture about eight per cent, industry about seven per cent, land use about four per cent, and waste about three per cent.
Some advocate that curtailing air travel would have a huge effect, as it produces lots of CO2, and there are less foreseeable ways of increasing its efficiency (nobody, for instance, seems quite ready to board an electric plane for an overseas flight).
It’s all about priorities. If you need or love to drive, still do it, but maybe do it a bit more responsibly, and maybe check off a few items from the other list, to balance things out a bit — like take less airplane trips, buy more local products, make your house more efficient, burn less wood in the fireplace.
And maybe make that special effort this year to not set off any huge scrap-tire fires, because, as you know, it all adds up.
– Michael Goetz has been writing about cars and editing automotive publications for over 20 years. He lives in Toronto with his family and a neglected 1967 Jaguar E-type.
