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May 11th 2008

(September 16, 2004) I’m not listening to environmentalists anymore. Or politicians. Or actors. Or rock stars for the environment. Why? A number of reasons. One, they seem to be Chicken Littles, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Many are self-righteous blowhards and many others are hypocrites.

Let me explain. Have you ever noticed that when the environment is talked about, global warming is usually at the forefront. Most of the time the main culprit blamed for all our ills is the automobile. The reasoning is that we’re destroying the ozone layer or greenhouse gases are raising the earth’s temperature. Oh, no! We’re all going to die. Let old Uncle Neil give you the first fact of life. If you are born, at some point you will die. Well, I’m tired of the industry I’ve toiled in for most of my life being used as the punching bag.

Let’s look at a few things. The automotive industry spends more money on research and development than any other. There are more people employed by this industry than any other. I’m including all the spinoff industries related to automobiles. This also includes the trucking industry. Without us the country’s economy would crash.

Our industry is heavily regulated by the government. Which this is fine, and our industry complied. It was needed to clean the air we breathe. This industry pioneered the catalytic converter to lower emissions; introduced fuel injection and computers to cars in order to fine-tune fuel delivery, fuel consumption, and emissions. We have lowered the weight of cars for better fuel economy. Cars are tested in wind tunnels, which led to lower air drag and increased fuel economy. Auto manufacturers have CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards in order to sell their product line. We are introducing vehicle hybrids, gas/electric vehicles. There are prototype cars that run on hydrogen. The list goes on and on.

Automobiles have never run cleaner. Let’s contrast that with other industries. As far as I know, there are no CAFE or fuel economy standards for planes. Same goes for the boat industry. How about trains? Our industry even got rid of chlorine-based refrigerants because it was damaging the ozone layer. The government is forcing the trucking industry to retrofit diesel engines with catalytic converters going back ten model years. See what I mean? We’re doing our part and then some.

Now let’s look at some of the above people. How about the people that drive cars with the environmental stickers on the back? Do you find it ironic that they are driving cars to get them where they need to go? How about rock stars for the environment and their concerts? How much energy is used to light the stage and arenas and concert halls, power the amps, etc.? What about the tour buses and/or planes that carry the entourage? Then there’s the occasional dumping of tour bus waste into a river where much of it hit a tour boat full of unsuspecting people. Denials were issued. However, this incident was caught on a security camera. How about the hundreds of limousines that deliver the Hollywood Stars to the red carpet for the Oscars and Emmys and whatever other award show happens every other week? How about politicians? There was enough hot air from both the Democratic and Republican conventions. I’ll bet the ozone layer just lost six miles.

Our former vice president, Al Gore, was ticketed recently for speeding. What has that got to do with anything? you say.

Well, Al Gore penned a book called “Earth in the Balance” where he wrote that the internal combustion engine is the single greatest threat to man and earth. Now, in the 2000 election, Al didn’t win his home state of Tennessee. Tennessee is a hotbed of NASCAR auto racing. Had he gone to some races and courted the NASCAR fans instead of the soccer moms, I’d be willing to bet he’d have won the election, hanging chads notwithstanding.

But don’t think I’m ranting here or that I’m being a bitter old crank. I’m not. Think about this. Life expectancy for men is about 75 and 79 for women, give or take a couple of years. In the grand scheme of things, that is not a lot of time when you figure man has been on this planet over a billion years. My point is we all use energy in its different forms every day in the usual course of our lives. So get in your car and enjoy! Drive where you want to go when you want. After all, we’re Americans. It’s our birthright.

Yours in burning fossil fuels.

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Neil Corcoran is the owner/operator of Neil’s Auto Repair & Sales in Kingston Center and is an ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician with L1 Certification/Mass. State Emissions Repair Technician and was last seen sprinting into Hair Club For Men.

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