The big green con trick

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Do you buy a new car every few years? Have you been conned into buying a
dual-fuel car or a low emission car believing you are saving the planet?
Read on. In the actual manufacturing of any car, the massive amounts of
pollution produced is way in excess of what the final product will ever
produce during its working life.

So I content that to be really green, you do as I have done. I am only the second owner of my car, I have been its caretaker for nearly nineteen years. It was built in 1952 and the CO2 footprint of its manufacture has long ago been soaked up by nature.
I have not brought a new car since, so going on the statistics of the
average rich owner buying a new car every four years or so, I have saved
this planet from an almost unimaginable amount of pollution by NOT buying
dual-fuel/low emission cars (I would have gone through at least five by now.
Those cars that are part battery driven, those batteries cost another huge
amount of pollution in their production and only have a life of about five
years. My annual mileage does produce pollution, but it would take centuries
of such use to even approach a 'new cars CO2 footprint'. People conveniently
forget the damage building new cars do, they prefer to start their
'awareness' in the showroom. There is another benefit of my car, all the
parts I use for its maintenance and repair are made by small UK engineering
firms, not in far off Taiwan,China, and other far Eastern countries whose
pollution levels are legendary.

So I contend that continuous use of a serviceable, well maintained older car
is better for our planet than continuing to keep making new ones.
Let us wear out the old ones first and not trade them in because the ash
tray is full, or to just get the latest 'shape'. My car? It is a 1952 MG YB
saloon. You can see more on < www.mgccyregister.com > under 'Restoration of
LRM438' and 'XPAG Engine Rebuild'. And it really is 'green'.

Neil Cairns.Leighton Buzzard. by email