Smoking Carbon Emissions
What's the difference between lighting a cigarette and sitting in your car with the engine running? Nothing much really. In fact, the car is more deadly with carbon emissions averaging 150 to 200 grams of CO2 per kilometre. Just sitting still in the car, it's pumping out carbon dioxide into the environment, contributing to global warming, greenhouse gases and the melting of the polar ice-caps.
Fred once told off a guy who left his engine running right next to a food court - and the guy actually agreed and turned off the engine. No doubt, his girlfriend has to suffer a bit and stand in the outside air (oh my goodness!!) and breathe in the oxygen of the planet. But at least she came out.
I would say there are probably 2 reasons for people to sit in their cars with the engines running when they're waiting for someone.
1. Selfishness - I want to remain in my comfort zone. As long as I am nice and cool, I don't really care about the people around me. After all, they would probably do the same thing. Human nature and generations of competitive behaviour have made us like this and it is difficult to get us thinking about our neighbours before ourselves, especially in a fast moving society.
2. Ignorance - despite the widespread news coverage of the warming of the globe along with all the effects it is having on current climate changes and how bleak the future looks, many people probably are not aware of this. Ask the uncle at the coffee shop or the construction worker zooming around in his pick-up, or the bus-driver sitting in his stationary vehicle and chances are they haven't an inkling.
For the rest of us - the air outside isn't yet completely toxic that we have to clam ourselves up in our air-conditioned safety zones. This isn't Mars where we have to walk around in space suits and drive around the harsh terrain in air-tight buggies. Most of the time, it's nice and windy out there - so get out, walk around and breathe in the fresh air while we still have it. Just because the rest of the world is polluting it doesn't mean that we have to, does it?
Fred once told off a guy who left his engine running right next to a food court - and the guy actually agreed and turned off the engine. No doubt, his girlfriend has to suffer a bit and stand in the outside air (oh my goodness!!) and breathe in the oxygen of the planet. But at least she came out.
I would say there are probably 2 reasons for people to sit in their cars with the engines running when they're waiting for someone.
1. Selfishness - I want to remain in my comfort zone. As long as I am nice and cool, I don't really care about the people around me. After all, they would probably do the same thing. Human nature and generations of competitive behaviour have made us like this and it is difficult to get us thinking about our neighbours before ourselves, especially in a fast moving society.
2. Ignorance - despite the widespread news coverage of the warming of the globe along with all the effects it is having on current climate changes and how bleak the future looks, many people probably are not aware of this. Ask the uncle at the coffee shop or the construction worker zooming around in his pick-up, or the bus-driver sitting in his stationary vehicle and chances are they haven't an inkling.
For the rest of us - the air outside isn't yet completely toxic that we have to clam ourselves up in our air-conditioned safety zones. This isn't Mars where we have to walk around in space suits and drive around the harsh terrain in air-tight buggies. Most of the time, it's nice and windy out there - so get out, walk around and breathe in the fresh air while we still have it. Just because the rest of the world is polluting it doesn't mean that we have to, does it?