Global warming causes trouble in Siberia

[Jedi_Master]

I have no idea what it is like in other countries, but Americans draw a connection between having a vehicle of their choice and freedom.
Having a big, burly, speed machine and being able to tear about in it free from too many restrictions just feels right. It feels like a birthright.
Put the top down, jump on the throttle, feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face, listen to the sound of that throaty exhaust killing small animals behind you. Oh yeah! That's living.

 

[MacLeod]

Aside from all those pesky little rules of the roads eh?

But some of the attiude around the world (to various degrees) seems to amount to I've got mine and screw everyone else. I don't care if my children, childrens children have to suffer the consequences of my actions, or inactions.

 

[Mudd]

Aside from all those pesky little rules of the roads eh?

But some of the attiude around the world (to various degrees) seems to amount to I've got mine and screw everyone else. I don't care if my children, childrens [sic] children have to suffer the consequences of my actions, or inactions.

It's not a requirement that I accept your evaluation of consequences. Everyone weighs a great many factors with respect to the effect their actions supposedly have on the world every day. People make different choices.

If I chose to feel bad about something I do I'd put "eating beef" a lot higher on the list than what kind of car I drive or how I drive it.

Put the top down, jump on the throttle, feel the wind in your hair and the sun on your face, listen to the sound of that throaty exhaust killing small animals behind you. Oh yeah! That's living.

Here's to responsible vermin control.

 

[Mary Ann]

I'm going to throw a little niggle at you, Squiggy, in that what Europe lacks in distances it makes up for in narrow, winding, not-straight roads. There's often quite a difference between distance as the crow flies and distance as travelled by road, especially if you live in places like I do where there is no motorway in most directions.

I don't think that's the norm, though. The European motorway network is very dense and you can usually get almost everywhere using those.
Europe is more urban, though. And driving crazy big cars in European cities would be a nightmare. I certainly wouldn't want to drive something like a Toyota Sequoia here.
American cars are decent for driving in straight lines for hundreds of kilometres but they don't do curves.
(I'm only partly joking. The suspension on the American cars I've had the "pleasure" of sitting in was really bad. The adaptive chassis control on my car is much more comfy.)

True, the road system is probably better on the continent than here. It has to be.

I drive a 2010 Volvo V50 which is a big car in England. It's easy to drive and I'm pretty good at parking it in tight spaces, but it does always feel a bit too big for Devon's roads. On the other had you need a biggish engine to drive in the hilly countryside. A friend took me for a drive over Dartmoor in his new little car with a 1.3 litre engine and it almost didn't make it up some hills.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I have no idea what it is like in other countries, but Americans draw a connection between having a vehicle of their choice and freedom.
Having a big, burly, speed machine and being able to tear about in it free from too many restrictions just feels right. It feels like a birthright.

I live in a country that has no general speed limit on its highways. The whole "driving=freedom"-thing exists almost everywhere.
I can legally ride my car at the 225km/h it can do. Yet it can also be very economical.

Try again.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Restricting the size and fuel consumption of a vehicle is a form of control - one I happen to agree with - that rubs many Americans the wrong way.

In any case, we all contribute something terrible to the world. Europeans gave us horrifically exploitative colonialism, America gave the world deified consumerism and the Pontiac Aztek.

 

[Mudd]

Restricting the size and fuel consumption of a vehicle is a form of control - one I happen to agree with - that rubs many Americans the wrong way.

In any case, we all contribute something terrible to the world. Europeans gave us horrifically exploitative colonialism, America gave the world deified consumerism and the Pontiac Aztek.

The designer of the Aztek was worse than Hitler. Next to him, the guy responsible for the Cube was barely Mussolini.

The job of the American automotive industry is to meet those CAFE standards while continuing to make the monstrous cars we demand. So far, so good.

 

[Jedi_Master]

One thing that is built into the American mindset is the comfortable relationship we have an abundance and excess: groaning tables of food, fuel gulping vehicles, stadiums that use more power than Liberia, etc. Our cars reflect that comfort. One of the reasons developing countries are having such a significant impact on the environment is that our standard of prosperity is used as a benchmark by the average Chinese or Indian: big, energy inefficient house, multiple powerful vehicles, lots of red meat.

 

[Mudd]

Oh. I thought the world was trying to emulate Sweden.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Oh. I thought the world was trying to emulate Sweden.

That's the fashion world

 

[Mudd]

Certainly not the decorators.

We need a V12 fueled by bacon.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Restricting the size and fuel consumption of a vehicle is a form of control - one I happen to agree with - that rubs many Americans the wrong way.

In any case, we all contribute something terrible to the world. Europeans gave us horrifically exploitative colonialism, America gave the world deified consumerism and the Pontiac Aztek.

Oh, cut the passive aggressive bullshit. Can we talk about things that might not be perfect about America without somebody going all: "But you're worse. You gave us colonialism!"
Holy crap, lamest post of the week.

Emi: Americans just love big cars.
JM: and your continent gave us evil colonialism!

Beautiful.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Holy crap, lamest post of the week.

It's good to be a winner.

 

[Mudd]

Well, you do seem to have shorted her circuit.

Let's stick with the bacon engine. Needs cheese.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Let's stick with the bacon engine.

I actually thought about the possible effects of bacon-fueled cars in America after reading your post. We'd have to waste a lot of resources on feeding those pigs!

I'm afraid it might not be a perfect solution.

And judging from how that other thread is going I'm thinking almond-fueled engines wouldn't work either.

 

[Squiggy]

I think it's just an excuse..

Ok. Now all you have to do is convince hundreds of millions of Americans.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I think it's just an excuse..

Ok. Now all you have to do is convince hundreds of millions of Americans.

I said they're apparently looking for an excuse because they keep coming up with lame reasons instead of just admitting they love big cars.
Dennis on the other hand was just being honest and that's cool. We're all doing things that aren't environment-friendly. It's certainly not just Americans. Germans speeding around the Autobahn at 200km/h aren't being particularly reasonable either.

I like to have fun while driving, too. I'm not always in "omg, need to save fuel"-mode.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Pigs are more resource intensive than chickens, but less than cows. If bacon-fueled cars are impractical, maybe chicken-fueled cars will do.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Pigs are more resource intensive than chickens, but less than cows. If bacon-fueled cars are impractical, maybe chicken-fueled cars will do.

Chicklets would even fit into a standard fuel tank without further modification. Just open the fuel cap and pour in the chicklets.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Pigs are more resource intensive than chickens, but less than cows. If bacon-fueled cars are impractical, maybe chicken-fueled cars will do.

Chicklets would even fit into a standard fuel tank without further modification. Just open the fuel cap and pour in the chicklets.

You don't even need a fuel gauge. You'll know how many you have by the intensity of the chirping.