TalkClimateChange

We have recently talked about climate extremists on both sides of the debate and their negative impact on progress.

We have also lamented the squabbles in the scientific community, the political bandwagon riding and those who go about cherry picking facts and propagating common climate myths. The result of all this is a confused public and a murky debate. No wonder we have three teams at TalkClimateChange - it’s too easy to find supposed experts who will formulate arguments to support any convenient view.

The latest example we have seen of such climate change smoke-screening comes from Fox News where Steven Milloy clings to a few selected historical facts and ignores commonsense in an attempt to argue that the US’s recent 35 MPG mandate will cause “thousands of annual family and personal tragedies” through traffic deaths.

Milloy’s argument centres around the pretence that vehicle fuel economy can only be achieved by weight reduction, and that lighter cars are less safe than heavier cars.

Is weight reduction really the only option for improving economy? The success of the internal combustion engine to date hasn’t necessitated much innovation in it’s fundamental design, resulting in efficiency improvements of approximately 5% per decade over the last 60 years. Toyota proved with the Prius that dramatic improvements are possible and the application of some further innovative focus is certain to bring big improvements.

Secondly, Europeans who have been ahead of the US’s 35 MPG target for years don’t seem to be dying on the road with any greater frequency, having fewer deaths per vehicle and as a percentage of overall population than the US*.

If one wants to make an issue of road safety then we feel that one should focus on the real weak link in the chain, which is usually accounted for by driver error.

If one wants to make an issue of fuel economy mandates then let’s see a proper set of arguments against reducing Co2 emissions and the use of fossil fuels, and not opportunist and alarming remarks.

* The most recent comparative figures we could find showed that auto accidents in the US accounted for 15.8 fatalities per 100,000 people and 2 deaths per 10,000 vehicles, compared with 11.08 and 1.94 respectively for Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom combined.