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"Green and Sexy"
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Admitted: the hostesses at the Geneva Motor Show are "grün und sexy".But that's not the only reason why I went there today. I talk with people including the charming young ladies, who are intelligent like you and me.I asked a man in a wheelchair where his hybrid drive was. He pointed in the direction of the Toyota stand. When I pointed at his vehicle he proudly stuck his muscular right arm in the air, smiled at his biceps and said: "This my hybrid drive." A strong man in his mid-fourties, this Mr K. Meyer, owner of a small car-tuning garage in Zürich. Muscle power makes his two wheels go round, for 25 years already. At the BMW stand I had a long conversation with a spokesperson with personal experience in the car-tuning industry, who provided some expert information. The motor industry does indeed do everything to get the maximum fuel efficiency. For a given model with a given equipment it is illusionary to think that fuel consumption could be significiently reduced further or even halved as some people believe, as compared to present industry benchmarks. "You can't change the laws of Physics," he said, "there are limits". Really important reductions of fuel consumption, however, can be achieved if we reduce car weight. We can use fewer gadgets, no air-conditioning, no electric windows and door locks, a more spartan interior. A simple light-weight car like Tata's proposed one Lakh (100000 Rupees, in Europe some 1600 Euros) car in India, would also reduce resource use in general. The car would be cheaper, we would have to work less to afford it and we could use that time to do other productive work, for which we now use machinery and fossil energy. This would change the structure of our Gross National Product, replacing fossil fuel based production by more manual work. It would reduce climate gas emissions and make our society more sustainable in general. The next steps on our way towards a greener world would be via public transport towards the bicycle and walking: the personal hybrid drive. One may wonder whether people power could be the type of invention that the President of Switzerland meant at the Davos Open Forum six weeks ago. Mr Pascal Couchepin said that new inventions and technology will reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources. He did not say which inventions, when and how much reduction would be achieved. ( www.ecoglobe.ch/motivation/e/wefo8126.htm ) I hacked Mr Couchepin's PC and therefore I know what he is going to say tomorrow, Thursday 6 March 2007, in his speech for the official opening of the Motor Show.
"The automobile is getting greener, with hybrid motors, biofuels and advanced technologies, a necessary contribution in our fight against climate change. "The technology will increase our position in a globalised knowledge-based economy and help us to maintain economic growth. [Mr Couchepin's spoken words are valid.] Our motorways are already jammed. London and Stockholm and Singapore apply road tolls for car access to their city centres. And our wages are too high. So our car industry expatriates to China, overpopulated, with their cities choking in bad air and their fish dying in the polluted rivers. We are in the process ofpromoting economic growth until finally everything grinds to a halt, by lack of space, lack of petrol or both. The Geneva Motor Show's organisers write that they are presenting a showcase of future mobility. I asked a couple of people when the future starts and how long it lasts. I'm a master in difficult questions but one lady replied that it lasts three years and that should be correct. Three to five years is the general outlook of most business people and politicians. My future lasts longer, possibly another 25 years, that is one generation. Then, however, around 2030, oil and gas reserves will have dwindled and the same planet with less resources will have to feed some 1.3 billion people more, a total of possibly 8 billion. Biofuels for transportation will then have disappeared a long time ago because the production capacites are needed for such vital things as food and energy and heating and medical services and the like. The automobile will die out because there are no equivalent alternatives for oil and gas and what electricity can be produced is needed for other priorities. Personal hybrid people power is the future of mobility. The motor show is sexy. But it's not green. Still, it's fun going there. Helmut Lubbers, Wednesday 5 March 2008 Last year I wrote aboutThe Swiss president, Mrs Micheline Calmy-Rey at the Motor Show. |
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