Green Planet....who are we kidding?

I stopped by at the local Harris Teeter to pick up some milk this morning and noticed for the 1st time they have parking spaces reserved for “Green” cars….those new fangled low emission, high priced, partial non fossil fueled vehicles. The spots are marked by a green squares on the 1st parking spots across the parking lot, save a few for the handicap, which are required by law. So at 1st I was very amused…amused by the Harris Teeter’s contribution to greening the planet by this gesture. Then I started getting pissed because now I felt discriminated. All of a sudden my 2003 BMW is not good enough to be parked in the 1st spot though it is empty….that if you have a green car, you deserve to walk less? & what if I park in the green spot…can my car be towed away?....just too many questions 1st thing in the morning is not quite the way I like to start. Nevertheless, I got to ponder about it some more and realized that this quest of trying to “green” the planet is fundamentally flawed and will not really get us anywhere

No not cynicism, but a carefully thought through (all of 10 mins in the quiet of my car as I drove home) logic supports my argument;

1. The worlds population is growing at about 1.8%, so we are 6.8B today and clearly growing. More people means more production of goods, products, food grains and so on. More of this needs more energy and despite all hullabaloo, we are not getting away from fossil fuels….simply because there is no viable alternative (Viable = cost effective, mass produced, politically supported etc). More use of fossil fuels means more pollution.

2. Cows emit a massive amount of methane through belching, with a lesser amount through flatulence. Statistics vary regarding how much methane the average dairy cow expels. Some experts say 100 liters to 200 liters a day (or about 26 gallons to about 53 gallons), while others say it's up to 500 liters (about 132 gallons) a day. In any case, that's a lot of methane, an amount comparable to the pollution produced by a car in a day.With growing populations, we will need more meat to feed all these people, which means more belching cows. Here is a statistic; for 6Billion people we have 1.5 Billion cows in the world.

3. We are unable to grow organic food for the growing masses, which takes us on the path of all the hybrids that come with their own set of challenges including fertilizer poisoning, land unfit for cultivation after a few cycles and so on.

4. People in fast growing economies like India, China, Mexico, Brazil with teeming populations have no “real” plans to contract and reduce pollutions while the western 1st world has lost the moral high ground to advise others on reducing their carbon foot print…why most of our states will not even reward folks for wanting to go down the righteous path of solar, wind energy paths. I did a check on getting my house total energized by solar. The cost of that and the savings I would get by weaning myself of the traditional energy source would take me about 35 years to pay off…..i may be dead by then!

There is not a critical mass around the world that I can perceive now or peering in to the future, where by people are making the effort to reduce their carbon foot print. What all this is doing is creating another opportunity for those big bankers to sell and buy carbon options….boy think about buying selling hot air and making money…with no value being created.

So while I can rant some more I feel ridiculed by Harris Teeter’s idea of a green parking spot….what the hell are they thinking about. If they truly want to make a mark, how about a new non fossil fueled energy source to power their operations. Yes make a statement that really matters, not paint a stupid green box.