Quote:
Originally Posted by bimmerFUD
I suppose I'm one of these "vehement" greens. Global warming is not just a bunch of greenies crying wolf. Disclaimer: I'm married to a climate scientist, so I get an earful at home 
But I also try to be pragmatic. Lowering speed limits will probably decrease fuel consumption a bit, in the short term. But I believe it will also greatly stifle innovation which in the long term, will mean we won't explore alternative fuels as much, increase mileage (at any speed), etc.
Example: The 335 gets respectable mileage. Good mileage AND performance actually should go hand in hand.
Good engineers love a challenge. Their management may not, because they have to pay more development costs. But can you imagine being a BMW engineer whose designs were limited to 55mph? The good ones will find another career.
Thanks for the discussion, needforspeed, and I definitely didn't intend to be insulting. |
I guess I am one of those 'greens' myself and I have been doing a lot of work lately on sustainability, embodied carbon and C02e emissions.
I'm with you ... global warming is a reality ...
What I think we need is balance and sense in terms of the way in which we address it.
Fast cars are my own guilty pleasure, but just because I have a 3.0l car doesn't mean my carbon footprint needs to be big.
If I used public transport but flew to the USA twice a year my footprint would be larger.
From what I see at work, I would predict that we will all eventually be trading carbon emissions as we trade money today. This is already happening in business in Europe.
But there are clever ways to sort these things out. My money is on Bioethanol and carbon offsetting. I'm pretty sure we will shortly be able to buy zero carbon petrol, because the producers will have offset their emissions (and yours).