"Green Car" is an oxymoron

Research published in 2007 by Oxford Brookes University predicted that more cars will be built in the next 25 years than in the entire history of car-making to date: 1.48 billion by 2030, thanks to a huge increase in demand from emerging economies. But surely cars are getting greener? Well, that depends what you measure.

The Union of Concerned Scientists says, 

"The choice of vehicle that you drive has a greater effect on the environment than any other choice you make as a consumer.”  This is because “There are enormous differences in tailpipe emissions and fuel economy, not just between different types of vehicles, but even within the same type.” 

UCS publishes a guide designed to help people buy a greener vehicle. No bad thing. But the greenest vehicle of all is the No-Vehicle, because there is no such thing as a green car. It's just that some are worse than others. Whatever the advertisers might say, and however much you might kid yourself, “green car” is an oxymoron. Cars are a major contributor to Green House Gases, cause urban and rural blight by demanding road infrastructure, and pollute our air and water via exhaust, road runoff and waste from maintenance and manufacturing.

A life of grime

As one report put it, the car is “dirty from cradle to grave”. Analysts from the Environment and Forecasting Institute in Heidelberg, Germany took a medium-sized car and assumed that it was driven for 13,000 km a year for 10 years. They computed its lifecycle financial, environmental and health impacts. Even before the car has reached the showroom, it has produced significant amounts of damage to air, water and land ecosystems: every car produces thousands of kilos of waste and millions of cubic metres of polluted air in the extraction of raw materials alone, say the Heidelberg researchers. 

Transporting the raw materials to factories produces more pollution, and burns more crude oil. Over its lifespan of 10 years, the Heidelberg researchers say that each car produces: 

-  44.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide; 
 - 4.8 kg of sulphur dioxide; 
 - 46.8 kg of nitrogen dioxide; 
 - 325 kg of carbon monoxide; 
 - 36 kg of hydrocarbons. 

Cars produce abrasion products from tyres, brakes and road surfaces, and pollute soils and groundwater with oil, cadmium, chrome, lead, copper and zinc. Disposal of the vehicle produces more polluted air, plus PCBs and hydrocarbons. 

But aren't cars getting more fuel efficient, and less polluting? Maybe, but the contribution of cars to GHGs continues to grow as people drive more often and for longer distances. The government is forecasting that UK road traffic will rise by 40% in the next 20 years. Can you begin to imagine what that will be like?

"Whole life vehicle waste streams – a global perspective" 26 November 2007, DRIVENet – the UK Network for the design for dismantling, reuse and recycling in road vehicles. This Oxford Brookes University-led network includes motor, engineering and research organisations -

http://www.drivenet.org.uk/

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/about/news/latest/recycling

Union of Concerned Scientists

http://www.ucsusa.org/