Michael,
Far be it from me to try and pull George W. Bush's chestnuts out of the
fire. However, the promises that form the basis of the Kyoto Protocol were
(and are) totally unachievable without a marked decrease in productivity and
change of life style in North America. The US is not alone in this
predicament; Canada is in the same boat. Keep in mind, though, that the
Kyoto agreement focussed more on greenhouse gas emissions than on energy
consumption, if I recall correctly.
I have seen plots of a country's GNP against energy consumption and the
trend is very clear: more energy use leads to a higher GNP which leads (in
general!!) to a better life style. In fact, if you look at the energy
consumption plotted against time, you will find a "dip" in the 1980s which
corresponds to poorer economic conditions. In short, a massive reduction in
energy consumption over a short period of time will result in loss of
employment and you can guess which segment of the population will bear the
brunt of this: the poor.
Yes, it is our Christian moral obligation to be better stewards of what He
has entrusted to us. Yes, it is true that we are running out of fossil
fuels. I agree that many of us can do with a smaller car. Better yet, join
car pools or use a bicycle when possible.
I know that European cars generally use less fuel than their North American
counterparts. Ten years ago, my wife and I leased a Renault 21 Nevada
station wagon to travel through Europe with our two youngest kids. It costs
us about the same per km driven as in Canada: the fuel consumption was half
of that of our station wagon and the price of gasoline was twice as high.
But, on our previous trip to Europe, my two oldest boys and I traveled on a
Eurailpass.
No, Michael, IMHO, you are not too green. Kermit the frog said "It's hard
being green." I would say that it difficult to be too green! What I think
is needed is a debate amongst Christians who are scientists and/or
environmentalists to come up with a responsible use of our resources. The
solutions will undoubtedly create quite an upheaval, but solutions must be
selected with an eye on the most vulnerable in our society.
Chuck Vandergraaf
Pinawa, MB
-----Original Message-----
From: M.B.Roberts [mailto:topper@robertschirk.u-net.com]
Sent: Friday April 20, 2001 4:42 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu; acg
Subject: Kyoto
Apart from Foot and Mouth the main environmental topic in our media is
America and George Bush's refusal to honour (or honor if you cant spell) the
Kyoto agreement.
Without claiming moral perfection over here, is not part of our christian
obligation to God and his creation to be better stewards of what he lent us?
Where better to start than to use less energy?
Take cars ; our hire car in the USA last summer only did about 20 - 24 mpg
- we had asked for a Camry but got some Oldsmoblie 4WD . When that broke
down we got a Camry which gave nearly 30 .
In the UK I drive a Ford Contour/Mondeo which gives 35 mpg with similar
driving. It has only marginally less passenger space than our hire cars and
I have driven it similar distances across Europe.
This alone makes a considerable reduction in gas usage.
(On performance my 1.8 litre Contour with manual gearbox is better than
either of the American cars)
Am I being too green?
Michael Roberts
P.S. Will American oil prospectors working in Scotland get back at me!!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 20 2001 - 21:29:45 EDT