Are overweight and overpowered motor cars the most profligate source of unnecessary CO2 emissions?

Question

Or if not what is the most unnecessary way we emit CO2 in large quantities?

Answer 1

How do feel about motorboats and snowmobiles?  Like what kind of vehicle is more unnecessary than recreational vehicles like these?

Answer 2

Maybe.  

Trouble is that some people love cars.

Seems like Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't want to give up his fleet of hummers just for the sake of some climate change theories.  That's his thing you know, driving hummers is what he likes to do.  A lot of people are like that with their vehicles or recreational pursuits that happen to generate a lot of CO2.  

Wouldn't it be great if this greenhouse theory turned out to be just a theory and we found heaps more oil in Africa (or somewhere) and everyone moved on to worrying about something else.  That's not so unlikley I think.

Answer 3

global warming is a complete and total fake!  its an international scam!  click and read the information on this link

http://www.americanpolicy.org/un/thereis...

Answer 4

Define overweight and overpowered!  I buy the most fuel efficient vehicle available to meet my needs, but I need a great deal of power.

Answer 5

Overweight and overpowered cars is probably the worst.... You can blame the USA for that though....

Answer 6

coal fire power plants

Answer 7

NO

---------- Here is the best simple figure you can find about it ------

Here is the FIGURE FOR THE WORLD:

http://cait.wri.org/figures/World-FlowCh...

And here the FIGURE FOR THE US:

http://cait.wri.org/figures/US-FlowChart...

Answer 8

No Cows are! And Volcanoes apparently!

Answer 9

No, coal/oil/gas or fossil fuel  power stations are as they have the biggest CO2 producer. Nuclear power makes no Carbon Dioxide emmissions.

Answer 10

Now that's a tricky one, if you compare one of those cars with a manufacturing company (some, not all) then the answer is no, however if you took all of those cars and compared it with the same company the answer would be yes, although most sources say it is the increased activity of Places like China that are still increasing their output. I now ask you (having read this answer) are you as totally baffled as me?

Answer 11

No, I do believe that Politicians emit the most noxious hot gasses.

Answer 12

Tough question because what you consider 'extravagant' or 'unnecessary' is rather subjective.  Let's look at some numbers though.

A large SUV has ~3 times the CO2 emissions as a Prius.  I think if everyone in the US bought the most fuel efficient car that met their needs with the current technology, we could cut our emissions in half.  However, this is a problem mostly limited to the US, and cars are only responsible for 9% of GHG emissions worldwide, so using smaller cars wouldn't result in a huge overall GHG reduction.

I think the 2 biggest sources which could be reduced relatively easily are from coal fired power plants and deforestation due to land use change for livestock.  With renewable energy technologies like solar advancing rapidly, coal burning power plants are a completely unnecessary source of CO2 emissions, if we only had the funds to replace them.

Livestock account for 18% of anthropogenic GHG emissions, and only 5% are due to their methane releases.  

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

If we simply reduced our beef consumption, we could create a significant GHG reduction fairly easily.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 13

yes efficiency is on one side vs power and weight on the other.  it's no secret in fact its first week of a basic physics class. acceleration requires power acceleration of a lot of weight even more power. and yes it is the US and its SUV's to blame but don't forget about the euro sports cars lams and ferrari's get around 4 mpg and there really not that fast compared to built American muscle at the same hideous mileage rating.

point is none of its needed unless your racing on a track you don't need to go that fast. See whats happening to the California street racers cars? Then there's the soccer moms who have to have a 4 ton SUV because it makes them feel safe, so that they and their precious Vinny and Debbie will be unharmed when she runs over a guy driving a smart car because shes putting on her make-up talking on the cell phone and watching Oprah when she should be driving.

Answer 14

maybe but that's always subjective. i think its HFC emissions. we are still using greenhouse gasses to manufacture fridges spray cans foam and nearly everything CFCs were used for. in addishion they make up 10% of all human emissions.

Answer 15

Speaking of overweight, Al Gore is the biggest source of unnecessary CO2 emissions.