AFVI Show: Luncheon speech by Lives per Gallon author Terry Tamminen
The joke with which Terry Tamminen started his Monday luncheon speech was eerily similar to his talk in Santa Monica last December – although the names were changed (you can compare the audio clip below with our recording of December's event here). Tamminen is an effective public speaker, though, and I didn't mind sitting through another one of his talks.
Kicking the oil addiction is the defining issue of our time, and it reaches into parts of our lives we don't always think about, said Tamminen, who drives a natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX. In California, the "richest state in the richest country in the history of the world," 80 percent of the residents live in areas that are officially designated as "unhealthy." Like he wrote in his book "Lives per Gallon," Tamminen says that the true cost of a gallon of gas in the US is really about $10, based on externalities like health care and crop damage. In some states (like Maryland and Florida) some insurance companies have said they won't be able to sell policies there in the future because they will not be able to pay the claims in the future. They see where the trends are headed.
China's insane growth (on the economic and pollution fronts) is driven in part by America. Huge new coal factories are being built on a rapid scale to power factories to sell us pink flamingoes and Nikes at Wal-Mart. You can listen to part of the speech here (MP3, and remember, AFVI has asked AutoblogGreen not to provide non-attendees with audio recording of full sessions from this conference).
Speaking of insane, there is no way I could've counted all of the wasted meals left on the tables in the dining hall. That's the way it goes.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MikeW 11:40AM (4/04/2007)
Speaking of Honda, what about Honda not offering ABS on the Civic HX (the previous two generations) One ruined set of tires wipes out any savings made by the better mileage ('02 CVT was 35/40) The EX had the same 3 stage VTEC as the EX and ABS.
Honda talks a good game...
Insurance? Repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarran-Ferguson_Act
http://www.motorists.org/issues/insure/nma_insurance_position.html
Then take it from there.
and the Sun cause global warming, not people. The UN's own report high balls the human component to ~6%.
Reply
Robt Matthies 12:16PM (4/07/2007)
LIVES PER GALLON imho is a really important book with TONS of new information about how late we, all, have woken up with a nightmare (climate change) on our hands. Thanks for this great book, Terry. You were very funny at CBC TV today, too.
Terry, you said that the next step is to look for SOLUTIONS. I think we have a very good one:
We need $50K to put five electric vehicles with Revived Batteries in Vancouver's roads
Peter Mansbridge and the CBC Newsworld's crew has been airing, nightly, devastating stories of the effects of climate change around the world. It pains me to watch this. Have you seen it?
This show compels me and my informal group of electronic hobbyists to put in an effort to put five electric vehicles, running from Revived Batteries (taken from a scrap pile, thereby reducing pollution at the same time) on Vancouver's roads.
We already have three battery breakthroughs in our electric pickup truck, which you can check out in the EV Album webpages. It is the first battery vehicle with a per-mile cost that is a fraction of the cost of gasoline.
However, we need more 'nearly- free-energy' cars/trucks on the road. Five such vehicles should inspire people everywhere, that they are not helpless, either.
Let's do it now. Yesterday.
However, we're just hobbyists, and are clueless about raising funds. We need help here.
Is there anything you can do?
Yours truly,
Rob Matthies
306 - 349 East 6th Avenue,
Vancouver, BC
V5T 1J9
( 6 0 4 ) 7 3 9 - 7 7 1 7
Reply