Quote:
Originally posted by Mr 5 0
I believe that catalytic converters were required on all cars manufactured in the U.S. starting in 1975, not the mid-80's.
So Belle, although you wrote a good essay I have to part company with the premise that finds every other heath problem stemming from catalytic converters, because it's basically unproven and in my opinion is just another way to say 'Cars Pollute...we're all gonna die' and call for banning the gasoline engine. If you doubt it, read some EPA and other enviro-whacko lliterature (I have) and you see that in their view, the gasoline engine can never be made 'safe' enough. Electric cars are the 'only' solution. If possible, bicycles would be even better.
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The cat was INTRODUCED in the 1970s, but was not REQUIRED until the 1980s (when the 3 way cat was introduced). Feel free to check it out:
http://www.fisita.com/exhibit/emissions/history.html
Though I could have been technical about the inception date, I was more concerned about when it actually affected Americans and their automobiles...
About credibility...2 of my sources were The Brewer Library in Wisconsin, and the German Oncology society and Department of Medicine.
Cars DO pollute, and they DO harm the environment. I just choose to accept that risk, and drive my gasoline powered vehicle. That doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing, or that just bc the EPA IS a bunch of tree huggers, that my behavior is any less destructive. There is NO safe car either way...even electric vehicles use energy that is derived from burning coal...that's life.
I also do not feel that the EPA's crusade has ANYTHING to do with personal freedoms at all...not saying their intentions are any more savory, but I don't see any "evidence" of an anti-freedom campaign. I feel that claim is more unproven than any that I have made.
I'm pretty far from a treehugger, but humans ARE the most wasteful race in existence, and our abuse of fossil fuels is no exception. I'm no doomsayer, proclaiming that we are going to perish because we are going to run out of resources anytime soon, but I also do feel that we DO need some common sense regulations concerning the environment. I just wish the damn EPA could find a middle ground...encouraging less wasteful behavior, but at the same time not shoving battery cars and HOV lanes down our throats.
Conservation is a mentality that can only be cultivated over time and with education ( and DOESN'T have to use stupid hybrid vehices), yet the EPA is still convinced they can change the world in a century... not likely.