[Vwdiesel] Polo TDI

[James Hansen]

Greg Johnson wrote:
> I like most, if not all of you, am a diesel driver.  I hate to rain on the
> parade, but let's not fool ourselves here.  With all due respect, the
> "stuff" coming out of most diesel tail pipes *is pollution.*  Further,
> diesel is a known carcinogen.   Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player.
> See http://www.californialung.org/spotlight/diesel_health.html.   Hence, the
> reason I run as much BioD as the weather will allow.

the link you provide is from 2004, and makes statements such as:

"Until we make a concerted effort to rid our state of dirty diesel fuel 
and transition to lower-emission fuels and cleaner alternative fuels, 
diesel exhaust will remain a serious public health threat"

Which does sound a lot more political than scientific.

thing is, having everyone driving everything everywhere all the time 
with terrible public transportation, terrible rail transportation, 
minimal electrification of rail freight and bulk goods shipping, all 
lend themselves to high pollution density problems.

The problem really is too damn many engines running period. It's HOW we 
do stuff like ship goods that needs to be looked at, and why everyone 
drives an hour to work, one person per car, and fix it so they don't 
need to.  To focus on the motor and the fuel is not a solution in the 
long term for urban areas.

In europe, where 50%ish of all cars sold are diesel, do they have all 
the nasty problems as outlined by the fact sheets, or just less 
politics?  Maybe Mark could comment, but Europe isn't piled high with 
dead people that I last heard of, so I tend to think there is a certain 
amount of political influence afoot in the American Lung Association's 
broad statements, much like Gore was not necessarily factual in his 
crockumentary, but justified telling lies "in order to promote 
environmental awareness".

On a side note, my Pop's new truck still has a shiny tailpipe on the 
inside after running for 4 months.  It's an '07 duramax with the 
particulate trap... it doesn't even smell like a diesel.  I think the 
soot trap, however energy inefficient it may be, is definitely 
functioning amazingly well.

-james