Press release:

The mayor's new car has no clothes

Palmerston North Mayor Heather Tanguay's new (City Council) $40,000 hybrid car is probably the envy of readers uneasy about petrol prices. (Manawatu Evening Standard, 5 Nov).

The headline says she has chosen an "energy efficient car" and that she "has shown her green side" (It has an electrical system that recovers and stores energy during braking and downhill driving.)

Yes, Heather has an outstanding track record of valiant work for environmental/human sustainability.

But how 'green' are hybrid cars really?

- Although it's exhaust might reduce nearby coughing by 90%, doesn't it still exhaust much the same CO2, causing global warming, icecap melting and sea-level-rise refugees?

- Although maybe 25% more efficient than ordinary cars, doesn't it still run on now dwindling petroleum that has no adequate substitutes in sight?

- Does this hybrid car run on normal roads made of asphalt (also derived from petroleum)?

- Don't its tyres (normal synthetic rubber) still require about 7 gallons of crude oil to produce?

- Because of the extra efficiency, how much 'more' might it actually be driven (defeating the purpose)?

- What about mayor Peter Trent of Westmount, Montreal, who chose not to have a mayoral car, walking or using the occasional taxi or public transport?

- Doesn't this car reinforce the popular belief that individual use of cars is still to be admired, in this flat but four-cars-per-driveway student town?

Bruce Thomson

http://www.geocities.com/RunningOnEmptyNZ

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>