Idling Engines and What They Symbolize to Me
Denver
I was getting ready to post a story about the environmental dilemmas we face regarding air travel. Then, an incident happened yesterday which I wanted to share right away with you readers. It dove-tails with my story last week about vehicles.
My partner, Judy, and I had just finished a six-mile hike along and just below the Continental Divide near Breckenridge, Colorado. We were back at our Prius station wagon (a hybrid but not a plug-in) which was parked in the lot at Hoosier Pass (elevation: 11,542 feet above sea level or 3518 meters). A paved, 2-lane state highway crosses this high mountain pass so it’s not a wilderness area nor is the area west of the pass where we’d been hiking since it’s dotted with century-plus-old abandoned gold and silver mines and mine tailings. Still, the area where we had walked is characterized by dramatic terrain with craggy granitic cliffs; alpine vegetation; cascading streams; and a couple of small, pretty lakes surrounded by verdant willow bushes.
After we changed out of our hiking boots and stashed our packs and hiking poles into the back of the Prius, Judy headed out to find a bathroom. I sat in the car “chilling-out” after the hike. There was a Subaru wagon parked next to us and driver was listening to music. After sitting behind the wheel for maybe 10 minutes, he started leisurely getting ready to hike. The music wasn’t loud or obnoxious and I didn’t mind it. However, I realized that the he had left his engine running ever since we got back to the car.
Maybe the guy needed the engine running in order to play his car stereo. But frankly, it started to piss me off. I mean, here we are having this global climate crisis with internal combustion engines as one of the biggest culprits in the mess. And, yet this guy, who appeared to be about 30, seemed to think nothing of letting his engine idle unnecessarily for 15 minutes. Bad enough that guys like me drive two hours for mountain hikes in vehicles with internal combustion engines.
Should I say something to the driver? Normally, I avoid confrontations knowing that I have a tendency to lose my temper and yell when I get in a self-righteous mood. Could I approach this guy in a calm, non-aggressive manner and point out that idling his engine unnecessarily wasn’t exactly a cool move? I decided to give it a try. The conversation went something like this:
“Excuse me. I don’t want to be a pain in the ass but wouldn’t it be a good idea to turn off your engine. Idling car engines unnecessarily contribute to the climate crisis.”
“Sorry, I didn’t think about that,” he replied getting back in the car and turning off the engine. “But really, I don’t think my running the engine while parked makes all that much difference.”
“Well, it all adds up,” I calmly replied.
“Yeah, I suppose it does.” He didn’t act angry and seemed almost apologetic.
He’s was correct, of course. That little bit of greenhouse gas emissions produced by his idling engine wasn’t going to make any difference in the big picture of the climate crisis. What got to me was what his idling engine represented: the unthinking attitude of millions of people like him who go about their lives without realizing or seeming to care that their collective actions are a big part of the problem we face. Certainly, I’m guilty too – nearly all of us are. But to me it’s kind of like voting. On election day, I could say, “I’m not going to bother to vote because my one vote really doesn’t matter.”
As we pulled out of
the parking spot, I noticed that the Subaru had Nebraska plates. I don’t want to pick on Nebraskans but they
do tend to be relatively conservative and probably less concerned about the
environment than the average Coloradan. Since he was on “my turf” as a Coloradan, maybe
he was a little more willing to listen to a local than had I confronted him at
a park in Omaha. Maybe my advanced age
also helped. And I’ll admit, that had he
been a big bruiser (actually he was average size), wearing a MAGA hat, driving
a big pickup truck with Texas license plates, and a gun rack on the back window, I might have decided it
was better for my health to keep my mouth shut.
The above statistics come from “Idling Reduction for Personal
Vehicles” by the U.S. Department of Energy (https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/idling_personal_vehicles.pdf)
I’m not suggesting that we should all go out and look for people to confront about environmental transgressions. And for Dog’s sake, if you do, try to be calm and non-confrontational because yelling will only put the other guy on the defensive and make him all the more determined to “do it his way”.
One the other hand, I
do think we need to speak up more about the climate crisis. There are lots of decent people out there who
are clueless about their actions relative to the environment but might be
gently persuaded. This especially
applies to people you know. Maybe try to
find out what they think about the climate crisis. You’ll find some of them to be hopeless cases
but maybe others just need some good ol’ rational scientific information to get
their attention.
Sounds like you handled that extremely well, Will. You make a good point about taking advantage of opportunities to educate people about what can be done on an individual basis to address the climate crisis.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you got lucky, Will. Anything you said could have almost immediately gone south. But kudos for taking a chance. You addressed that situation well. You get to always say that you're an environmentalist, or an environmental geologist. That should help lower the temperature of such potential encounters. I've got a next door neighbor who idles his pickup for too long.....and it's also very loud. Guess I need to be brave like you. (His last party also got very loud well after midnite.) Maybe you can find a bumper sticker that states something about vehicle idling?
ReplyDeleteCongrats on addressing the owner of the idling car. He could have saved himself some gas money, too, if he just turned his key for battery power without running the engine assuming his fossil fuel burning car runs like all the ones I’ve owned over the years.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to get into the Effective Climate Conversations path, there’s a free 3-week online course offered over the next 3 weeks on Thursdays at 6-7:30pm Mountain Time by a group in California called “This! Is What We Did”. Here is the link to information and signing up for the course: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvc-mvqzgvHNGw8sWBoSRN6sceB96bm0mY#/registration
I took the class over a year ago and was impressed with it—may take it again as I am a slow learner in this department. They and many environmentalists like them think that one-to-one conversations are the best path toward saving the planet, and that if you get just 3.5% of the population to care about an issue, change can happen.
Given that if we get any Republican president in 2024, their party agenda is to kill all environmental measures, these conversations might make a difference in preventing that from happening.
Keep up the good effort,
Jean
Boulder, Colorado
P.S. The Climate Change Literacy Quiz below is also an interesting link to explore: https://thisiswhatwedid.org/climate-change-literacy-quiz/https://thisiswhatwedid.org/climate-change-literacy-quiz/
Here is one of the more insightful and interesting articles about an aspect of the energy transition that we—the world??__has embarked upon: https://public.substack.com/p/solar-panels-more-carbon-intensive
ReplyDeleteIt is an eye opener to anyone who is approaching the realities of climate change with science as the guiding light, not emotion or greed. What we face with climate change is much like what we faced and continue to face with COVID and the not safe, nor effective solutions with the vaccines. The medical world is gradually being forced to realize that what was promoted by the WHO and the NIH as safe and effective is anything but. Is the same true for our chosen path to combat climate change??
Concerns revolve around “China due to its expansive grip on the global solar photovoltaic (PV) industry” which “might end up misdirecting the world’s clean energy efforts into dirtier than appreciated energy technologies because of the country’s ongoing dependence on coal-fired energy.” It is potentially a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. I think it is worth reading. There is also a very substantial element of the blinding impact of money on those who are benefitting from the current ecological trajectory.
Jeff
Denver area
Well, I for one, am very grateful for the COVID vaccine and boosters I received. However, since this is a blog on the climate crisis and not COVID, I'm not going to go there.
DeleteWill
I remember confronting someone (gently) about an idling engine back in 1981. Most people weren't concerned about the environment, but I have always hated waste in any form.
DeleteDo you see the irony here? A Subaru. Such a classic liberal car it's almost a cliche.
ReplyDeleteRobert
Fort Collins, Colorado
Really pisses me off. Go to Denver International Airport, public bus level 5....all the shuttle buses, and WORST of all, the city buses (RTD) are idling away spewing diesel fumes.
ReplyDeleteBut this also points to another solution to emissions....get rid of traffic lights, replace with roundabouts, or PROPERLY phase traffic lights based on what traffic is there, not some arbitrary 2 minute cycle all day and night.
Philip
Denver area
Phil raises an interesting point about idling buses. In the past, I had heard that diesel engines used less fuel if they idled for an hour or so than if they were shut down and restarted. I also heard that they needed to idle a long time to warm up for full operating efficiency. These points may have been true at one time but no longer apply according to several websites I looked at. Here, for example, is what the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has to say on the subject (https://www.in.gov/idem/airquality/dieselwise/idling/):
DeleteIdling Facts and Myths
Following are idling facts and myths.
Myth: Diesel engines need to be warmed up with long idle periods, especially in cold weather.
Fact: With today's modern diesel engines, engine manufacturers often recommend a warmup time of less than 5 minutes.
Myth: Idling is cost effective because it saves fuel.
Fact: Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting the engine. In general, a heavy-duty diesel truck wastes 1 gallon of fuel for every hour it idles.
Myth: It's better for the engine to run at low, idling speeds than to run at regular speeds.
Fact: Running the engine for extended periods of time at low speed (idling) causes more wear on internal parts than running the engine at normal driving speeds.
Myth: The engine must be kept running in order to operate equipment in the cabin (i.e., flashing lights, or radio). This equipment can't be run off the internal circuitry of the vehicle because the battery will run down.
Fact: Such equipment can generally be operated for up to an hour without the engine running before any ill effects on the electrical system will occur.
I'm also in agreement with Phil about traffic lights. I'm an impatient driver and hate sitting at a red light for a minute or more when no traffic is coming from the cross street. Can't the city traffic people install smart traffic lights that let you go as soon as no one on the cross street is coming?!
Nicely done. Have you considered the possibility of writing a column in a local newspaper? There must be dozens of them in the Denver area looking for editorial help.
ReplyDeleteJeff
Wappingers Falls, NY
Thanks, Jeff. I have a friend who knows a couple people at Denver papers and offered to contact them on my behalf. I told her to wait until I have several stories posted on this blog that she could show them. I also hesitate to get committed to writing a regular column. It's less stressful to publish on my blog without deadlines imposed by editors!
DeleteWill
Good for you Will for being calm. I'd say it's good advice not to intervene if you're pissed off and can't be calm as Will was. But I'll also say that defensive responses on the spot are pretty much to be expected. Later, when not ego-threatened by even the calmest confrontation, they may reconsider, For example, I have hiked off-trail in many very isolated areas of the American West. But one day I was hiking on a heavily-trafficked trail in Rocky Mtn Park, and I went off trail and was confronted. I was defensive at the time but later realized that in heavily trafficked areas I should stay on trail.
ReplyDeleteI always get annoyed by people sitting in their vehicles with the engine running! Our Veterinarian expects us to stay in our vehicle for appointments until they’re ready to see us. I told my husband if that happens on our next appointment, we’re finding a new Vet. I refuse to let my engine run because their office is too small to accommodate their clients. It’s hot here in ATL so sitting in a car with no A/C is not an option. Thanks for your efforts and posts.
ReplyDeleteNancy Stafford (Jeff)
There are so many small ways that people routinely waste. My pet peeve is soap--especially dish detergent and dishwasher detergent. People use vastly more than they need. Sometimes I say something, sometimes not.
ReplyDeleteI chalk his unawareness up to the boiling frog problem.
ReplyDelete