Niall O’Brolcháin Green candidate in Galway West is trading in the Mayoral jag for a more environmentally friendly car. Yet what he is doing is not enviromentally friendly at all.
In 1994 the Environment and Forecasting Institute in Heidelberg, Germany conducted a survey on the energy and environmental impact of a car through out its life time. Having driven 13,000 km a year for 10 years. It will produce 2,040m cubic metres of polluted air driving and 922m in production. This mean that about 40% of the emissions coming from a car in its 10 year lifetime comes from the manufacture. Or to put it another way. If you buy a new car every 4 years the greatest factor in the emissions in the car comes from the manufacture not the fuel.
Now in Galway Niall O’Brolcháin Green candidate in Galway West has been elected mayor. And quiet proudly on there website this little story is told.
Emerging last night from Galway Chambers in full robes and chain, he crossed the car park to where his new Jaguar and driver waited, and in a few quiet and polite words sent them both home for the evening. Mayor O’Brolcháin says he will not need such a large car or one that has a high emission output.
“I probably will need a car to carry out my Mayoral duties but I think using a large petrol vehicle is sending out the wrong message. I will need to negotiate with the Council to ensure I am driving am environmentally friendly car with a low emission output.”
Now according to a poster on Boards.ie the mayoral Jag in Galway is a 2.7 diesel which gets about 40mpg. So it is by no means a gas guzzler. And even if that poster is not correct in that. I am sure that the current mayoral car is newer then 4 years. Thus by insisting that the current mayoral car is changed for a new environmentally friendly car he is in fact causing more emissions and more environmental damage then if he did not change the car and insist on keeping the car that has already been produced and thus has already emitted pollutants into the atmosphere and not create the demand to create one more new car which will produce more toxic waste and carbon dixoide.
Thus the only thing I can conclude is that this is a publicity stunt. Driving a Prius makes you look a lot more environmentally friendly then driving a big old Jag. It maybe good for the image but certainly not for the environment.
On his blog John Gormley TD said.
In relation to the new green ministerial transport, Dick Roche and Noel Dempsey are now in the same league as David Cameron - having their cake and greening it. Cameron is poser. He cycles to work but has his minions transport his clothes and papers to Westminister in a car. Were are the CO2 savings there?
I would like to ask him the same question where is the CO2 saving in Niall O’Brolcháin car?
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