Clearly I have hit a nerve.
I don't doubt your sincerity and you maybe do feel the way you are writing here but it's not you (as a country) who is almost exclusively driving small capacity diesels that deliver up to 50mpg. In Europe diesels account for close on 60% of all new sales and this has been increasing year on year. Where as America on a whole regard diesel as a dirty fuel that is only suitable for truck and continue to drive v8 large capacity motors that are not measured in length by meters but in zip codes.
I don't doubt that a lot of your fellow American are concerned about global warming but chose not to scale down in car size, you could argue that the US government are to blame, what with fuel prices that are dramatically cheaper than Europe, with cheap fuel what is the incentive for down sizing and looking for a more economical option.
I think Jay Leno said it best when he was on Topgear, 'people drive Prius to let everyone know the good work they are going anonymously',maybe I am misunderstanding those comments but to me that sounds like they are only driving one to look good among their equals.
BTW, here's the
top 20 countries for CO2 emissions
1. China 6017.69
2. United States 5902.75
3. Russia 1704.36
4. India 1293.17
5. Japan 1246.76
6. Germany 857.60
7. Canada 614.33
8. United Kingdom 585.71
9. South Korea 514.53
10. Iran 471.48
11. Italy 468.19
12. South Africa 443.58
13. Mexico 435.60
14. Saudi Arabia 424.08
15. France 417.75
16. Australia 417.06
17. Brazil 377.24
18. Spain 372.61
19. Ukraine 328.72
20. Poland 303.42
Even if you add all of the European countries on this list together we are still less than the USofA, try 3750 compared to 5900.
You yourself admit that you doubt BMW would be able to sell a 4 cylinder BMW never mind a 3 cylinder one so by your own admission you in a way are agreeing with me that Americans don't think that improving the environment is up to them, well not at the expense of looking good.
Get on board with the program people and accept that the only way we can ever hope to keep our sportscars for the weekend is to drive something very economical throughout the rest of the week.
Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now.
