As Earth Day approaches, I intend this text for all those who drive a combustion engine car and are not concerned about climate justice.
We readily associate the automobile with a feeling of independence, of freedom, which speed increases tenfold and transforms into euphoria. Once parked, its interior becomes a multi-colored paradise illuminated by the cell phone. The vehicle transforms into a refuge that isolates everything, makes us forget everything, ourselves, the concern for greater climate justice, and this, yes, while the engine remains running.
One evening last summer. We are in the month of August. It’s not normal heat. A gray veil hangs over Montreal. But we don’t see any clouds. I am walking with my son in a parking lot. There is this truck pickup immobilized with the engine running.
We enter the supermarket. When we go out, 20 minutes later, the engine of the pickup always turns. We see black vapor released from the exhaust.
My son Victor points out that the truck hasn’t moved. It only takes a few moments for the man behind the wheel to roll down the windows. He looks at his girlfriend, laughing very hard. It’s like I just told him a good joke. We stand a few meters away. He flushes his engine, presses the accelerator again. The exhaust roars as he shouts, “ Go and screw with the tree, you idiot, you motherfucker ecologist! »
He starts off with a bang, his tires squealing. He envelops his vehicle in opaque smoke that stings the eyes and heats the nostrils. A few seconds earlier, I had asked him to turn off his engine if he wasn’t moving.
A frequent behavior
From supermarket to hardware store, passing through the street in front of the shops, we each have the same experience when going out to do our shopping: we come across a driver whose car is parked while the engine is running. Reluctantly, I asked: “Would you please turn off the engine if you are not driving?” » Imagine the response, under the guise of irony: “Does that bother you? Why don’t you go around there? » or with a justification that we believe to be harmless: “Yo, I leave the engine running to have air conditioning. It’s way too hot outside! »
We can tell all these people that a regulation exists in Montreal prohibiting leaving an engine running if the vehicle is immobilized for more than three minutes. Besides, what are we waiting for to enforce these regulations?
In Outremont, an even stricter regulation has just been adopted prohibiting leaving the engine of a stationary vehicle running for more than 10 seconds. To illustrate the benefits of such an initiative, a recent study shows that over 4,000 kilometers, for 20 days, turning off the engine saves on average 6% of fuel. Note also that each liter of gasoline consumed produces more than 2 kg of CO2the gas that contributes the most to the greenhouse effect.
30 years ago we were talking about greenhouse gases and acid rain. Since then, tragic climate-related events have multiplied and scientific evidence has forced us to change our vocabulary. Global warming, disruption and climate crisis: the names, like the phenomenon, form a dramatic crescendo.
No offense to climate skeptics and deniers, these events have become the norm. But has changing the names for the phenomenon led to a change in our behavior? Obviously, the isolated man in his combustion engine vehicle does not even hear the question.
What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue
reference: www.lapresse.ca