Last week the A/C quit on my 300D, so I've been driving around with the windows open. Not too terrible on the freeway, but if you're at a stop light, the heat is tremendous...not just from my own, but from everybody elses vehicle around me.
This has got me wondering how much of an effect all this heat is having on our environment.
Millions of cars, spewing forth millions of btu's everyday...that has got to add up, no?

Wacky prediction: In the future, cars will not be taxed on CO & CO2 output, but rather on how much heat they generate.

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

That's an interesting idea. T = PV/nR Integrate it over time and voila'.

Bot

larry.. either your wearing a fur coat or im from the sahara desert.. i feel little or no heat while at a light... perhaps its just the sun shining down and no air moving by that is getting to you.. living with no ac has made me more tolerable to heat.. and im from ct..68F was shorts and tshirt weather..

and about cars sitting in parking lots ideling or just sitting after being driven.. yes it does get hot when your out in the mid-day sun on a freshly tar'd lot that used to be grey and now is black with the sun beating down on you... i hate collecting carts.. bring your carts to the inside collection place please..we already had one bagger pass out from heat stroke...

I've also had the same wacky thoughts - seems like every gallon of fossil fuel that has ever been burned has released it's heat into our environment. It would be interesting to see a calculation of the total number of BTU's that have been directly pumped into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution and an estimation of the effects.

The law of conservation of energy mandates the net effect at the end is zero. However, if all the hydrocarbon calories created over millions of years is released in a few hundred, well the effect is probably measurable. Of course this is based on stuff we can touch and measure with everday devices; nuclear is another issue.

regards,
Mark

Amen, I'm a carryout at farm&fleet... Some aholes just ditch their carts on the far side of the lot. Like it's not bad enough to allready collect carts, but now I get to take a 5 min walk for one... :fork_off:

Got a raise, 7.25 WOOT



Yes, cars generate alot of heat... To anybody who argues otherwise, look at the thermo effeciancy of cars, it's less then 50% (or so my teacher told me so )

how it effects us, I dont know.
~Nate

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95 Honda Shadow ACE 1100.
1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso. 2.4 swap, 10.5 to 1 comp, big cams. Autocross time attack vehicle!
2012 Escape, 'hunter" (5 sp 4cyl)