More on smoking your car.

OK, so the idea is to cover statistics here, not morals. It's up to every individual to make choices based on the incredible amount of "data" he/she processes every day. The problem is, every story has several sides, the proponents of which each have their own bias to serve up. Each side can (and usually does) manipulate the statistical numbers in such a way to portray their arguments in the best light possible.

In the previous entry, the car alliance stated "99% cleaner than you think." Now if you consider the questions they could have asked, you will realize that such a statement is far from useful, and difficult to make accurately. How clean do you think your car is? In what units? How do they know? Was it a multiple-choice question or a write-in? Did they even do a poll? Did they just ask 10 people in their office? Are they comparing the average thought to the average car, or simply comparing your own thought to your own car and averaging that?

Carfree times stated "If today's cars are virtually emission free...then so is this cigarette." Although both cigarettes and cars are well known to spew toxins known to cause cancer, the two are not comparable. It is entirely possible to have emission-free cars, but the current-day cigarettes would still be just as cancer-causing. Similarly, perhaps cigarettes will one day be toxin free, but modern cars might still be pollution-spewing beast. Perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek, the data citation references the auto alliance as the source.

Here are both ads, transcribed:

Autos manufactured today are virtually emission free. And that's a dramatic improvement over models from just thirty years ago. So if you want to know what it really means to drive a clean car, look beyond the back seat. Se what's under the hood of every new car and light truck we make.

Find out more about ultra-clean vehicles at autoalliance.org.

AND

Automakers are trying to deceive you about vehicle pollution, claiming that, "Autos manufactured today are virtually emission-free."*

Seems they're ignoring the fact that new vehicles actually produce more global warming emissions than they did 20 years ago. In fact only four nations on earth produce more heat-trapping, carbon dioxide than U.S. autos do alone. And even under tighter government standards, autos will still emit 500,000 tons of smog-forming pollutants and 350,000 tons of smog-forming pollutants and 350,000 tons of toxins linked to cancer. †

Rather than using their lobbyists -- the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers -- to spread disinformation, automakers should put their talented engineers to work in support of federal and state initiatives that clean our air and protect our kids.

Warning: Global warming pollution from automobiles is projected to lead to worsening smog, an increase in asthma-triggering pollen and molds, and a substantial rise in heat-related illness and death.

* Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers ad originally published in Congress Daily, January 24, 2005.
† Projected annual smog-forming emissions if every passenger vehicle on the road in 2009 met Tier 2 standards. Toxic emissions are EPA projected values for 2020 expressed as benzene equivalent values based on relative cancer unit risks.

There has to be a first post

98.2% of bloggers have a first post. Sometimes, people just make the site, and forget their username before they even finish setting up. We have a name for those: quitters. And you know what they say? 100% of former smokers are quitters.



I got this from Carfree Times which has all kinds of car news. This image definitely makes you think twice before buying a Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer Edition to carry around your 9 month old son. Oh, and the weekly groceries.

Ah, but the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers states that "today's vehicles are 99% cleaner than vehicles of the 1970s, thanks to a dramatic reduction in smog-forming emissions."


Who knows which side is right. Certainly they are arguing with a different set of data points. A different collection of statistics. And they are hashing them out to make their point seem true to you. 99% cleaner than "you think" is an interesting play on words. But so is the nearly irrelevant comparrison to cigarettes on the other side, with no data at all to back up that claim.