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Filling up, numbers and thoughts

The damage of the resulting increase in global warming is difficult to determine, but to compensate for it may require a quarter or a third of the fuel cost.

Because my car’s fuel gauge wandered somewhere between half and empty I went to the gas station to refuel. This was fast and easy. I held my credit card where it could be read, unscrewed the tank, grabbed the spout, selected regular, put the spout in the tank opening and started the stream. When the tank was filled up, the pump stopped automatically. I closed the tank, took the receipt and was done. A matter of two or three minutes.

The receipt showed I had bought 27.75 litres at 92.9 cents a litre for a total of $25.77. Not very much, because my car is small, and the gas price happened to be low. As the supermarket awards 7 cents per litre in points, the actual amount was $23.83. This was good for another 400 km driving.

But how much is 27.75 litres? The easiest volume measure I can think of is the 4 litres plastic milk jug weighing a hefty 4 kg. I just had seven of these put in my tank, which would take four trips to unload them at home. As gasoline is one quarter lighter than water, the combined weight is 21 kg, about the same as the maximum weight of a checked bag on an airplane.

While driving I burn those 27.75 litres using the oxygen in the air, returning the resulting CO2 and water. The latter does not matter but CO2 is a greenhouse gas contributing to planet warming. Each burned litre of gasoline produces 2.3 kg CO2, so that my load of gasoline pollutes the atmosphere with 63.8 kg CO2, adding to existing earth-warming greenhouse gasses. A 10 km return shopping trip to Cochrane produces 1.5 kg, 80 km to Calgary and back 12.3 kg and 600 km to and from Columbia Valley 92 kg. For an SUV and a pickup these amounts would be 50 per cent and 75 per cent higher.

CO2 discharge results in more global warming. A carbon tax discourages its production. Alberta had a carbon tax of $30 per tonne of CO2 which was abolished by Premier Jason Kenney. The federal government will reinstate this and raise it later to $50 per tonne. It has been indicated that even $75 USD or $100 CAD would not result in meeting the targets set for Canada.

The company Carbon Engineering of Squamish BC which works on direct capture of carbon claims it will eventually be able to eliminate CO2 for $100 USD or $133 CAD. For those four carbon charges the gasoline price per litre would be increased by $0.07, $0.12, $0.23 and $0.31.

When filling up, we have paid for driving 400 km but also inadvertently taken aboard a pollutant that is spread while driving. The damage of the resulting increase in global warming is difficult to determine, but to compensate for it may require a quarter or a third of the fuel cost. We are not paying for this but leave it to the world to bear the damage.

- Cornelis van de Panne

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