CENTS & NONSENSE:I'd like you to meet someone. Her name is Gracie. She has been a really good, reliable friend over the years. We've had some wonderful adventures together.
The downside is that Gracie is really old and inefficient. But she is a classic - a white 1972 Mercedes Benz 280 SE (see below) with a tan leather interior. Think of the elegant vehicle Grace Kelly drove when she was a princess.
Similar cars, in black, often chauffeured the German baddies in second World War films.
Like most classic car owners, I dote on Gracie every chance I get. This Christmas, she'll be wearing a little wreath with red ribbons on her front grille.
Sadly, my feelings toward her (yes, I know she is just a car!) have started to change. All the talk from environmental evangelist Al Gore and the leaders at the UN climate change summit in Bali is making me feel guilty about driving her.
There's no doubt that Gracie's CO2 emissions are contributing to global warming. The majority of scientists now agree that any more than a 2°C increase in average world temperatures by 2020, compared with pre-industrial times, will trigger irreversible climate change.
Most of us would like to do the right thing for Mother Earth, but it's hard to know what that is exactly. I try my best. Gracie and I only venture out locally. I use the DART, bus and rail network for longer journeys. When time allows, I cycle or walk the kids to school. My daughter is also joining a "walking school bus" a few days a week.
Still, I feel guilty. Should I sell Gracie and buy a hybrid? This is a very expensive option (costing between €23,000 and €85,000), so it definitely isn't a runner.
What about bio-fuel? Last year, I looked into converting Gracie to bio-fuel, but the experts at www.ecomotion.ie told me that they couldn't convert petrol engines. I was hoping to have more luck with www.ecocar.ie, whose catchy slogan is: "powered by vegetable oil".
Most bio-fuel cars actually run on E85, which is 15 per cent vegetable oil and 85 per cent petrol, so I'm not sure by how much I'd really be reducing Gracie's emissions. That option's out, too.
How does Gracie really compare with modern SUVs since that's the car type that everyone - rightly or wrongly - gives out about?
Surprisingly, my baby gets around the same fuel economy (15-20 mpg) as a brand new SUV, even though she was built more than 35 years ago.
Now it's time to find out about the auld one's carbon footprint - or the amount of CO2 she contributes to greenhouse gases.
According to the carbon footprint calculator on US website www.terrapass.com, driving Gracie 4,000 miles a year uses 235 gallons and Gracie's carbon footprint is approximately 4,598lb of carbon dioxide a year.
But wait! I can alleviate my guilt with one simple step; buy a Road Offset product for just $29.95 (€20.40)! This money offsets 6,000lb of carbon dioxide a year by funding projects such as wind farms that reduce carbon emissions.
Since I'm a serious bargain hunter, I quickly realise that I can get the same guilt-free feeling for about €16 from www.plant-a-tree.org. Happy days!
Time for some common sense, folks. Doesn't it make the most sense - environmentally and financially - to buy a reliable car, maintain it and hold onto it until it stops working?
Most of us in Ireland keep a car for just four years, according to the AA. It takes a huge amount of energy to make a new car and recycle the old one.
Why not just hold on to one efficient car for 12 years rather than buy three cars and sell or scrap two cars over the same period?
I'll tell you why: we're under the magical spell of the car registration number. If the Government wants to save us, it should remove the year from the existing car registration system.
Too many people buy new cars in January to "keep up with the Fitzpatricks".
Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe agrees and says a start would be asking the Lord Mayor of Dublin to hold on to a car for more than a year.
"We need to look at ways to reduce the environmental impact of what we do as a Government and make better use of the resources we have," he says.
Greening your car doesn't have to cost the Earth. It just takes some common sense.
Margaret E. Ward is a director of Clear Ink, the Clear English Specialists. cents@clearink.ie
