Ever since Rudolph Diesel first started that particular type of internal combustion engine to which he gave his name, it has been axiomatic that the obnoxiously pungent black exhaust put out by all diesel engines is harmful.
What is surprising about the Volkswagen scandal is just how long VW and others have been getting away with the nonsensical idea that diesel fumes are not a problem!
It is of course not the first example of the long term absence of Common Sense.
King James I of England was a notable early critic of tobacco for instance. In “A Counterblaste to Tobacco” of 1604, the King famously opined of tobacco smoking; “A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
The last part of that description can also be applied to diesel exhaust.
It is however an interesting commentary as to just why the so called “environmental campaigners” with the hierarchy European Union arrived at the stupid idea that diesel exhaust was less harmful to “the environment” that petrol exhaust. Of course the reason can be stated in two capital letters and one numeral: CO2.
Diesels are supposed to emit less of that plant life sustaining gas, carbon dioxide than petrol engines.
The fact that they give off more particulate matter that causes more harm to the surrounding human population is it appears a mere detail!
It must surely be a fact that when the history is written of this age historians will comment severely and with incredulity about a whole civilisation apparently taken in by the “climate change” argument that CO2 is a problem.
Hopefully the USA action against VW – which will include hefty prison sentences on former VW staff – will be an early example of a nail in the Glow Bull Warning coffin.
Let us hope it is the start of many such nails hammered into this particular coffin’s lid.
Speaking the Truth unto the Nation
Help. My car is diesel powered.
One of your best-ever articles. Should be read by all! – I am going to promote it where I can. I understand that ice-core records have PROVED that increased CO2 is the RESULT of a warmer climate, not the cause. Maybe you will write about that sometime (if you haven’t already).
I note that Drax has finally scrapped the idea of storing CO2 emissions under the North Sea. It had proposed to pipe it underground and exhaust it into vast caverns under the sea in an effort to save the polar bears….it was vital if they, and us, were to survive.
However, since the Government decided to withdraw funding to help with this scheme it seems that CO2 is no longer an issue.
Meantime they import vast amounts of biomass ……… using huge, diesel powered ships,trains and lorries.
Who are the kidding?
Oh well, just saying.