Ok, I saw the movie, I read the book. I'm convinced. The globe is warming up and we're all gonna die. There is only one chance for salvation, brother. Join our religion. You will have to renounce a few things, of course - live a more ascetic lifestyle. Mainly, you will have to renounce the SUV and air travel...
This is where the humor gets a little thin. I love the SUV, dammit. Here it is, on the right, at the top of Naude's Nek Pass, 2850m above sea level. It is a 1999 Mitsubishi Pajero (called a Montero in those hispanic-speaking markets where a pajero is a rude word for a farmhand, so I'm told). Sadly, a decade or two from now these excellent vehicles will be viewed in much the way we see 1960's Yank tanks; as unbelievably wasteful anachronisms.
A side effect of getting religion is that you start to view everything in terms of atmospheric CO2. For example, it's likely that fuel burnt at high altitude is more damaging than that burnt at sea level, although 3000m or so shouldn't make that much difference. It's a game of increments, though, and every little counts.
Does dumping the SUV make that much difference? Watch this space for a calculation. Before we can do that, however, we need to know what we're going to replace it with.
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