It seems there will always be folks who write us to deplore motorcycle racing as “an environmental catastrophe,” or a “technological black hole” and the like. First complaint: racing burns up fuel that a rational world would use to take the kids to school. How much fuel, and compared to what? (Just as a footnote here, as I am writing this, I look up and see that the stands are filling up nicely here at Valencia; they hold 110,000 people.) To fill up the starting field in MotoGP takes 132 gallons, or just under 800 lb. of fuel. From the number of obvious racing fans I saw at Madrid’s Barajas airport, it’s clear that many have come by air. Estimate the fuel consumed in this by multiplying the number of people by their flight hours, times a number from 50 to 100 pounds per hour, per passenger fuel burn. If, let’s say, 1,000 people of those present have flown an average of 3 hours to get here, and using the smallest fuel consumption, we get 1000 x 6 (round-trip air time) x 50 = 300,000 pounds of fuel burned. Just for jollies, you should know that each hour of cruising flight by a Boeing 747 burns 25,000 pounds of fuel, and there are 1,500 such aircraft in the world commercial aviation business, and that to achieve profitability they must spend more than 50 percent of their time in flight. Do the arithmetic. Do people fly long distances to events such as the Super Bowl or presidential inaugurations? Do concerned environmentalists attend crucial international climate conferences in Denmark or Tokyo? Are top-selling salesmen flown, all expenses paid, to Tahiti to reward them in ways they can easily understand? Does it take 300,000 pounds of JP-4 to gas up each of the big military transports I can see from my house, stacked up to land at Westover Air Force Base? Are the above uses of fuel legitimate? Who should decide, and on the basis of what law? Perhaps a pretty unlikely World Government with dictatorial power and intimate knowledge of all our lives? “No, your request for auto fuel to attend your family’s Thanksgiving celebration is denied. Neighborhood thermometric informants have revealed that you heated your house above 55 degrees on 11 days last winter.” Let’s break this one down to fundamentals. The system of fuel allocation we now use is called “the free market.” What system would take its place? Are we possibly talking about a centrally planned economy? Be careful what you wish for. Let me know what you decide. I’m going to the races.Gadget Reviews: mamaktalk.com
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