Hi All,
You'll probably think I'm some kind of hippie or tree hugger (this is only a half truth) but in a world where climate change is a hot topic and industries are evolving, how can karting become better (or less bad) for the environment?
In comparison to other sports like rugby, cricket, swimming etc. motor racing is hugely polluting and will surely come under scrutiny from society at some point.
If you think about it, karting is pretty horrible for the planet:
- We consume tyres at a huge rate. Tyres are an incredibly difficult waste to dispose of.
- We not only burn lots of petrol for recreation (i.e. karting isn't even a necessity) but we also burn oil which is even worse!
- Many of us import engines and chassis from the opposite side of the globe. All that transport burns fossil fuels and contribute to climate change.
Possible solutions:
If we are currently $3,000 or more per engine, is it possible that there are a better alternative energy options for our engines?
Should we use harder compound tyres to reduce the amount of tyres consumed?
Should we encourage the use of second hand chassis to reduce wastefulness in our sport?
What are your thoughts?
Cheers
Pat
Comments12
How much of a racing kart is recyclable? Pretty much everything but the tires, so if someone wants too buy a new chassis then down the line the chassis can be scraped and recycled.
As for karting and other forms of Motorsport being considerably worse then other sports, I'm not so sure. You need too get too the field for training and the game, chemicals and fertilisers need too be spread on the field too make a decent playing surface then games and training are done under lights so there's more energy needed. And then there's the fact that there's a lot more people who participate in these other sports then people in karting.
I agree with your point on tires, we need harder compounds that last longer and allow the use of tire treatment so we can wear these down too canvas.
Fuel and oil? Most karters have their engines tuned for maximum performance so they are running about efficient as they
can and in the scheme of things their consumption is less then a drop in the ocean.
Electric motors sound good until you need too charge them from somewhere, then weight and disposing of the batteries.
That volcano that erupted in argentina has done more to climate change in 10 minutes then what karting will do in a life time. But i guess we can all do our bit to help. To be honest if we went to electric motors i probably quit. I couldn't stand the thought of rocking up to a race meeting and there to be no noise apart from tyre screech. As for importing i dont think karts would make 1% of what australia does import, so i dont see how it would make the slightest diffrence in the scheme of things
arter on April 26, 2015 at 23:19
chris thomas said:
As for karting and other forms of Motorsport being considerably worse then other sports, I'm not so sure. You need too get too the field for training and the game, chemicals and fertilisers need too be spread on the field too make a decent playing surface then games and training are done under lights so there's more energy needed. And then there's the fact that there's a lot more people who participate in these other sports then people in karting.
Fuel and oil? Most karters have their engines tuned for maximum performance so they are running about efficient as theycan and in the scheme of things their consumption is less then a drop in the ocean.Electric motors sound good until you need too charge them from somewhere, then weight and disposing of the batteries.
I would imagine that karters actually travel further for both practice and racing. The only saving grace is that karters probably practice and race less frequently than comparable sports (though we do compete all year round). I would believe that karting would produce less CO2 and waste than other motor sports. Maybe this is an idea for someone doing a Phd on environmental science to base their thesis on. haha
Even if there are less people doing karting, everyone on earth needs to do their part to mitigate man made climate change. And if that means an individual is a bigger polluter for solely entertainment purposes, doesn't that person have a greater responsibility? I would argue, yes.
lawrence herbert said:
That volcano that erupted in argentina has done more to climate change in 10 minutes then what karting will do in a life time. But i guess we can all do our bit to help. To be honest if we went to electric motors i probably quit. I couldn't stand the thought of rocking up to a race meeting and there to be no noise apart from tyre screech. As for importing i dont think karts would make 1% of what australia does import, so i dont see how it would make the slightest diffrence in the scheme of things
You're right that natural events can cause huge events in global CO2 levels but unfortunately, the science shows that the part we need to worry about is the "man made climate change".
I agree, electric isn't the ideal solution currently but I wouldn't rule it out as battery technology advances.
I don't want to be the continuous bearer of bad news, surely the collective brain power of kartbook has some good news or ideas for me! haha
I think there's a lot of potential with electric engines. Just look at Formula e.
However, I must agree with Lawrence. I'm not sure I could handle the sound or lack thereof with electric engines.
arter on July 23, 2015 at 19:23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWXoRSIxyIU
:)
The implication is that humans can control the climate, which hmmm probably opens an entirely different can of worms. That is an entirely different topic that will do my head in.
So I will stick with my loud two stroke because there is in no way possible a way that every go karter in the world can make that much difference in that category. Private companies make trillions of dollars attempting to come up with solutions, which means that the few hundred thousand karters worldwide will not make one scrap of difference no way now how. Even if from production of the motors didn't produce one gram of c02, right through to their charging and use... still nothing to be gained. The only exception would be the ones getting fat off the sales.
The reality is that the so called 'greener' sports mentioned is cherry picking what is being measured for the effects.
feild sports use tractors to level, lay and maintain the grass , so add in unfiltered deisel exhaust, lawn care chemicals etc as above. How many feilds are there compared to go kart tracks? Use a guestimate for NSW of about 1000:1 . Allow for councils using 1 tractor for 4 feilds, so 250 tractors. And a tractor weighs about 4 tonnes, which is about 60 go karts in mass. I doubt that there is that many new karts sold per year, or even over 4 years!
The reality is the go karts themselves add an amount of pollution that is lost in the noise floor of the data- unmeasurable in reality.
Public relations wise go karting needs to move to the very lean oil ratios for 2 strokes, or go for 4 stroke engines to get rid of the perceived pollution issue of smoke coming from the exhaust.
The real pollution raisers from go karting is from the cars transporting the karts to and from the track and the people that think it is Ok to drop their cigerette butts, drink bottles and food packjaging on the ground at the track.
I would think I will worry about how much pollution my karting adds to the world once I have my electric car towing my kart to the track and dont have to walk through the trash after a meet.
Just to add to this can someone explain to me how much fossil fuel is being used to create the electricity that is now powering all these electric motors?
How much coal is burned to power all the laptops/smartphones/ desktop computers to read this post about being greener.
The amount of damage done to the ozone layer by the bad pies brought at trackside canteens turned into methane gas :-)
Any 2 stroke is a pretty toxic thing. I have one in my kart and one in my stand up jetski. There is justification in the ski as they don't mind being tipped upside down on a regular basis and survive a belly full of water much better than a four stroke but i cannot see any reason for karts to be 2 strokes. Surely we could come up with a nice 25 - 30 hp four stroke that would do the job without needing a rebuild every 15 hours and produce less pollution. It evens opens up the possibility of "recycling" motor bike engines which come with lovely gearboxes and use decent size chains.
Tyres? hard as possible - more sliding, more driver skill and less cost and bruised ribs.
By the way I don't think the enviroment matters much. After all how much fossil fuel is used to transport the huge crowds to things like footy finals etc.
Howard Parker said:
Any 2 stroke is a pretty toxic thing. I have one in my kart and one in my stand up jetski. There is justification in the ski as they don't mind being tipped upside down on a regular basis and survive a belly full of water much better than a four stroke but i cannot see any reason for karts to be 2 strokes. Surely we could come up with a nice 25 - 30 hp four stroke that would do the job without needing a rebuild every 15 hours and produce less pollution. It evens opens up the possibility of "recycling" motor bike engines which come with lovely gearboxes and use decent size chains.
Tyres? hard as possible - more sliding, more driver skill and less cost and bruised ribs.
By the way I don't think the enviroment matters much. After all how much fossil fuel is used to transport the huge crowds to things like footy finals etc.
Sorry didn't mean to double up on the post. Also didn't mean my first post to sound like a disgruntled rant. Love the sport just not rapt in two strokes.