Carbon Footprint Ninnies Fret Over Return of Cannonball Run

People used to have fun back in the days before the doom-and-gloom crowd came along to hector, badger and lecture us over every aspect of our lives.

Well, now the Cannonball Run is returning, and the environuts are out there calculating the CO2 emissions.

Of all the things gearheads making the 2,600-mile Great American Run through the West will worry about -- avoiding the cops, keeping the car intact, finding a bathroom before their bladders burst -- the size of their carbon footprint is at the bottom of the list.

What a footprint it is. The 200 or so cars competing in the second annual race -- an update of the famed Cannonball Run -- will spew about as much CO2 in seven days as the average person generates in 16 years. Mention that to the drivers and they'll probably ask, "Yeah? And?" They know they'll take some heat from environmentalists, and they're unapologetic.

"How much more do they want to strangle the human race," asks race founder Tim "Maverick" Porter. "Why can't car enthusiasts have a little fun?"

Ask Al Gore.

On second thought, please don't.

This year's event, which starts Sept. 7, is a 2,600-mile loop through the West beginning and ending in Los Angeles. The route is top secret -- "If it's published on a blog somewhere, every cop in the world will stake out the route" -- but includes a stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Expect a wild assortment of cars -- last year's fleet included a Bugatti Veyron, several Ferraris and Porsches, a lot of American muscle cars and even a GMC crew-cab pickup.

We were curious to know how big a carbon footprint the cars left. We picked 10 at random and used an online C02 calculator to determine their emissions over 3,000 miles. Multiply that by 20 and you get 648,000 pounds of CO2 for the fleet.

Please, people, get a life.