Actually it is the other way around. If you are driving a car and burning a fossil
fuel, you are destroying the climate, which is mooching off of everyone else, including the birds and
dolphins.
I do not hitch-hike if there is an
engine involved, because I understand that doing so benefits the person who would pick me up as they would feel like they are doing a good thing. They are already doing a very bad thing. It is not acceptable to cut the trees and destroy the canopy for some road made of
oil which cooks the ground and destroys the local micro climate even if there were not global implications.
At least in some places the main road is a dirt path for walking only. I didn't see any fat people there.
Besides myself, and lin and larry, who else here is free of physically having an engine in their boat, and has crossed an ocean?
I have heard plenty of people say they barely use theirs only to see them fire it up when they leave!
Then I hear about people saying that they cannot enter narrow passes without an engine. This is essentially false. I have sailed in and out of penryn (cooks) and
oyster island (vanuatu) which both have narrow passes. This required using the
anchor to avoid hitting the reef because I couldn't really tell where it was deep enough. I also was going against the tide because I did not want to wait, but doing so would make it much easier.
If you want something reliable, try an
electric motor. Most people already use this thing just to start an engine, so the
reliability is obviously superior. 10 amps, 12 volts and 2 knots is acceptable to me, but still could be approximately twice as efficient by tweaking the
motor and gears, but mostly by using a different
propeller. A more efficient boat would make the most sense of course.
For a sculling oar, mine is not very efficient, but I have measured 1.5knots on the
gps with no currents or
wind. I can also tow the boat using my
kayak at nearly the same speed as a sculling oar, but using different muscles.
I hear people complain that it is easy with my boat to not have an engine, but with a larger boat it is not possible. This reminds me of the guy who complained that the ice-covered trail was slippery on green mountain in the
winter, and it was easier for me because I was barefoot. I didn't see him taking his shoes off. Anyone can
trade their bigger boat for a smaller one.
The fact is it is actually much harder to sail engine-free on a
small boat, because on long passages, you are much more vulnerable to
weather systems due to the slower
hull speed.
Also, maybe you are engine-free, but for
cooking, do you still burn the blood of the earth? No need. Most of the time,
solar cooking works great! If there isn't sun, I have managed burning driftwood so that 3 sticks 1 foot long and 1 inch in diameter can cook rice, make tea, and roast vegetables.
Not something I'd do again by choice by an intensive 
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