Cheated
So I totally cheated. I couldn't go w/o reading digg for an entire week. *Sigh*
That's not really what this post is about though. I just read an article on Digg that was saying that people aren't willing to do what it takes to save the planet. IE drive cars that you have to plug in every couple hundred miles.
Let's examine this argument for a second. I really don't understand how people think that electric cars are saving anything. That energy to power a car has to come from something. If it's not coming from the gas in the tank it's coming from a power plant. That BURNS COAL or creates nuclear waste. Let's face it the vast majority of our power does not come from the sun, wind, or hydroelectric. Most of it still comes from the coal and nuclear power plant standbys. So is that electric car really that green? How much coal is needed to produce that energy? In that burning process does it produce more or less greenhouse gases and other wastes than a gasoline engine? Can those gas wastes generated be much less by putting on a new muffler or catalytic converter or something that releases less into the environment?
You can get something for nothing people. Think about using less energy - not about where it is coming from. We are not even close to the point were most of our energy is created from these. Only 12% (in 2003) was from renewable resources. With the larger goal being 25% by 2025. That means that you are still polluting when you're using your electric car. That's why people went with hybrids. There is actual energy savings. You go further with the same amount of gas. IE same amount of resources in - more input out. IE it's more efficient.
That's what we need to strive for here people. Efficiency - not "clean" energy. We don't have enough silica in the world to create enough solar cells to only use solar energy resources. We create wastes - it's cool. We just need to cut down on wastes that are unusable in other forms or won't break down in the environment.
It's very much an engineers point of view - but let's strive for an efficient system - that uses less energy to produce the same thing (can we say LED monitors.) Let's also remember that things wear out - and we want to use less energy over the total use cycle. If it takes 10X more energy to produce something, there's a 10% energy savings per year, and the thing dies in 5 years - there's no energy savings there was actually MORE energy used because of the high upfront cost.
Let's think about process engineering better instead of making better components. Work smarter people - not harder.
And you little people out there who think that electric cars should still be in existence: I pity you and your tiny tiny brain.
That's not really what this post is about though. I just read an article on Digg that was saying that people aren't willing to do what it takes to save the planet. IE drive cars that you have to plug in every couple hundred miles.
Let's examine this argument for a second. I really don't understand how people think that electric cars are saving anything. That energy to power a car has to come from something. If it's not coming from the gas in the tank it's coming from a power plant. That BURNS COAL or creates nuclear waste. Let's face it the vast majority of our power does not come from the sun, wind, or hydroelectric. Most of it still comes from the coal and nuclear power plant standbys. So is that electric car really that green? How much coal is needed to produce that energy? In that burning process does it produce more or less greenhouse gases and other wastes than a gasoline engine? Can those gas wastes generated be much less by putting on a new muffler or catalytic converter or something that releases less into the environment?
You can get something for nothing people. Think about using less energy - not about where it is coming from. We are not even close to the point were most of our energy is created from these. Only 12% (in 2003) was from renewable resources. With the larger goal being 25% by 2025. That means that you are still polluting when you're using your electric car. That's why people went with hybrids. There is actual energy savings. You go further with the same amount of gas. IE same amount of resources in - more input out. IE it's more efficient.
That's what we need to strive for here people. Efficiency - not "clean" energy. We don't have enough silica in the world to create enough solar cells to only use solar energy resources. We create wastes - it's cool. We just need to cut down on wastes that are unusable in other forms or won't break down in the environment.
It's very much an engineers point of view - but let's strive for an efficient system - that uses less energy to produce the same thing (can we say LED monitors.) Let's also remember that things wear out - and we want to use less energy over the total use cycle. If it takes 10X more energy to produce something, there's a 10% energy savings per year, and the thing dies in 5 years - there's no energy savings there was actually MORE energy used because of the high upfront cost.
Let's think about process engineering better instead of making better components. Work smarter people - not harder.
And you little people out there who think that electric cars should still be in existence: I pity you and your tiny tiny brain.
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