Actually I was kind of only kidding, though I have some failrly deep
thoughts about all these issues. One of which is that people practice
environmentalism as if it were a cult. They always look for evidence
that supports their belief and ignore everything that doesn't. Saying
"serious scientific" in the same breath with global climate is a non
sequitur. Nothing scientific about it.
We don't get to change things just because we feel guilty. If present
trends were linear (and of course they are not) china would be GM's
biggest customer by 2010. Folks in India will only remain on a
bicycle as long as they can't afford better. With the current boom,
India's demands for resources will outstrip ours by 2025 (or
thereabouts).
Synfuels were actually a much better step towards oil independance
than any of the piddling ones you name, but no one wanted the
environmental cost of coal conversion (Except South Africa where
Sasol one and two have been providing the country with 80+ percent of
it's petrofuel for nearly twenty years, all built on American
technology (which was built on Nazi technology)).
Guess what--South Africa is probably going to build a Synfuel plant
here! We are the Saudi Arabia of coal.
Investigate the energy balance for Ethanol, or even biodiesel using
Canola. Don't forget the energy required to maintain and fertilze the
feed stock as well as that required to convert it. Biodiesel comes
closest to being an energy resource, but it's still a net energy
sink. Ethanol is absurd. Sizing up won't improve that, in fact it
will decrease the efficiency. All masked currently by government
subsidy, almost as stupid as the tax break for Hybrids.
As always, money is the easiest way to do these calculations, because
over time it nets out the resource costs. You may not like that
morally, but math doesn't change because of personal indignation.
On Jun 14, 2006, at 2:38 AM, <greenman62@hotmail.com>
<greenman62@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> If they were a step in the right direction then they would make
>> economic sense. they are a fashion accessory for the holier-than-
>> thou crowd.
>
> Ain't that how the beetle got started?
>
> Hybrids maybe a "fashion accessory" at this point, but it's
> fashion accessories that we need to get
> the public to start thinking seriously about essential truths
> we've been ignoring for years... There
> isn't a serious scientific study that doesn't agree that our
> global climate is changing.
>
> Putting that asside for a moment. The real issue is we need to
> get off the oil nipple. We've have
> left our national wellbeing to the benevolence of "foreign
> princes" who have their own agendas.
> If you think that's "good"... well... I don't.
>
> I believe hybrids are an interim step, like flex fuel, clean
> diesel and biodiesel on the way to other
> technologies which in turn are an interim steps to other
> technologies.
>
> Ultimately we will have to reassess how we live and where we
> live. These are big changes for
> any society. The world is full of ruins of the civilizations that
> didn't survive when change was
> needed.
>
> My guess is it won't be pretty...
>
> YMMV
>
> Greg Petrolati Champaign, Illinois
>
> That's not a leak... My car's just marking its territory...
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