I’d suggest we haven’t much of a choice. Human civilization must reduce temps. One significant contributor is ICE vehicles for personal travel. Granted, some distributed electricity is from coal or natural gas plants. But some is from solar radiation ( including panels on your home’s roof), or wind or geothermal or, dare I say it, nuclea…
I’d suggest we haven’t much of a choice. Human civilization must reduce temps. One significant contributor is ICE vehicles for personal travel. Granted, some distributed electricity is from coal or natural gas plants. But some is from solar radiation ( including panels on your home’s roof), or wind or geothermal or, dare I say it, nuclear. Those energy sources are not available to ICE vehicles. And coal and gas and nuclear plants can be regulated from time to time whenever we get a hand up on the oligarchs. There are unique pollution challenges to EVs, but those challenges do not increase temps that much. So I suggest we move to EVs mindfully, eyes wide open, knowing we have unique challenges to solve, but let’s try to lower temps. We got to lower temps.
Agree. The risks in the long run far outweigh the benefits of nuclear. But even if we could reduce those risks to zero at the plant operating level, there's still the issue of nuclear waste. And if we haven't figured out how to deal with that by now - and we haven't - I have zero confidence that we'll do it in a new "nuclear" future before there's a major *incident* of some kind regarding that.
So true. Where is there a place that will not be changed geologically for a time period three times longer than recorded human history (the half-life of plutonium), where we can guarantee that humans will not get into it and cause problems with it in the future? A minimal reading of history leaves me convinced that the human problem would be more than the geological problem.
We absolutely have to address global warming. And you put the period on the end of my comment by saying we need to move to EVs *mindfully*, avoiding the all-too-common modus operandi of finding an apparent solution to part of a large and serious problem and then talking ourselves into believing it to be the near be-all, end-all solution to the entire problem.
Nothing inherently wrong with EVs, other than that their current capabilities only make sense for heavy use in urban areas with short, or relatively short, milage applications. They are not suitable for most city to city or interstate travel on a large scale. Nor are they suitable for rural residents who have to drive many miles just for basic things like grocery shopping or medical treatment. And their capabilities are reduced in cold weather, so living in a northern state in this country is a consideration.
Considering the above, I'd see a move toward EVs that put an emphasis on a significant number of vehicles in the entirety of the vehicle fleet in this country being hybrids as a truly "mindful" move. That goes a long way toward addressing "range" issues while still reducing emissions as the performance of all-electric vehicles improves with time and manufacturing experience and the ensuing developments that always brings.
I’d suggest we haven’t much of a choice. Human civilization must reduce temps. One significant contributor is ICE vehicles for personal travel. Granted, some distributed electricity is from coal or natural gas plants. But some is from solar radiation ( including panels on your home’s roof), or wind or geothermal or, dare I say it, nuclear. Those energy sources are not available to ICE vehicles. And coal and gas and nuclear plants can be regulated from time to time whenever we get a hand up on the oligarchs. There are unique pollution challenges to EVs, but those challenges do not increase temps that much. So I suggest we move to EVs mindfully, eyes wide open, knowing we have unique challenges to solve, but let’s try to lower temps. We got to lower temps.
God I hope we don't go to nuclear - the energy that has t o be handled absolutely perfect - by imperfect humans.
Agree. The risks in the long run far outweigh the benefits of nuclear. But even if we could reduce those risks to zero at the plant operating level, there's still the issue of nuclear waste. And if we haven't figured out how to deal with that by now - and we haven't - I have zero confidence that we'll do it in a new "nuclear" future before there's a major *incident* of some kind regarding that.
So true. Where is there a place that will not be changed geologically for a time period three times longer than recorded human history (the half-life of plutonium), where we can guarantee that humans will not get into it and cause problems with it in the future? A minimal reading of history leaves me convinced that the human problem would be more than the geological problem.
The *human problem* is the biggest problem the world over. 🙄
We absolutely have to address global warming. And you put the period on the end of my comment by saying we need to move to EVs *mindfully*, avoiding the all-too-common modus operandi of finding an apparent solution to part of a large and serious problem and then talking ourselves into believing it to be the near be-all, end-all solution to the entire problem.
Nothing inherently wrong with EVs, other than that their current capabilities only make sense for heavy use in urban areas with short, or relatively short, milage applications. They are not suitable for most city to city or interstate travel on a large scale. Nor are they suitable for rural residents who have to drive many miles just for basic things like grocery shopping or medical treatment. And their capabilities are reduced in cold weather, so living in a northern state in this country is a consideration.
Considering the above, I'd see a move toward EVs that put an emphasis on a significant number of vehicles in the entirety of the vehicle fleet in this country being hybrids as a truly "mindful" move. That goes a long way toward addressing "range" issues while still reducing emissions as the performance of all-electric vehicles improves with time and manufacturing experience and the ensuing developments that always brings.