|
|
Posted by Bill on 08/29/06 13:25
If no gasoline-powered cars existed today and someone proposed one as
the solution to our horrible coal-burning steam-powered cars, I'm sure
the response would be:
1. where are you going to get gas from? Coal can be found everywhere,
and if you can't find coal, you can use wood.
2. right... you want to sit on 10 gallons of highly explosive
combustible liquid just so you can drive around? Are you insane?
3. Gasoline comes from oil. To get the oil, we have to build huge
drills and pipelines and container ships. Processing alone is so
expensive, it will never be practical.
4. The government subsidizes gasoline to make it seem cheaper than it
really is. It's not practical for everyone.
5. Gasoline fills the air with toxic emissions. So does coal, but we
know that the science on whether coal pollution really hurts you is
still in dispute. Very smart, reasonable scientists still disagree
about the facts. Is asthma really on the rise?
I'm not saying that I think that batteries are a reasonable alternative.
I'm not sure. I'm just aware of the fact that a massive, deeply
entrenched infrastructure has been built around the gasoline engine so
that it's relative "efficiency" may be something of an illusion.
I really do believe that one of the most insidious myths of our modern
era is that evironmentalism hurts the economy. It absolutely helps the
economy. Our economy is easily productive enough to generate sufficient
wealth to build cleaner cars and factories, and generate more jobs while
it does so. The important thing to know is that a safe, clean
environment benefits everyone, but hurts the most powerful because they
have to share a proportionate amount of the cost.
webpa wrote:
>>"Even if it were getting power solely from electricity derived from
> If your batteries are "over 90 % recyclable", then they are lead-acid
> batteries. Can you possibly imagine the environmental impact of
> mining, manufacturing, transporting, and maintaining 200 million
> brand-new sets of such batteries? No, you cannot. Otherwise, you'd
> not have said such catestrophically silly things.
>
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|