Whether you aree with AGW, or think is bougus....?

Question

Doesn't it make perfect sense to boost fuel economy's and efficiency of every other conceivable energy using device?

Answer 1

It's always good to find ways to increase fuel efficiency and to also find alternative fuels to power our vehicles and power plants. (But Corn based Ethanol is not the answer.)

Answer 2

Being energy efficient is a nice thing but mandating cars to get 35mpg is a pipe dream. The only way to increase gas milege in cars is to make them lighter and smaller. The problem with that is all the safery equipment in cars now a days make them heavier so more people will get killed in accidents. Seat belts help but are not 100% effective.

You want efficiency for oil consumption? Here is what needs to be done. Switch all oil and coal burning powerplants to NUCLEAR.  This would save millions and billions of barrels of oil a year alone. People will always drive cars they want and public trans is not the cure all. People like living in the suburbs and do not like the high costs of living in cities and that is un american anyways. Our country was built on the back of cars because it means FREEDOM. We can chose where to live (good) shop (good) travel/vacation(good). People also want to feel safe in their cars/suvs/vans/trucks so they want bigger cars in the event of a crash and bigger cars give a better chance of survival.

It sounds good in theory but can not be put to practical use so sorry I do not agree.

Ethonol is half as efficiecent as oil so more needs to be produced just to achieve what oil gives us now.

hydrogen is also not the answer because the tank would add an average of 1500 lbs to the overall mass of a vehicle and not to mention the odds of explosion when hit so if you want to drive a car that can explode when bumped more power to you.

Battery powered cars are the best option but not until they can increase the distance they can drive and the solution of what to do with all the 'dead' batteries. Imagine our landfills with millions of these batteries in them? YUCK

Answer 3

When it is economic to do so yes, and the economics of efficiency can be improved by penalties, incentives or regulations.

Edit in response to further information:  I don't know whether their are large improvements in efficiency which can be obtained at small cost.  I do know that there are always people selling things for which the phrase 'buyer beware' to greater and lesser extent comes to mind.  Depending on the system one is talking about one has to take into account the degree of confidence one has in its performance, operating complexity, maintenance and risk of breakdown, operating life and any hazards.  As an additional comment people are prepared to go the extra mile and support new technology which may not be strictly economic (yet at least) are of course doing us all a service.

Answer 4

Yes. I agree. We ave nothing to lose as long as we make good cost-effective decisions based on good engineering and economics.

We should be building Nuclear plants all over the U S now.

Answer 5

There are so many problems with fossil fuel besides global warming.  What does oil really cost when you figure in the costs like:  4,000 dead American soldiers just in the last 4 years.  maybe 200,000 dead Iraqis, our involvement in the mideast with its many costs, the ecological damage and the health damage from burning fossil fuels, the cost of transporting and the added pollution that causes, the potential for oil spills in the ocean or in the Tundra.  

the 2 trillion $ spent on the Iraq war.  Now what is the true price of that oil?

  We already have the technology to have near total solar power system in this country.  Concentrating solar power stations in the southwest could power the nation.

Both solar thermal and concentrating photovoltaic are well suited to that area. There are several articles at the Green Wombat website about solar thermal plants in California.  Ausra and Brightsource and eSolar and SkyFuel are some of the companies doing this.

It's been estimated that concentrating solar thermal plants filling an area 92x92 miles would power the nation.  That's one percent of our Southwest desert area, or 8% of Nevada.  1% of the Sahara used this way would power the world.

Watt for watt, these use less land than coal mines and coal power plants. And they have minimal impact on that land.

Add in the other clean energy like wind, wave, and photovoltaics on rooftops etc and we can have a totally clean electric system which can power electric cars buses and trucks.  This is no pipe dream.  It is completely doable in this century.

There is an article at Scientific American about a grand plan, as they call it, to  do just what I am talking about. You can read it at:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so...

I think we can do it even faster than this article talks about.  Because we have already begun building solar thermal plants in a fairly substantial way.  Factories are being built to mass produce the parts for these power plants. Pilot plants that were built in the mid 80s are already putting out 355 megawatts of affordable clean power.

There are already 2.6 gigawatts of plants in California either okayed or in the planning stages.  They are to be built in the next few years.

These plants range in size from 175 to 900 megawatts.  1000 megawatts is a gigawatt.



One gigabyte would power San Francisco, to put it in perspective.  These are just the beginning.  

A medium size nuclear plant puts out about 2 gigawatts, so does the Hoover Dam.

  Solar is hot in Southern Europe. no pun intended

Distributed energy solar installations like on rooftops can add substantialy to the energy grid.  Large businesses like Walmart are putting these on their buildings.  

Clever financing deals are being set up so that the companies don't have to pay for the installation costs.  

The City of Berkeley California just passed a bill that will provide the installation costs for any homeowner.  Bonds will be floated to finance this. The homeowner pays off the solar system each year along with his property tax.  If he sells the house the next owner takes over any remaining debt.  It's a win win proposal.  There's no reason why this can't be repeated all over the country.

We now have fuel cells that can run power plants on natural gas, methane, methanol. These are already commercially available.  Many natural gas power plants could be converted to these fuel cells or run in conjunction with them.  This has already begun in Connecticut on a small scale.   It's also being adopted in South Korea.



I believe that half the problem with many of the issues we face is the nature of the conversation about them.  We can do anything we put our minds to.  There is too much talk about what we can't do.  This applies whether we are talking about conserving our environment, world hunger, the problems in the mideast, the disparity of wealth in our country and the world.  You name it.

"There will always be war, there will always be world hunger," that kind of habitual thinking.  It's like regurgitating tired old adages that may not necessarily be true.  They hide the truth that anything is possible.

  Try to think of possibilities instead of limitations.

Answer 6

Go Tar Heels

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live 100% off of the grid and are completely self-sufficient with a 0% Carbon footprint. I believe this is the first step anyone can make “help the environment”. Once you convert your own life style to a greener more eco friendly route, you can start helping others.

We definitely didn't start global warming, but we definitely do contribute to it now.

Natural gas (or Methane along with other thanes) for example, is completely a natural contributer to global warming and is derived pretty much the same way as oil. ie. Matter (animal, plant etc) decomposes over time resulting in a anaerobic (hope I spelled that right) decay of non-fossil organic material / gas (natural gas or methane).

One problem with global warming is that the concept is so vague in the minds of the people. The critical interpretation is basically how it’s explained in school and the news. However most of the public see global warming connected with the ozone and pollutants which cause harmful greenhouse gasses, etc. therefore investigating and fighting for things like alternative energy (ie. Solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol, biodiesel, etc)

Greenhouse gases are real and do contribute to global warming. Think of the different gas layers like ozone (o3) that circumference the globe as the clear plastic on a greenhouse. Longer rays of light from the Sun go in and reflect off different thermal masses bouncing back and creating shorter lengths of energy that cannot exist the plastic barrier. These beams then just continue to bounce around inside the green house until they’re finally absorbed completely (some do escape but very few), thereby warming the greenhouse greatly even in cold temperatures.

Basically there are 2 ways that this reaction (or lack of) affects the planet. Global warming and global cooling.

1. as we add to the gases in the stratosphere, where the ozone layer is (Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc), we add to the plastic of the greenhouse, trapping more short wave length energy and heating the earth more.

2. as we deplete the ozone (with chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs), we allow more long wave length energy, which bounces back out to space without heating any thermal masses on earth, thereby cooling the planet.

It’s pretty easy to see the results..

Melting ice sheets & glaciers

Floods & droughts

Great hurricanes & cyclones

Seasonal extremes

Seasonal phenomena’s

Species extinction

New & resurgent diseases

There are many ways to stop both global warming and cooling from accruing or at least slow them down until we can discover a way to reverse it, but Stop burning fossil fuels is the biggest.

I currently own 2 converted h2 vehicles which run on 100% hydrogen and 1 EV (electric vehicle), not to mention our home is completely off the grid, using alternative energy (solar, wind, etc)

If you interested I offer several DIY alternative guides to walk you step by step threw Greener living, how to run your car on alternative fuels and being self-sufficient, at agua-luna com or

www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Retired Boeing Engineer now living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

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Answer 7

Exactly, common sense measures to fight global warming would help the individual consumer. They would reduce profits slightly at the top, and there's nothing greedier than people who are already mind numbingly rich. That's why the energy industry is fighting such a sustained propaganda war to avoid making any changes in people's wasteful use of energy.

Answer 8

When the head of the UN says it could cost a trillion dollars to 'fix' global warming, you know you're in for a soaking if your politicians are buying into this.

Answer 9

Yes, I agree with you, it does make good sense.  I also believe that global warming is a natural phenomenon and not caused by humans.

Answer 10

Absolutely.  During the oil shortages of the 70's, there was a lot of attention raised about how auto companies should work toward achieving much higher MPG's.  Sadly, once the shortage went away the push to achieve better mileage disappeared.

Most current automobiles (not counting gadgets and options) are using nearly 100 year-old technology, with a few minor enhancements.  We can do much better.  The problem is, once a car company invests heavily into a new model (research, prototyping, setting up manufacturing plants, etc.) then don't want to change anything until they've recovered their money.

There are promising signs of improvements.

Answer 11

There's too much "real" science that points to natural occurrence...rather than man made global warming.

Dependence on foreign oil is because we tend to make domestic oil impossible to get from banning drilling in certain ares of the country.

The only way to make cars more fuel efficient without using other alternatives is to make cars smaller and lighter.

Answer 12

It makes sense to do anything that has no cost. But since everything has a cost, it is never a simple question. It always depends. It is an economic question.

I say all efforts to stop using oil are worth the cost because there is a limited amount of oil in the world and when it is gone we BETTER have alternatives all fully developed and ready for the task of supplying the whole world. Because if we don't then when oil runs out the world economy will collapse and that WILL cause poverty and war and kill millions if not billions of people.