View Full Version : Wake-Up Call
Wake-Up Call (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11291)
I'm looking out my window here in southeastern Pennsylvania at a wild cherry tree that, on November 28, is still covered in green leaves. A butterfly bush nearer to the house is still blooming. We have yet to have a "killing" frost this year in this part of Pennsylvania, though just five years ago and earlier, such frosts were the rule by mid October, and sometimes even came at the end of September.
Out on the street, two lines of cars and trucks are completely halted in their tracks because of the shutdown of nearly 10 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike following a fatal accident involving a semi trailer-truck and three cars that has closed all lanes in both directions for the whole morning, throwing the morning commute entirely onto back roads, which themselves are the scene of countless accidents. Standing at the end of the driveway, I find that half the vehicles stranded on the road within my field of vision are gas-guzzling SUVs and vans, every one of them carrying one frustrated commuter--the driver--and spewing out volumes of exhaust for no purpose other than keeping the car and driver warm and the radio running. The autumn air reeks of car exhaust.
Both of these situations are reflections of a major crisis that is confronting all of us. The earth is rapidly getting hotter, in large part because of the unrestrained use of carbon-based fuel by mankind, and especially by us Americans, and it's getting hotter much faster than even the most pessimistic environmental scientists were predicting even as recently as two years ago. We all know this. And yet like the cars stuck on the turnpike and outside my house, we as a polity and a society are seemingly incapable of doing anything about the mess we have made of our lives, our kids' lives, our country and our planet.
Global Warming Is Reversible (http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=287994) by Bernie Sanders (http://sanders.senate.gov/)
Scientists now tell us that the crisis of global warming is even worse than their earlier projections. Daily front-page headlines of environmental disasters give an inkling of what we can expect in the future, multiplied many times over: droughts, floods, severe weather disturbances, loss of drinking water and farmland and conflicts over declining natural resources.
Yet the situation is by no means hopeless. Major advances and technological breakthroughs are being made in the United States and throughout the world that are giving us the tools to cut carbon emissions dramatically, break our dependency on fossil fuels and move to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. In fact, the truth rarely uttered in Washington is that with strong governmental leadership the crisis of global warming is not only solvable; it can be done while improving the standard of living of the people of this country and others around the world. And it can be done with the knowledge and technology that we have today; future advances will only make the task easier.
What should we be doing now?
First, we need strong legislation that dramatically cuts back on carbon emissions. The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309), a bill that I introduced with Senator Barbara Boxer and that now has eighteen co-sponsors, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050.
Second, if the federal government begins the process of transforming our energy system by investing heavily in energy efficiency and sustainable energy, we can accomplish the 80 percent carbon reduction level and, at the same time, create millions of high-paying jobs.
Lukester
11-29-07, 06:37 PM
Rajiv -
I am glad there is a wide and critical set of issues I am able to agree with you on wholeheartedly, as I very much appreciate your general sensibilities and much admire your keen intelligence.
So as I'm now on board with you on this limits to growth thesis, I've apparently now by proxy acquired license to become your "biggest pain in the neck" as well, on a wide variety of other (mostly political) topics.
Like it or not, you are stuck with me, like an (amiable) thorn in your side old chap. :D
Global Warming Is Reversible (http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=287994) by Bernie Sanders (http://sanders.senate.gov/)
Ambitious objectives for a piece of legislation. I am intrigued by his statistic on European and Japanese vehicle fuel economy:
"...Transportation must also be addressed in a serious manner. It is insane that we are driving cars today that get the same twenty-five miles per gallon that US cars did twenty years ago. If Europe and Japan can engineer their vehicles to average more than forty-four miles per gallon, we can do at least as well. Simply raising fuel-efficiency standards to forty miles per gallon would save roughly the same amount of oil as we import from Saudi Arabia and would dramatically lower carbon emissions..."
No doubt European and Japanese passenger vehicle fleets are, on average, smaller and more fuel efficient than the North America fleet. However, I have serious doubts they average anywhere near 44 mpg as he says. Spend a little time around southern England, where petrol costs more than $8.00 a gallon, and the number of Chelsea Tractors (Range Rover 4X4s) clogging the village roads as far afield as the Cotswalds will give you a different impression.
http://www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk/
I keep wondering if, in a wealthy society such as our developed economies, if the unintended consequence of raising fuel prices is that the people with the smallest and most fuel efficient part of the installed vehicle fleet are the ones that are forced to cut back on driving the most? And therefore although the entire vehicle fleet may average, say a legislated 40 mpg, the actual average fuel economy, weighted by vehicle usage miles, is measurably and chronically less. Just a thought...
And therefore although the entire vehicle fleet may average, say a legislated 40 mpg, the actual average fuel economy, weighted by vehicle usage miles, is measurably and chronically less. Just a thought...
At least in Japan, I think you may be right. Most Japanese that I know do their normal day to day travel using the trains and walking (and Taxi). Most use their cars rarely. So your hypothesis would hold. Also, the truck fleet in Japan is more fuel efficient light trucks - compared to those in the US - so they are directly affected by the rise in petroleum prices - as it is more difficult for them to increase fule efficiency. However, if US consumption decreased sufficiently, it may at least moderate the world wide increase in petroleum prices
Lukester
11-30-07, 08:17 AM
Thought you might find this intriguing Rajiv.
NEWS
Nuke to the Future
By Dave Maass (davem@sfreporter.com)
Published: November 21, 2007
New technology takes on energy crisis.
The portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub. It’s shaped like a sake cup, filled with a uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen
http://sfreporter.com/artman/uploads/outtake-112107-nuke.jpg
http://sfreporter.com/artman/images/spacer.gif
Invented by scientist Otis Peterson, Hyperion’s patent for a hydride reactor is still pending. atmosphere. Encase it in concrete, truck it to a site, bury it underground, hook it up to a steam turbine and, voila, one would generate enough electricity to power a 25,000-home community for at least five years.
The company Hyperion Power Generation was formed last month to develop the nuclear fission reactor at Los Alamos National Laboratory and take it into the private sector. If all goes according to plan, Hyperion could have a factory in New Mexico by late 2012, and begin producing 4,000 of these
reactors.
Though it would produce 27 megawatts worth of thermal energy, Hyperion doesn’t like to think of its product as a “reactor.” It’s self-contained, involves no moving parts and, therefore, doesn’t require a human operator.
“In fact, we prefer to call it a ‘drive’ or a ‘battery’ or a ‘module’ in that it’s so safe,” Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. “Like you don’t open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don’t ever open it or mess with it.”
LANL scientist Otis Peterson filed the patent for the nuclear fission reactor in 2003. In theory, the reactor uses uranium crystals and hydrogen isotopes to create an internal, self-regulating balance. Because it’s so new, anti-nuclear power activists aren’t quite sure what to make of it yet. But ‘skeptical’ is perhaps too gentle a word for their initial reactions to Hyperion’s claims of a “clean” energy source.
“This whole idea is loony and not worthy of too much attention,” Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello says. “Of course, factoring in enough cronyism, corruption and official ignorance and boosterism, it’s possible the principals could make some money during the initial stages, before the crows come home to roost.”
The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer would beg to differ. The group of 700 labs, set up by Congress to promote “technology transfer” activities between the public and private sectors, honored Peterson’s invention as an “Outstanding Technology Development” in October 2003 at its conference in Hawaii. Now retired from LANL, Peterson has become the chief scientist for Hyperion, Blackwell says.
Blackwell is a director of Purple Mountain Ventures, a self-described “adventure capital” firm specializing in commercial development of LANL technology. Purple Mountain also is the financial backer behind The Company for Information Visualization and Analysis (CIVA), a local company developing LANL pandemic modeling software. Hyperion’s reactor, though, has the potential to solve the energy crisis, according to Blackwell.
“The lab is doing a lot of work on oil shales and oil sands, but there’s no way to get power to those facilities,” Blackwell says. “So, this nuclear battery would be brought in and that would provide the power to run a small city of industrial use.”
Blackwell also envisions that the battery could be used at military bases, as well as in the developing world, where poverty is a product of a lack of electricity and clean drinking water. This week, Hyperion meets with its first potential clients, but Blackwell hopes to approach the United Nations and international humanitarian groups.
So far, though, anti-nuclear advocates don’t buy the claims advertised on Hyperion’s Web site (www.hyperionpowergeneration.com (http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/)).
“The nuclear industry has never given the complete picture.” Nuclear Watch New Mexico Executive Director Jay Coghlan says. “Taxpayer subsidies and the environmental and financial costs of mining and enriching uranium and waste disposal are never completely factored in.”
© Copyright 2000–2007 by the Santa Fe Reporter
Interesting! But in the current political environment, there may be "Security" considerations that make the widespread use of this infeasible. Leading of course to the continued use of fossil fuels!
Also, I just got a one of this - no oil! (click on the images to get more details)
http://evtamerica.com/images/z_20_1.jpg (http://evtamerica.com/z_20.htm)
and one of this
http://evtamerica.com/images/r_20_1.jpg (http://evtamerica.com/r_20.htm)
I just came back from Japan, and one of the people I went to Itami with was complaining that he had to spend 8000 yen on a fillup for his mini-van.
I'm looking at $100+ for my Audi these days.
There absolutely are a large number of very small cars in Japan, but there are equally a similar number of larger vehicles.
As has been said earlier, the key is that the price of gas was already high and that there was very reasonable public transportation.
Thus gasoline is much more a luxury and business good than a daily staple for the entire population.
This is the purpose of a high gasoline tax - the lack of which the US now must pay for in decade long terms.
Lukester
11-30-07, 02:34 PM
Rajiv -
When I was growing up in Italy, I used to ride an (early, quite retro) version of the red Vespa-like scooter shown above. The streets of Rome were crammed with them. Nothing is more a symbol of the chaotic vitality of postwar Italy coming up in the 60's and '70's than the Vespa.
I bored out the cylinder on my Vespa 200 cc to a 250 cc and put a racing carb on it. That thing could fly!
But these are electric - and hence the link to your portable reactors!
Lukester
11-30-07, 02:46 PM
Rajiv -
I didn't see the mini-reactor bundled with the scooter. Where's the mini-reactor? Plugging it into a power outlet in one's garage has nowhere near the glamor of plugging it into one's own baby reactor.
Where's the mini-reactor?
I am working on that part of it! :)
touchring
12-01-07, 04:50 AM
They are everywhere now in smaller chinese cities and has become a nuisance when people start using the bicycle type versions on pavements, whizzing pass you 20mph from the back like a ghost!
Rajiv -
When I was growing up in Italy, I used to ride an (early, quite retro) version of the red Vespa-like scooter shown above. The streets of Rome were crammed with them. Nothing is more a symbol of the chaotic vitality of postwar Italy coming up in the 60's and '70's than the Vespa.
I bored out the cylinder on my Vespa 200 cc to a 250 cc and put a racing carb on it. That thing could fly!
Lukester
12-01-07, 01:27 PM
Touchring -
Somewhere growing up in chaotic post-war Italy, I learned to love urban anarchy. The more anarchic and dysfunctional, the better I like it.
I like it because although it's dysfunctional aspects make it really difficult to run a business rationally, or deal with bureaucracy, it is a celebration of humanity. That's why I loved New York City - with it's chaotic jumble of about 30 different ethnic groups all co-existing while they argued, got stuck in traffic jams, cursed each other, started families, did business, prospered, passed acquired new wisdom to a new generation, and created a whole new culture out of many different old cultures.
It's the most exciting cultural environment in the world, in any big city which mixes many different cultures together - just like an Italian "Minestrone" soup! The problem in many other parts of America is not really a critical problem, it's more just a problem of dispersion. American suburbia takes all these groups and scatters them across vast tracts of suburban development, so all that cultural vitality which came from the mixing up of all these groups is lost, into some grey cookie-cutter similarity.
But even if we go down in flames, due to a truly disastrous Federal Reserve monetary policy and brainless consumerism, there is one thing that America does better than any country in the world. We mix ethnic groups together, really, really well. Put them all in the blender - and they come out being something peculiar, called 'American'. This is by no means a patriotic horn I'm blowing. Indeed, this country right now is looking thoroughly screwed.
But it has to be observed this country's most fantastic attribute is it's 'melting pot' ethic, where the idea of people from all over the world getting jumbled up into one cacophonous, kitschy, vulgar, money grubbing but also generous whole is a uniquely "American" thing to do.
Old countries in Europe shudder at the idea of diluting their identity by such procedures - America embraces it, and that's what makes this country a little special, even as we all go merrily to hell in a basket with our debt problems.
Say a prayer for this place Touchring. Singapore will be just fine.
Lukester
12-01-07, 07:46 PM
US MOST EFFICIENT OIL CONSUMER PR UNIT OF GDP ( This is where Rajiv falls out of his chair in astonishment! )
Derived from statistics from GeoHive, the Pew Center, the World Resources Institute and other sources:
Measured on a per-unit-of-oil-consumed scale, the U.S. produces less GHG than every other major developed or developing nation except Japan (we’re on a par with militantly green Germany). While consuming 25.4% of the world’s oil in 2000, we emitted only 20.6% of the GHGs. Compare that to China’s 6.5% of world oil consumption versus 14.8% of the GHGs (2.8 times as much as the U.S. per unit of oil consumed); India’s 3.0% consumption versus 5.5% GHG (2.26 times as much as the U.S. per barrel); and Russia’s 3.5% consumption versus 5.7% GHG (more than twice as much per unit as the U.S.). Even darling of the greenies Canada belches more GHG per barrel of oil consumed than the U.S.
Measured in terms of economic yield (meaning how much we get from the oil we use), one need only compare GHG emission to gross domestic product (GDP) to get the full picture of just how much more effectively the U.S. consumes fossil fuels than almost any other industrialized nation on Earth (again, Japan and Germany are the exceptions). In 2000, America produced 39% more dollars in domestic GDP per unit of GHG expelled than Canada, 569% more dollars per GHG than India, a whopping 642% more dollars per GHG than China, and an incredible 1,041% more GDP per unit of GHG than the Russian Federation.
BiscayneSunrise
12-01-07, 08:26 PM
Lukester,
Just saw the nuclear battery mentioned in IBD. Fascinating concept but I wonder if it can truly be in production in 5 years or if it is another pie in the sky alternative. It could also potentially be a source of power for ships, railroads, and even airplanes??
Any idea how much it weighs or the cost of purchase?
Lukester
12-01-07, 08:39 PM
Biscayne -
I have no more info that you at this point, I just picked up this article. It refers to these prototypes being "about the size of a hot tub". If it's viable, with no moving parts, my guess is future generations would get smaller. It's quite exciting and hopeful for the future to see these things coming out even in a working prototype.
How-about a "sub-sub-compact nuclear drive unit" mounted on the back of that red electric Vespa scooter? A (bright red) Nuclear Scooter?
I'd hate to be the emergency services team responsible for being first on scene to accidents involving nuclear powered vehicles.
Puts a whole new meaning to 'clean up on lane 3'...
Its bad enough that vaporized depleted uranium bullets are being breathed by combat survivors - at least these people know they're in a hazardous environment.
santafe2
12-03-07, 06:28 PM
US MOST EFFICIENT OIL CONSUMER PR UNIT OF GDP ( This is where Rajiv falls out of his chair in astonishment! )
That may have something to do with the fact that it requires much less energy to consume products than it does to produce products. Where would we stand if we were charged-back for the full accounting of energy used to support our consumer economy? That is, which country is charged for manufacturing all of the products you find in your local WalMart and almost every other store in the US.
I suspect if we consider the entire energy cycle for all products used to support our economy, there is no economy in the world which comes close to our responsibility for GHG.
Lukester
12-03-07, 07:27 PM
Absolutely agree with you on that SantaFe2. I only posted it as an item of general curiosity. One look at our clogged collection of SUV's on the freeways tells you there's something missing in that above analaysis.
Thanks for your input.
Starving Steve
12-07-07, 09:58 PM
I'd hate to be the emergency services team responsible for being first on scene to accidents involving nuclear powered vehicles.
Puts a whole new meaning to 'clean up on lane 3'...
Its bad enough that vaporized depleted uranium bullets are being breathed by combat survivors - at least these people know they're in a hazardous environment.
I am not afraid of science and technology. Rather, I am afraid of poverty, over-population, and resource depletion.
I am not afraid of scientists and engineers. Rather, I fear the eco-frauds who would leave the people of this planet to starve and to freeze in the dark.
Witness the Los Angeles Basin where environmentalists in recent years have stopped the development of sorely needed homes and subdivisions in the Rialto and Colton area in order to preserve an endangered sand-fly, the Delhi Sand Fly on the EPA's, Endangered Species List.
Witness British Columbia this year where the idiots in the environmental movement have stopped the development of hydro-electric and nuclear power plants in the Peace River Basin. So now British Columbia is so short on power that it has to import electricity from California. And California is short on power because of the closure of its nuclear power plants, again, thanks to the eco-nazis in Greenpeace and the Sierra Club.
Interesting! But in the current political environment, there may be "Security" considerations that make the widespread use of this infeasible. Leading of course to the continued use of fossil fuels!
Also, I just got a one of this - no oil! (click on the images to get more details)
http://evtamerica.com/images/z_20_1.jpg (http://evtamerica.com/z_20.htm)
and one of this
http://evtamerica.com/images/r_20_1.jpg (http://evtamerica.com/r_20.htm)
Rajiv: I know we had an electric car discussion going, but could not find it with the search function, so put this here. GE is more likely to build an electric car with proper wipers and a heater, compared to the cottage industry that's pushing things so far.
The Associated Press March 5, 2008, 8:08AM ET
GE plugs into electric car investments
NEW YORK General Electric Co. said Wednesday it invested over $24 million in an electric-car maker and its battery supplier as part of an effort to push the technology toward the mainstream.
GE invested $4 million in Think Global, a Norwegian electric-vehicle company that has created a five-seat crossover concept car. It has also invested more than $20 million into A123Systems, a Massachusetts-based lithium-ion battery maker.
GE said its goal is "to make electric transportation practical and affordable."
GE's Energy Financial Services division made the investments from its recently expanded seven-member venture capital group. That group has invested nearly $100 million in a dozen companies over the last 18 months.
GE's research includes a $5.6 million contract with the Energy Department to develop smaller, lower cost, better performing motors for hybrid electric vehicles. GE is also working on a $1.2 million project to develop advanced density capacitors and a $13 million project to build a prototype hybrid fuel-cell bus
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8V79O0O0.htm
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