Sunday, November 13, 2011

Burn, Eco Baby, Burn

ELECTRIC cars cut emissions, right? Not really, because something still has to be burned somewhere to generate the electricity they draw from the socket in the wall. But still, they have teeny, tiny carbon tyreprints, right?

Sort of, but only until the vehicle catches fire.

6 comments:

  1. tough-as-nails-leaders can be hammered with logic but they will not bend.

    Reddus Thumbius circa 173 BC

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  2. About a year ago, on a Perth TV current affairs program, the manager of the Perth metro electicity distribution network was being interviewed.
    The interviewer asked "what is your greatest concern, is it the widespread adoption of large screen televisions, or air conditioners"?
    The electicity distribution network manager thought for a moment and replied that neither of the two above items were his major concern, what he feared more than anything was the widespread adoption of electric cars.
    This response surprised the interviewer, so the network manager told him that if everyone arrived home from work at around the same time and plugged their electric cars in to recharge the batteries, the grid wouldn't be able to cope and would cause a melt down.

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  3. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.November 13, 2011 at 12:47 PM

    Wonder what melted grid would look like. And is it edible?

    So far electric cars are right up there in the contest of kooky ideas.

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  4. PhillipGeorge(c)2011November 13, 2011 at 4:43 PM

    actually Elizabeth if electric cars were being run off electricity generated within the vehicle from burning hydrogen and a lot of hydrolysis [H2] plants were dotted around the country the electric car, I believe, could be very doable. Hydrolysis plants solve the problem of sag-surge-sag from solar/ wind/ tidal - not that one needs those when one has 300 years of coal to burn.

    Coal that originated in the living atmosphere!

    Plants grow mainly off thin air - and grew best of all when it was just a little bit thicker.

    QED

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  5. "If you care about the environment so much, why are you driving a dirty coal-fired car?"

    "It's about the awareness as much as anything."

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  6. What I find amusing is the fact that by buying an electric car, you are expanding the # of assessable CO2 emissions.

    Under the Carbon Tax/ETS being implemented the CO2 emissions of petrol / diesel cars are not evaluated in the total. Therefore, not only will changing to an electric car add to the base load electric demands, it will also technically "raise" Australian CO2 emissions.

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