Yep, I think you and I need to go talk to Putin about all his pollution. Maybe as a side note tell him to stop his chit in Ukraine as well.
EV vehicles
- Thread starter Bumblebee
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This one is for the “let’s do nothing about it” gang.
Europe and US heatwaves near 'impossible' without climate change Europe and US heatwaves near 'impossible' without climate change
For the non physics crowd, raising the earths average temperature by one degree takes five exaJoules. That is five with eighteen zeros. That is the equivalent of the entire US energy use for four million years.
Further there is the cost of doing nothing, using energy to cool our living conditions down to manageable temperatures and causing further pollution in the process.
One or two degrees do not sound much, but those are averages, not accounting for peaks causing fatal damage in specific areas.
Europe and US heatwaves near 'impossible' without climate change Europe and US heatwaves near 'impossible' without climate change
For the non physics crowd, raising the earths average temperature by one degree takes five exaJoules. That is five with eighteen zeros. That is the equivalent of the entire US energy use for four million years.
Further there is the cost of doing nothing, using energy to cool our living conditions down to manageable temperatures and causing further pollution in the process.
One or two degrees do not sound much, but those are averages, not accounting for peaks causing fatal damage in specific areas.
I believe something needs to be done but what?
Going all EV isn't going to get it done as EV also adds to the carbon footprint....all it does is change one sort of carbon emission for another...
.......and even if we stopped our carbon usage right now...everyone and everything that emits some sort of carbon footprint, how many years would it take to make any effect?
Going all EV isn't going to get it done as EV also adds to the carbon footprint....all it does is change one sort of carbon emission for another...
.......and even if we stopped our carbon usage right now...everyone and everything that emits some sort of carbon footprint, how many years would it take to make any effect?
When someone offers only problems without any solutions, they are part of the “let’s do nothing about it” gang.
That's a lot of "someones" there are very few offering solutions that are viable out there....
Very few if any people are doing anything to curb carbon usage...everyone puts out some sort of carbon footprint and always will...
It's big corporations and governments who will affect the most change if they are motivated to do so and I'd estimate few are,
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TallTom
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You have sort of veered off the EV theme with your post. So on a bigger picture solution to your "do nothing" argument.
Math is not my strong suit. Certainly nothing I'd claim as physics level. But here goes. I think we currently consume what 600 exajoules of energy worldwide? That took us what 200 years to get there?
Without trying too hard we can produce 1,200 exajoules (twice the world's consumption in total) of nuclear energy using 1/3 of the uranium mined on one year.
We have the tech. We have plenty of Uranium. We can make it safely. It doesn't take years to develop. Or years to mine it's resources. Or pipelines that run hundreds of miles. We can build a power plant pretty fast compared to lots of alternative approaches that haven't proven to be viable. With enough energy output capacity to grow all the world's economies for another 100 or so years.
That should be 600 terra joules, about 14,000 million tons of oil equivalent. It is unlikely the human race would ever use 600 exajoules during the lifetime of the planet, from now to extinction.
I agree 100% about nuclear power. Spent rods can be recycled as they do in France today and the tons of radioactive waste created is miniscule compared to the tons of CO2 going into the atmosphere using hydrocarbons. The world may be forced to come back to nuclear. But there is also wind, solar, bioenergy, hydro, etc.
It takes an EV one year to achieve carbon comparity with an ICE, based on non coal fired power stations in the US. Coal fired it takes about 5 years. That includes all factors, from manufacturing to charging the battery and the materials used for manufacturing of both. That study has been done a number of times, with comparative results.
If everyone has that paradigm, eventually nature will force the human race to do something, simply by drastically reducing its population numbers. If that is the future, you and I will probably not see it, but our grandkids definitely will.
TallTom
Registered
I used this as a reference.
Global primary energy consumption 2021 | Statista.
So you don't think I just mistype chyt.
Your numbers are correct, I used a different link, see below.
I used the link below and missed the million in the number.
The World Counts
Maybe this is the route that will be taken.....history has shown us advanced civilizations are fragile and many of them (all) are no longer in existence...
In order for change to occur, it will take a global reckoning....we all know this is something that will never happen...humans by design are unable to come together on a single effort such as this...
We eliminate ICE and replace with EV which is only replacing one issue for another.
Meanwhile forests are being razed in order to make way for cities and agriculture, tens of thousands of aircraft and large ships are still using fossil fuels at an unregulated rate and wars are still being raged over lord knows what and holding the threat of nuclear annihilation over the rest of the world's heads....
Status quo isn't working but battle lines have to be drawn as to where the changes would be most effectively applied
The development over the past 100 years has been exponential. First flight in 1903 and now space travel.
We have people on the planet who are not "do nothing" folks and we will eventually move from a type 0 civilization to level 1 civilization. Sadly, I am past my best before date and won't be around to experience that.
Those non "do nothing" folks will reach their best before date before this is realized and will the next generation(s) take over where they left off?
From what I've seen so far, I highly doubt it...
I'd like to be able to see the world through rose colored glasses but I've seen too much of the bad side of humanity to really remain optimistic.
How ever long it takes to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, we should start now.
Sure. This is good for Mother Earth.
www.wired.co.uk
The devastating environmental impact of technological progress
An insatiable demand for the copper, lithium and rare-earth metals required to fuel the consumer electronics and electric vehicle industries is leaving indelible scars on our fragile planet
So you believe the progress we made over the last 100 years, in comparison with thousands of years of humanity, has just come to a full stop?
Elon is striving to establish a colony on Mars, works on it every day through SpaceX.
The Joint European Torus laboratory have broken records on energy extraction from nuclear fusion, working on this every day.
We no longer need passwords.
Last year we were fighting COVID, now we are able to track each variant.
A long lasting iron grid battery, allowing us to store wind and solar energy until it is needed.
AI for protein folding.
Now a vaccine for Malaria
We now have a pill for COVID
Actual functioning practical fusion reactors
Carbon removal factories, the biggest one just opened in Iceland.
I will stop there.
I know very well the progress over the past century and no, I don't think it should stop nor will it...
There seems to be a very large disconnect in priorities in this progress....there seems to be a narrowmindedness when it comes to what needs to be done....
When countries are working autonomously and destroying the earth through deforestation, mining/oil development and warfare, it's hard to remain focused on how the world will be better by EV......
Why a colony on mars or the moon is a priority is anyone's guess, do we need to see just how many other celestial bodies we can screw up? is it a contest or something....if 'ol Elon was worth a grain of sand, he'd be more focused on our own earth and put his efforts and money into making this blue ball last longer instead of wasting time trying to get a select few on another planet....look at all the space debris we have orbiting this planet already...it's a huge trash belt up there....maybe one day it will be such that we have a trash ring so we can look like Jupiter...
I did just watch a video where there is a huge effort to clean up the pacific garbage island so that is a good thing...but in the same breath 100 acres of oxygen giving rain forest is being cleared each day....
You've been around the world-tell me I'm wrong when it comes to many, many countries not giving one rat's ass about climate initiatives....until these countries at least get to a positive standard, anything we do is neutralized by them.
You lost me at ‘covid pill’. Same one Biden took that did nothing and he caught it again days later?
I think the difference is just, some of us look at our glass being half full, and some look at it as being half empty.
I have never been a pessimist, but there sure is a lot of pessimism around here, which is a bit sad. Don't expect me to join the club.
About O'l Elon, he puts food on the table for a whole lot of folks, including around 1,200 in Canada. At least respect him for that.
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There are lots of people against oil and gas but they employ hundreds of thousands putting food on their tables if we are using that as a baseline for respect.....
I'm optimistic that the human race will survive...what it will look like in a hundred years is anyone's guess....
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