Saturday, March 23, 2013

Electric cars promote sprawl, solve nothing

Alt-Car Alternatives - Santa Monica, CA Patch: "Let’s say hypothetically that tomorrow everyone in the Los Angeles region with a gasoline powered car suddenly had a fully electric car, the batteries doubled in charge life, and a renewable energy grid drops out of the sky leaving free solar panels on every home to power the cars. We would still have the same congestion, quality of life, and public safety problems we have because of car dependent society today. The 405 would be no less a headache. The death toll on our roads would be no less catastrophic."

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Renewables – Good for some things; not so good for others | Our Finite World

Renewables – Good for some things; not so good for others | Our Finite World: "Some seem to believe that renewables can power the world on a stand-alone basis. The tiny quantity of renewable energy currently available is, in and of itself, a huge limitation in making this happen. Furthermore, today’s solar PV panels and wind turbines are made and transported using fossil fuels, and most of our transportation industry uses petroleum. In theory, we could develop new devices that use only electricity, or create enough biofuels to make a complete closed loop (devices made and transported only with renewables). In practice, we have trillions of dollars of cars, trucks, airplanes, and construction machinery built to use oil. Because of this, a complete changeover to renewables is at best decades away."

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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Thyroid Abnormalities Found in Children Downwind from Fukushima – EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement

Thyroid Abnormalities Found in Children Downwind from Fukushima – EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement: "The nuclear fuel cycle—from mining to milling to enrichment to transportation to waste management—creates substantial greenhouse gases. The reactors themselves convert ore to gargantuan quantities of heat that warm the planet directly, wrecking our weather patterns in ways that have never been fully assessed."

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Friday, March 15, 2013

Problems mount for alternative energy sources

The quickest energy gain is to stop wasting energy via the autosprawl system. Increasing supply from whatever source is the wrong direction. Some of the alternatives are not even alternatives.
Wind Farms Are Net Carbon Dioxide Emitters | Intellihub.com: "Large British wind farms will actually release as much carbon dioxide as fossil-fuel power plants, according to a study conducted by researchers from Aberdeen University and published in the journal Nature."

Japan Taps Methane Hydrates: Pondering the Explosive Implications

Peak Oil News: "Developing methane hydrates would be “game over for the climate,” writes green blogger Mat McDermott.
It’s easy to see why he’d be concerned: methane hydrates contain more carbon than all the world’s other fossil resources combined, according to USGS estimates."


Biofuels boom threatens to disrupt global biodiversity | Global Ideas | DW.DE | 12.03.2013

DW.DE | 12.03.2013: "The rush around the world to plant crops used to produce biofuel has not only sparked a global food vs. fuel debate, but it’s also putting biodiversity at risk."