Good Gob, Maeby! Interestingly (to me as a Greenpeace monthly donor, at least) is an interesting counterargument by the director of Stanford's Program on Energy and Sustainable Development: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/janua…
Batteries are expensive. Additionally, batteries add heft and mass, which lowers the mileage. The weight of the battery pack of some of the early Tesla Roadsters came to 1,000 pounds. While chemical and electrical engineers continue to improve them, progress comes slowly. J.B. Straubel, the CTO of Tesla Motors, has said that batteries roughly double in performance every ten years, or about five times slower than Moore’s Law.
Enter hydrogen. In a hydrogen fuel cell car, hydrogen gets drawn through a catalytic membrane: an electron gets stripped from the hydrogen to power the car. The waste product—water—goes out the tailpipe. The crucial component is a thin membrane laced with expensive elements that helps conduct the chemical reaction. The fuel cell stack, in theory, can weigh less than batteries. Filling fuel cell cars—assuming a refueling station is nearby—takes minutes, not the hours needed for a typical EV.
@5, that's why it's so interesting. The question most needing to be settled is whether a U.S. refusal to be an export hub really would stand a chance of making any dent whatever in China's rate of coal consumption. Cavanaugh (and many other serious people) believe it would, but Wolak's skepticism about that seems well founded.
@9 or, if we stopped providing military land, air, and naval support for coal shipments to China, and their active mining, would this also drive up the costs, and reduce ours, causing, as a recent Chinese scientific paper on Energy Policy stated, a faster shift to more use of wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, and other energy sources.
But, hey, that's just what the Chinese scientists say. Let's trust the people who want to increase H1-B visas four-fold to 300,000 when lots of Americans don't have jobs, right?
@7: Hydrogen fuel cells just means you burn a lot of something at a power plant to make that hydrogen for the fuel cell. If the power plant is green, okay, but if it's not, then you're displacing the emissions to the power plant. This is usually cleaner than having individual cars do the burning, but not "free" by any means.
4, If you can demonstrate that Greenpeace's budget is in any way comparable to the coal industry's, you might have a valid argument. Don't bother, because you can't. The gross imbalance of discretionary funds between environmental groups and fossil fuel companies is such that you're trying to scare us w/ tales of a mosquito while an army is busy burning your village and killing everyone you know.
I'm a bit more parochial. I don't really give a shit about coal mining in Wyoming or coal burning in China. What I care about is three hours of coal trains stopping all movement across the city every goddamn day. They would have Seattle bear by far the worst of the costs while gaining zero percent of the benefits. Fuck that. Fuck it hard. Fuck it forever.
Not to be a pedant, but... (oh, hell, who I am kidding?) It's FĂĽnke not Funke. If your CMS doesn't support UTF-8 characters, Fuenke would be an acceptable alternative.
Ever since Whip It, I can see what George Michael Bluth saw in her. Her dowdy librarian outfit does not diminish her hotness.
And thanks for providing this, Cienna. Finally I have something to send in reply to my obnoxious relative in Montana that keeps including me in her email blasts of Jesus propaganda. If I "reply all" with this, maybe it will embarrass her enough to think twice next time.
What about the CO2 from China's increased consumption? The article notes others asking the same question.
Meanwhile, in the 21st century...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanel…
But, hey, that's just what the Chinese scientists say. Let's trust the people who want to increase H1-B visas four-fold to 300,000 when lots of Americans don't have jobs, right?
Following which Useless Will will explain he already thought of that, and has based a portion of his investments toward making money on it.
I tell ya, you get those two going and it is comedy gold.
Sincerely,
that guy
And thanks for providing this, Cienna. Finally I have something to send in reply to my obnoxious relative in Montana that keeps including me in her email blasts of Jesus propaganda. If I "reply all" with this, maybe it will embarrass her enough to think twice next time.
Gob: "Co-Ca-Co-Ca-Co-Ca!"
George Sr.: "Coo-Coo-Ca-Cha! Coo-Coo-Ca-Cha!"
Lindsey: "Cha-Chee-Cha-Chee-Cha!"
Lucille: A-Coodle-Doodle-Doo! A-Coodle-Doodle-Doo!"