Bugs that eat sawdust and crap oil??

[Tessian]

Very interesting read... if this actually happens we wouldn't need to change our infrastructure; renewable oil at $50/barrel.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/e ... 133668.ece

Suck it hydogen

[Julius Seeker]

Might as well start speaking the language of our future overlords: 식육목 동물에는 고유한 두개골 모양이 있으며, 송곳니와 열육치(裂肉齒)가 발달해 있다. 이들은 동물을 잡아먹기에 알맞게 눈, 코 등의 감각기관이 발달되어 있으며, 지능이 높고 행동이 빠르다개쌕히 존내깝싸네

[RentCavalier]

This...changes...EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SineSwiper]

I think one of the comments below the story said it best:

Some one says "don't worry, we have a technological fix for your oil addiction" and all the little children go to bed happy.

Hell, you follow up the story with a comment of "Suck it, hydrogen!" That just illustrates a serious problem with how we approach the energy crisis. No, hydrogen will someday be a viable fuel source, and when that comes, we should be using it. We should be using solar power. We should be using wind, geothermal, ethanol, biodiesel, hydroelectric, natural gas, and yes, oil.

The solution to an addiction problem is not to get addicted to something else.

[Julius Seeker]

The bottom line is that if we actually did use all the oil, our world would be poisoned with pollution. As it stands, we are already seeing a lot of environmental damage as a result of oil.

[Tessian]

I think one of the comments below the story said it best:

Some one says "don't worry, we have a technological fix for your oil addiction" and all the little children go to bed happy.

Hell, you follow up the story with a comment of "Suck it, hydrogen!" That just illustrates a serious problem with how we approach the energy crisis. No, hydrogen will someday be a viable fuel source, and when that comes, we should be using it. We should be using solar power. We should be using wind, geothermal, ethanol, biodiesel, hydroelectric, natural gas, and yes, oil.

The solution to an addiction problem is not to get addicted to something else.

1) I was joking, and 2) most of the energies you list are not viable sources of power for automobile, including hydrogen. I view hydrogen actually as being just as dangerous as ethanol; there are many ways to "make" hydrogen and some are right and some are wrong. Either way hydrogen is still a long ways off and I laugh at any idiot who sides with the President in believe hydrogen is going to be the next fuel source for cars anytime soon. We need a solution to this within 5 years, not 15, and what the above solution would do is eliminate our need for foreign oil without having to refit every car on the market.

Give hydrogen another 10 years, THEN we can start to replace the cars on the road with them as people buy new ones. I agree that in terms of infrastructure power we do NEED to have variety in renewable clean sources; but that's because they can be centralized. Our infrastructure cannot handle multiple forms of automotive power (unless it's a solution that doesn't require filing up anywhere like a car that creates its own power via solar panels on the roof) so unfortunately it does need to be 1-2 forms of energy. I hope you were talking about infrastructure power anyway... cause god help you if you expect to power your car with geothermal / hydroelectric power

[Shellie]

Honda Clarity

A limited number of vehicles will be leased to Southern Californians during the summer of 2008.

[RentCavalier]

Hydrogen's a smoke-screen. The electric cars were a better innovation than the Hydrogen cells.

Ultimately, the ONLY energy source that's going to prove itself to be nearly as effective as our current Fossil Fuel-based system is going to be nuclear power.

But even that solution isn't enough. These bugs sound like the perfect deus ex machina to keep the world running....if only for a little longer.

[SineSwiper]

1) I was joking, and 2) most of the energies you list are not viable sources of power for automobile, including hydrogen. I view hydrogen actually as being just as dangerous as ethanol; there are many ways to "make" hydrogen and some are right and some are wrong. Either way hydrogen is still a long ways off and I laugh at any idiot who sides with the President in believe hydrogen is going to be the next fuel source for cars anytime soon. We need a solution to this within 5 years, not 15, and what the above solution would do is eliminate our need for foreign oil without having to refit every car on the market.

We already had a solution to this problem 10 years ago, but many companies, governments, and the general public were responsible for killing the electric car. Thank god the Japanese have better foresight.

The solution will be the solar-powered plug-in hybrid. A multiple fuel source vehicle that hooks into the power grid, so that whenever the power company will switch to different types of electricity sources, you'll get the benefit.

Also, your lack of planning does not constitute my emergency. We, the eco nuts and treehugging fruitcakes, have been warning you about our addiction to oil for 30+ years. What did you do in that time? Voted for Bush, started a war on the Middle East, and bought Hummers like it was no tomorrow. Thanks for all of that, America! Now that you're feeling the crunch with those 7MPG SUVs, and we're building our geofriendly solar-powered homes and riding our hybrids, you start screaming for help?!

Fuck off, America. Feel the burn. You only bitch when somebody is twisting your nipples, instead of planning out the long-term problems today. The problems you created will take longer than 5 years to fix, so you better brace yourself for the long haul. It's your fault.

[Zeus]

Ya'll need to go immediately and rent Who Killed The Electric Car. The electric car was a viable alternative in the mid-90s before the massive upgrades in battery technology we've seen since. It's so fucking viable now that a production-model vehicle has been on the market for 2 years already running on lithium ion batteries, basically a large laptop battery(http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08 ... adster.php).

The reason we don't have them is because of the lack of maintenance required (not the "oil company consipracy" bullshit everyone seems to believe). That's actually where the car manufacturers make the majority of their money. It's not uncommon for a car dealership to let a car go for a very small profit (my bud's a service advisor and his dealership will let go for as little as $500 profit) to get the maintenance contract. That's why we don't see them in mass production at a very reasonable price.

Electricty as a renewable resource? Much more so than petroleum. Let's see how we can renew electricity:

1) Sun
2) Wind
3) Waterfalls
4) Kinetic energy - the car will charge itself as it's driving

And that's before you even bring in the best possible source of electricity: nuclear energy. Yet another excellent alternative killed by think tanks....

Power? They have as much acceleration as the vast majority of the vehicles on the road. I think the GM EV from back in the mid-90s did 0-60 in something like 6 seconds. That was back then. One of the big benefits of lithium ion technology is that you can draw much more from it than you could in the past (and it recharges much quicker). That's how you get that small little 6-cell battery in the laptop powering everything for 3+ hours.

It's not an alternative, it's an unabashed leap forward in innovation. It's the future. We're just artificially holding it back as a society because everyone, particularly the governments, benefit greatly from our reliance on petroleum. Biodiesel is a great transition alternative 'til we get the world on the electric car.

[SineSwiper]

Ultimately, the ONLY energy source that's going to prove itself to be nearly as effective as our current Fossil Fuel-based system is going to be nuclear power.

Pebble-bed reactors, baby!

But, again, unless we are going to be putting nuclear reactors in our car, that doesn't solve that problem, but the plug-ins will at least feed off of that. And if I haven't said it enough: diversify, diversify, diversify. Stock brokers tell you to do it. Farmers tell you not to put all of your eggs in one basket. So, why not follow that advice in this issue?

[Tessian]

Also, your lack of planning does not constitute my emergency. We, the eco nuts and treehugging fruitcakes, have been warning you about our addiction to oil for 30+ years. What did you do in that time? Voted for Bush, started a war on the Middle East, and bought Hummers like it was no tomorrow. Thanks for all of that, America! Now that you're feeling the crunch with those 7MPG SUVs, and we're building our geofriendly solar-powered homes and riding our hybrids, you start screaming for help?!

Uh no... 30+ years ago I wasn't even conceived and unless you're older than I have been led to believe I doubt you were touting renewable energy in kindergarten

I'm not defending anything you go against above because it's true... but people like you who just stand there and scream "haha I toldya so" are as much of the problem as the ones you're bitching about.

I think Zeus hit it on the head moreso-- maintenance is THE moneymaker with the car industry, but even if we threw all that aside I don't think the country is ready for electric cars. Why? Our power infrastructure SUCKS ASS and we refuse to do anything about it. It's deplorable that in the 21st century we still have states that experience brown outs! And why is that? Because Sine's "eco nuts treehugging fruitcakes" forced so many regulations down our throats that it's almost impossible to get new power plants up. I love pebble bed reactors too, but there's no reason why we shouldn't have 3rd gen nuke reactors in this country too (or ANY new nuke plant in the past 25 years).

Is it any wonder that the state I was thinking of when I mentioned brown outs was the super liberal California?

[SineSwiper]

Well, Tessian, really I was addressing America in general at my rant, so don't get so personal about it.

Also, it was super liberal California that was partially to blame for fucking over the electric car. (Yes, Zeus, I saw the movie, and yes, it's required viewing.) As well as promoting hydrogen fuel cells, when the technology is still too far off. (I believe it when I see a car that isn't on a $600/mo lease.) So, the fault crosses party lines. Though, the right-winged branch has so far caused the most damage.

As far as brown outs? Blame Enron, and similar companies. Generate less power to create demand, and then charge a fortune on it. As it is, we can live off of the power we have, but the coal and natural gas resources will run out eventually.

Yes, there is a national stigma (nay, world stigma) on nuclear energy, but several nuclear meltdowns will do that to people. Hopefully, somebody will be able to show the world that you can shut down all of the safeties on a pepple-bed reactor and nothing will go critical. (If only the US Navy chose this idea, instead of fucking water-powered nuclear reactors, back in the 50's.)

[Kupek]

Well, Tessian, really I was addressing America in general at my rant, so don't get so personal about it.

We know. You do that a lot.

[Tessian]

We're on the same page Sine... all I was saying originally was that hydrogen is being touted as the next big thing, yet it's still many many years away.

"Several nuclear meltdowns"??? I seem to only remember one in the history of the world; Three Mile Island (which isn't far from me... I think I actually get power from there) doesn't count as there was no actual meltdown / radiation leak. TMI SHOULD have shown that "hey look-- even if we fuck up we're still smart enough to not destroy the place". Chernobyl can't be used as an example against nuclear power either because the Soviet's had the safety measures equivalent to a 3 year old carrying a pair of scissors. That's like claiming hot water heaters are unsafe because your neighbor disabled all his heater's safety features and ran the thing at full pressure until it tore the house apart (myth confirmed).

The far left is just as dangerous as the far right.

[RentCavalier]

And Three Mile Island wasn't all that bad, honestly. Chernobyl was worse, and that was HUMAN error of an epic scale.

[SineSwiper]

There have been more than two meltdowns, but frankly, I though there were more civilian media-centric accidents. This image is telling:

[bovine]

chernobyl was not a meltdown, it was just an explosion of steam that exposed the core.

[SineSwiper]

So, that's why they evacuated the city?

[Zeus]

Tess, the rolling brownouts were an Enron business tactic to artificially inflate the value of their futures. We went over this when I was doin' my accounting degree but there's a decent summary in the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Power stations, with all of the ways we can generate it now, is something that could easily be upgraded. And it would start in the metropolis' where you don't drive more than 20-30 miles each way then work it's way to Wyoming. By then the infrastructure can be upgraded as necessary.

It doesn't have to happen overnight. Cold turkey ain't the best way to quit smokin', either

[RentCavalier]

It doesn't have to happen overnight. Cold turkey ain't the best way to quit smokin', either

Actually, it is.

[Zeus]

It doesn't have to happen overnight. Cold turkey ain't the best way to quit smokin', either

Actually, it is.

Cheapest, yes. But definitely not the best when you take difficulty, shock to your system, and the detrimental effects your change in mood will have on those around you.

By far the best way to quit any addiction is wean yourself off. There's a reason they give coke addicts cocaine in rehab centres.