Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:05:49 GMT | no comments
China has overtaken the U.S. as the world’s biggest contributor to CO2 emissions, and a new study shows it growing much faster than expected.
Previously, experts put growth at 2.5% to 5% per year, but the real rate may be 11%, according to a new study. If this is the case, then between 2000 and 2010, the increase in China’s CO2 emissions will be more than 5 times greater than all the reductions that were expected under the Kyoto Protocol.
(From BusinessWeek, March 24, 2008)
Posted in Global Warming
Posted by Max Dunn
Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:33:21 GMT | 5 comments
I was trying to explain to my wife how an air car worked, and with a smile on her face she said “So it farts as it moves forward?” Well maybe that sums it up nicely.
But do air cars really make sense? The information from the manufacturers seem like they are the solution to our energy crisis, and to everything else too [1]. But there are several fundamental problems with air cars.
Read more...
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 21:11:04 GMT | 1 comment
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the scientific body that researches climate change for the United Nations (UN) and released their Fourth Assesment Report (AR4) in 2007. There are numerous experts participating in the IPCC, and a lot of good science is contained in these reports.
However, there is a big problem with the summary that is included with the IPCC report – the Summary For Policymakers (SPM). This summary is not written by the scientists themselves but by unnamed bureaucratic delegates from the participating countries. As such, they tend to oversimplify and bias the actual results contained in the full report.
So I found that the Independent Summary For Policymakers to be more balanced and representative of the actual report than the SPM itself. The ISPM was prepared by qualified experts, but who were not themselves IPCC chapter authors. The ISPM was subject to expert review and the reviewer’s responses are tabulated so there is a clear record to the extent that the reviewers agreed or disagreed with the ISPM.
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Posted in Global Warming
Posted by Max Dunn
Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:32:09 GMT | 2 comments
I should ride my bike more. It is good exercise and saves the environment. However, I don’t like to ride my bike on everyday errands.
I was reminded of this today when I got new tires for our car. Like usual, I threw my bike in the back and rode home after dropping off the car. It isn’t far, about 2.5 miles, but I was hot and sweaty when I got home. I was smart this time and brought a piece of string to wrap around my pant leg. Usually I forget this and wind up getting chain oil on my pant leg.
When the car was ready, I rode back to the shop to pick it up, and I was a bit tired.
So it certainly worked out fine to ride my bike, but it isn’t something that I would normally do. Also, for the same reasons, I don’t think we can expect many Americans to forgo their cars and start doing a lot more bike riding either. Good thing I have my electric scooter to scoot around on!
Posted in Random Thoughts, Electric Vehicles, Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:53:19 GMT | no comments
I have been reticent to publicly state my beliefs about global warming for a few reasons. One is that some of my friends are global warming believers and I don’t want to offend them. Another is that the global warming movement has gained so much momentum that it has becoming a core-belief of our society and to speak against it often makes a person seem crazy.
But the time has come for me to state my beliefs, and here they are:
- Many parts of the world are experiencing rising temperatures or other climate changes
- Man’s activities are increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
- This increased CO2 is contributing in part to climate changes
- The effects from man’s contribution to climate change will not be as bad as many claim
On the other hand, I do believe that peak oil is going to be a gigantically huge problem and will be a major inflection point in the development and lifestyle of all civilization on this planet.
Conveniently, the actions to reduce CO2 are almost exactly the same ones that will help with peak oil. So I don’t mind riding the global warming train for now since it leads to the same place eventually!
Posted in Global Warming
Posted by Max Dunn
Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:16:29 GMT | no comments
It is common knowledge that buses are energy efficient, right? I mean shouldn’t we all ride the bus rather than drive a car? Well a study looked at this more closely and found out something interesting. Here are some figures for passenger miles per gallon (PMPG) for various forms of transportation:
- Light rail – 120 PMPG
- Trolley bus – 104 PMPG
- Commuter rail – 86 PMPG
- Intercity rail – 66 PMPG
- Car, average trip – 44 PMPG
- Transit bus – 33 PMPG
Wow, look at that: city buses only get about 33 PMPG – this is even less than a normal car with 2 people which gets 44 PMPG! I guess to be more green, we should all avoid the bus and drive our cars instead. :-)
Reference: Comparison of Energy Use & CO2 Emissions From Different Transportation Modes
Posted in Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:40:03 GMT | no comments
There are several better energy alternatives to power cars than using gas. The top ones are hydrogen, air or battery. However, it turns out that there are big differences in the efficiencies of these technologies. For 100MJ of input electricity, this is how far each of these cars could go: [18]
- 133 km: Lithium-ion battery vehicle
- 46 km: Compressed air car
- 42 km: Fuel cell vehicle
So it turns out that battery electric vehicles are 3 times more efficient than either compressed air or fuel cell vehicles!
Read more...
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:33:26 GMT | 8 comments
I don’t have a lot of confidence in PG&E. It seems that every time we have a big storm, our power goes out. Once, it took 3 days for them to get the power back on! So I have been considering installing a battery backup system for my house to get through these power outages.
If I install a battery backup system, I was wondering if it would be profitable to charge up the batteries at night when electricity costs are low, at $0.05/kWh, and then use it during the day when electricity costs are high, at $0.11/kWh to $0.29/kWh [9]?
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Posted in Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:47:15 GMT | no comments
What do we use all our oil on? Here is a breakdown from the year 2000:
From: DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF U.S. PETROLEUM USE
In summary, cars use about 41%, trucks 13% and planes 7%. So if we want to reduce the amount of oil we use, then reducing our transportation usage will be effective, since transportation comprises about 60% of all oil usage.
Posted in Global Warming, Peak Oil
Posted by Max Dunn
Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:31:31 GMT | no comments
It seems awfully strange that a company that sells power would subsidize compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) that use less energy, and give rebates for energy efficient appliances. This would be like Starbucks giving awards to people who cut down on their coffee drinking! But even though this seems strange, power companies trying to cut power consumption actually makes sense.
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Posted in Electric Vehicles, Global Warming, Peak Oil