Living Car Free - "I just don't want to think about it!"

The answer doesn't really look all that hard:


Reduce waste of power and food.
Increase efficiency of all systems.
Invest in large scale renewable power generation at about the current cost of the Iraq war, ending petroleum and coal usage within 20 years.
Develop infrastructure for moving and storing electricity. Many options are on the near-term horizon.


But we have to "think about it." That seems to be the only hard part!Shhh, we don't like that kinda crazy talk here in the USof A! ;)

The great thing about solar thermal is that the molten salt, or whatever suitable heat sink, serves as cheap energy storage, so the operators can just keep some set aside to generate electricity when the sun isn't out. There's also been a lot of interest in compressing air in large caverns. So really, connecting these systems to the grid is the largest issue. I think everyone is sitting on their hands because another thin film breakthrough, or even consistent prices/expansion (nanosolar, sold out a year in advance btw) from current offerings, would just kill centralized electricity generation given how expensive Copper is and the potential for increased accounting of externalities.

Shhh, we don't like that kinda crazy talk here in the USof A! ;)

The great thing about solar thermal is that the molten salt, or whatever suitable heat sink, serves as cheap energy storage, so the operators can just keep some set aside to generate electricity when the sun isn't out. There's also been a lot of interest in compressing air in large caverns. So really, connecting these systems to the grid is the largest issue. I think everyone is sitting on their hands because another thin film breakthrough, or even consistent prices/expansion (nanosolar, sold out a year in advance btw) from current offerings, would just kill centralized electricity generation given how expensive Copper is and the potential for increased accounting of externalities.

The more I study the topic of alternative energy, the more optimistic I get. The doom & gloom crowd predict that switching to an alternative will be either technologically impossible or economically devastating.

However, the production technology is "almost there" on several fronts, including large scale solar farms, carbon capture, and wind and tidal turbines.

As for storage of energy, the technology isn't quite as close, but it is getting there. Besides the options you mentioned (heat sinks and compressed air), I've read that hydraulic storage is promising, and of course local battery storage looks better all the time, and is already widely used in hand tools, cell phones and computers.

Developing infrastructure for delivery of power might be a tougher problem, but keep in mind that large and expensive infrastructures have been rapidly developed in the past. For example, there were the railways in the mid-19th century, AC power a couple decades later, the interstate highways in the mid-20th century, and the ongoing development of broadband internet access. Far from devastating the economy, these developments stimulated growth and improved life for average people.

I don't know that it will be so much of a grieving process as it will be a "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" process. I'm kind of afraid of that, actually. Makes me pretty happy to realize I'm ahead of the curve to go without fossil fuels as much as possible.

Ok first of all Blame Bush all you want, yea sure he definatly was part of the problem but just a part. The whole buy now pay later started with Clinton oh yea he was also the one to start sending jobs to chinna. Well durring the Bush years the pay latter part came around and he was left with a crap sandwich that he wasn't smart enough to figure out how to eat so he took Clintons economics to an extreme.

As far as the gas situation there is pleanty for the short term, but when its gone its gone. I'd like to see rationing you get x amount per adult and x amount per child. If you choose to drive a big SUV you don't go as far. And yes if you don't own a car or use you full ration you should be allowed turn them back in for a tax credit.

Well, as far as I can tell the technology is here and will be easily available within two years so that most people can kiss the internal combustion engine goodbye without altering their life style. Look, I installed solar panels and after the tax credits guess what, I was green and saved money. I didn't sacrifice - I put more money in my pocket. It looks like there will be several electric cars on the market by 2012 that will perform as well or better than gasoline cars with the exception of not having quite the range (but it will be enough for most people's needs). They may be a bit pricier even with the tax credits but not much and that cost premium will probably disappear a few years later. So, really, it will be better - no more going to the pump, just plug it in when you get home. No more smelling gas fumes ... etc. and it will be quiet. People won't have to give up their car driving at all, they just won't be able to commit suicide any more by leaving it on with the garage door closed.:lol:

I have been holding out for a practical EV for years and have even considered getting a limited speed vehicle like a GEM for around town trips and shopping. But so far nothing has come of it. Practical is not 40 K for a compact. If I “have” to buy another vehicle I sure would give an EV a hard look even if it were a GEM. But it doesn’t seem as if any of the predicted models produced in the 70s that said we would be out of oil in 2000 came to pass.
As far as the ICE powered vehicle goes they can run on propane and Natural gas as well so I wouldn’t count them out just yet. It doesn’t seem as if the automotive industry is all that concerned either. If any government or even the industry really think this as a major problem they would be working harder to find a solution. Think about it, during world war two Germany had to develop synthetic fuel. In fact they started looking into it in the 1920s. http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1981/jul-aug/becker.htm (http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1981/jul-aug/becker.htm)
If the Germans could do it more than 50 years ago it seems as if we could find a way to make synthetic fuel today with a big caveat, we would have to believe it was necessary. No one from the Chinese and India to the US seems to believe it is that critical.
So I will still be waiting for a practical EV when I can hear the doctor ask my kids, “should we pull the plug or keep him on a machine?”

Well from the amount of oil that is flowing from Iraq vs the billions spent...

One of the reasons the billions were spent:
"pump up our economy" - the billions created jobs in companies that provide products/services to the military.

An alternative:
Spending billions on fossil-fuel-free power would create jobs AND not create a situation where people feel like there is a worldwide battle where one side is everyone in mostly-muslim countries and the other side is everyone in first-world mostly-christian countries?

One of the reasons the billions were spent:
"pump up our economy" - the billions created jobs in companies that provide products/services to the military.

An alternative:
Spending billions on fossil-fuel-free power would create jobs AND not create a situation where people feel like there is a worldwide battle where one side is everyone in mostly-muslim countries and the other side is everyone in first-world mostly-christian countries?
Billions invested in alternative energy would also save trillions of dollars in the near future from global warming costs like shifting agriculture regions, devastating storms and rising oceans. Items like moving millions of people all over the world away from coastlines to escape rising water levels are more expensive than we can even imagine.

Billions invested in alternative energy would also save trillions of dollars in the near future from global warming costs like shifting agriculture regions, devastating storms and rising oceans. Items like moving millions of people all over the world away from coastlines to escape rising water levels are more expensive than we can even imagine.

There's more than enough evidence to point out that the near future has already arrived. Like this article about the disappearance of drinking water in a large Bolivian city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/science/earth/14bolivia.html



In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change
When the tap across from her mud-walled home dried up in September, Celia Cruz stopped making soups and scaled back washing for her family of five. She began daily pilgrimages to better-off neighborhoods, hoping to find water there.

Though she has lived here for a decade and her husband, a construction worker, makes a decent wage, money cannot buy water.

“I’m thinking of moving back to the countryside; what else can I do?” said Ms. Cruz, 33, wearing traditional braids and a long tiered skirt as she surveyed a courtyard dotted with piglets, bags of potatoes and an ancient red Datsun. “Two years ago this was never a problem. But if there’s not water, you can’t live.”

The glaciers that have long provided water and electricity to this part of Bolivia are melting and disappearing, victims of global warming, most scientists say.

If the water problems are not solved, El Alto, a poor sister city of La Paz, could perhaps be the first large urban casualty of climate change. A World Bank report concluded last year that climate change would eliminate many glaciers in the Andes within 20 years, threatening the existence of nearly 100 million people.