Reply With Quotegood advice. for example, i now walk to the corner mail box instead of driving.
4 Grand Master
OT; Simple sloution to gas costs and answer to recent sky is falling thread
Use less.
No need for hybrids and the hazardous waste they contain, no need for ethanol(as it's currently produced anyway)and it's environmental impact either. Hydrogen, where will that come from?
If we wouldn't expect to crash cars and walk away, have an entire entertainment center and living room along with us our vehicles would weigh FAR less.
Simple physics dicatate that if you accelerate a large mass over and over it takes more energy than a smaller one.
A V-8 powered barge can get nearly the economy of a featherweight while cruising. But since populations tend to be concentrated most driving is stop and go on the commute.
Fuel costs are higher than ever but demand has yet to subside(giant SUVs still trundling a single occupant to Starbucks in my neighborhood) so they will continue to rise. All the while lining the pockets of our enemies mind you.
Bitch and moan all you want, dig a bunker and fill it with food, water and weapons if you think it will help.
We need to stop consuming and wasting, period. Our world tends to learn the hard way though.
Last edited by Ross; 06-02-2008 at 01:22 PM.
"The gas pedal wouldn't go to the floor if it weren't meant to be there"
2 Grand Master
good advice. for example, i now walk to the corner mail box instead of driving.
Big, Big Time Poster
words to live by - but i think this is going to hit us too fast for that to be a solution in itself (not that i have any better ideas).
a friend of mine was saying just the other day that those who have the means to grow their own (food, that is) are going to come out ahead...
think it's bad now, wait until water gets expensive!
(sounds very cynical so i should say overall i'm confident we will come up with enough solutions to our problems to do ok - we just got lazy that's all)
2 Grand Master
Originally Posted by 525i winter driver
words to live by - but i think this is going to hit us too fast for that to be a solution in itself (not that i have any better ideas).
a friend of mine was saying just the other day that those who have the means to grow their own (food, that is
think it's bad now, wait until water gets expensive!
(sounds very cynical so i should say overall i'm confident we will come up with enough solutions to our problems to do ok - we just got lazy that's all)
think of how lucky we are to have all of that hydro and water!
Big, Big Time Poster
what do you mean, WE?? aren't you moving?
Major Contributor
The idea of "find alternative ways of getting things done" like walking to your mailbox and carpooling is still a temporary relaxant to a permanent problem. More people are buying cars than old people are losing their licenses. We can all drive a little less sure (well, I can't, I only drive to work and back anyway), but in a few days, think of ALL those high school graduates getting their graduation gift of a new car.
Hydrogen comes from electrolosis of water which breaks it down to its basic elements. The only real problem here is that no one has figured out how to do this in massive quantities to be economical for the process. Mark my words, when someone out there in the world figures this out, Opec will die.
My biggest issue is why here in the US, we're so reluctant to accept a flurry of small displacement diesels. They easily get twice the milage as gasoline so in all honesty the cost-per-mile is still cheaper than gasoline even though the cost per gallon is more expensive. You'll still end up filling less often than the guy with the petrol engine. It's also pretty sad that diesel is the more efficient fuel to burn, the easier of the fuels to refine, and yet consumers are punished at the pump for this. Completely asinine.
"Scarlet" `97 540/6 with sleepy mods.
"Box Car" '87 535isA - Old School Charm, new school Flair
2 Grand Master
what do you mean, WE?? aren't you moving?
lol very true - but the hydro and water is what will make me come back in 3 years!!
oh and the clean air too
4 Grand Master
Snake, the prob with diesel is emissions. I won't go into emissons caused by manufacturing hybrids, or ethanol, the current saviors according to some greenies and all farmers. suffice it to say tailpipe emissions are too high.
Modern gas engines burn pretty damn clean, if employed in displacements comparable to the rest of the world our problems would be halved. They are so large because of the amount of work expected from them, mostly for wasteful reasons.
Major Contributor
The forum will be full of posts about "hydrogen conversion group buy" threads when I figure out how to make it more cost-effective, thus becoming the most powerful man on planet earth MUAHAHAHAA
"Scarlet" `97 540/6 with sleepy mods.
"Box Car" '87 535isA - Old School Charm, new school Flair
Grand Master
RE: Simple solution to gas costs and answer to recent sky is falling thread
Well of course I agree 100% with your 'simple' solution.
But without taking the big picture into account it is a 'simplistic' solution.
Just whether or not you drive your own car from point 'A' to point 'B' is not nearly the end of the equation.
To reduce energy consumption requires all that I already mentioned and much more.
Everything we purchase from a can of beans to a plasma TV requires oil.
So how about some beans for dinner?
A can of beans requires cultivated land using diesel fuelled machinery, the fertiliser and pesticides (also generated from fossil fuels also need to be manufactured and transported), then more diesel fuelled machinery to harvest the beans and transport the beans to the factory.
The can itself requires mining of the raw materials, transportation of the raw materials, crushing, separation, smelting and fabrication.
The cans, like the beans, are then transported to the cannery.
The labels require petro-chemicals for the ink and forests for the paper label with all those associate energy inputs.
Then beans are shipped from the cannery to the distribution depots and then onto the supermarkets.
The night-fill supermarket employees then drive to the supermarket to unpack the cans of beans and place them on the shelves, then drive home again.
Then you get in your SUV and drive down to the supermarket to buy the can of beans drive home and use more energy to heat them up.
You then throw the empty can in the trash which is collected by the garbage truck and taken to the landfill site where a bulldozer grinds it into the ground.
Pretty efficient use of energy for one can of beans don't you reckon?
Simple solution?... Grow you own beans at home and, yes, far less energy will be used.
Oh and tell the Chinese to stop buying cars at the rate of 15,000 per week!
In reality, consumption is the key... we consume far too much of everything!
And two more daily news items...
Food price 'catastrophe' feared on eve of summit
Scientist questions solar rebate change
Last edited by pundit; 06-02-2008 at 06:21 PM.
1990 E34 535iA, 215,000kms (130,000 miles).
Dual Climate, Rear Headrests, Rollerblind, M-Tech Wheel,
Memory Seats, EAT Chip, T-Stars.
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