I support a planet Earth conducive to human health, modern material comforts and peace.

[JohnDBarrow]

What is the best way to achieve this while being friendly to Mother Earth at the same time? Modern comforts often means consuming a certain amount of resources such as energy. I sit in my Iowa bedroom right now typing this with my air conditioner and dehumidifier running so I don't suffer hot, nasty stickiness. The dehumidifier uses about half the power of the air conditioner. 

 

I often think to myself that if I were to start all over again, I would either want to become a civil engineer or an ecologist professionally. I see America's poor infrastructure as a serious problem. It is embarrassingly old-hat as compared with Japan, parts of Asia and in Continental Europe. A bad infrastruture means increased public danger, as from flooding and serious automobile accidents, and an increased burden on resources such as consumed in transportation due to extra fuel, money and time consumed due to inefficiency. America's roads are the absolute pits. Does anybody here agree that infrastructure condtion and design is an important environmental consideration? 

 

Let's look at America's trucking industry, for example, and the national highway system. A poor infrastucture means ineffciency, increased fuel consumption and a greater carbon footprint. 

 

https://www.trucking.org/highway-infrastructure-funding

 

Edited June 19 by JohnDBarrow

[exchemist]

55 minutes ago, JohnDBarrow said:

What is the best way to achieve this while being friendly to Mother Earth at the same time? Modern comforts often means consuming a certain amount of resources such as energy. I sit in my Iowa bedroom right now typing this with my air conditioner and dehumidifier running so I don't suffer hot, nasty stickiness. The dehumidifier uses about half the power of the air conditioner. 

 

I often think to myself that if I were to start all over again, I would either want to become a civil engineer or an ecologist professionally. I see America's poor infrastructure as a serious problem. It is embarrassingly old-hat as compared with Japan, parts of Asia and in Continental Europe. A bad infrastruture means increased public danger, as from flooding and serious automobile accidents, and an increased burden on resources such as consumed in transportation due to extra fuel, money and time consumed due to inefficiency. America's roads are the absolute pits. Does anybody here agree that infrastructure condtion and design is an important environmental consideration? 

 

Let's look at America's trucking industry, for example, and the national highway system. A poor infrastucture means ineffciency, increased fuel consumption and a greater carbon footprint. 

 

https://www.trucking.org/highway-infrastructure-funding

 

Certainly. But the most important infrastructure change I think is rewiring the country. We need to move from a power grid system based on centralised generation to a distributed generation model (solar, wind, storage). We also we need to provide for the charging of electric vehicles, in place of fossil fuel stations, which adds considerable load to the domestic power supply. We also need to make more use of rail where population density makes this feasible, and make better provision for cycling in cities. 

[JohnDBarrow]

59 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Certainly. But the most important infrastructure change I think is rewiring the country. We need to move from a power grid system based on centralised generation to a distributed generation model (solar, wind, storage). We also we need to provide for the charging of electric vehicles, in place of fossil fuel stations, which adds considerable load to the domestic power supply. We also need to make more use of rail where population density makes this feasible, and make better provision for cycling in cities. 

What do you think of hydrogen fuels to replace fossil fuels?  I agree. There is way too much reliance on trailer trucks and not enough on trains to move goods. As an automobile motorist, I hate like hell the typical bumpy roads in middle American states like Wyoming, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas and my home state Iowa. My old age and ailing health make me highly dependant upon my thrifty 1995 Toyota Corolla to get groceries and whatnot but she is no Lincoln Continental for over-the-road comfort. My old arthritic aching bones make me favor nice smooth roads. A green renewable fuel like hydrogen should make big comfy cars feasible to operate. The big soft-on-human-joints cars are not so good on gas. 

Edited June 19 by JohnDBarrow

[exchemist]

19 minutes ago, JohnDBarrow said:

What do you think of hydrogen fuels to replace fossil fuels?  I agree. There is way too much reliance on trailer trucks and not enough on trains to move goods. As an automobile motorist, I hate like hell the typical bumpy roads in middle American states like Wyoming, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas and my home state Iowa. My old age and ailing health make me highly dependant upon my thrifty 1995 Toyota Corolla to get groceries and whatnot but she is no Lincoln Continental for over-the-road comfort. My old arthritic aching bones make me favor nice smooth roads. A green renewable fuel like hydrogen should make big comfy cars feasible to operate. The big soft-on-human-joints cars are not so good on gas. 

Hydrogen at present is rather costly and inefficient to produce in a green manner, i.e. by electrolysis. I think we will need it, though, for truck fuel and maybe for planes. For private vehicles, electricity looks like the future. Range is improving all the time, battery technology improves every year (there seems to be a sodium battery technology coming along which should reduce our geopolitically sensitive dependence on lithium)  and the charging networks (another key element of infrastructure) are growing, though arguably not fast enough. I intend to buy an electric car next, but at present my 20yr old petrol VW works fine and from what I read, the size of the carbon footprint of manufacturing a new vehicle outweighs the reduction from switching from petrol to electricity. So one should run old cars into the ground before renewing. 

[swansont]

1 hour ago, JohnDBarrow said:

What do you think of hydrogen fuels to replace fossil fuels?

Hydrogen is not a fuel, in this sense, it’s a storage medium, like a battery. You need to produce the hydrogen (in most cases), and it’s net energy negative. It’s only as “green” as the method of production; hydrogen made via burning fossil fuels isn’t a solution.

[CharonY]

On 6/19/2024 at 2:00 AM, JohnDBarrow said:

I see America's poor infrastructure as a serious problem. It is embarrassingly old-hat as compared with Japan, parts of Asia and in Continental Europe.

It is difficult to rank infrastructure, but most indices put the US higher than, say, Japan. And this is not necessarily a high endorsement, but just demonstrates that infrastructure is a grand challenge for everyone. Much of Japan's infrastructure (as elsewhere in the world) were built during big expansions, which would be around the 60s and 70s. Perhaps weirdly, Germany tends to rank up very high but even there are many challenges. Some parts of Asia show very well simply because they are new and this is probably the crux of the matter. Building infrastructure is one thing, but continuously maintaining and modernizing it is yet an entirely different challenge.

[swansont]

On 6/19/2024 at 4:00 AM, JohnDBarrow said:

see America's poor infrastructure as a serious problem. It is embarrassingly old-hat as compared with Japan, parts

Japan’s population density is almost 10x that of the US, and Europe is several times larger, so you don’t need as much road/rail to connect people. Less per capita is easier to build and maintain.

[JohnDBarrow]

On 6/19/2024 at 6:20 AM, swansont said:

Hydrogen is not a fuel, in this sense, it’s a storage medium, like a battery. You need to produce the hydrogen (in most cases), and it’s net energy negative. It’s only as “green” as the method of production; hydrogen made via burning fossil fuels isn’t a solution.

I did not know fossil fuels were needed to make hydrogen as a means of energy for automobiles. What did the Apollo space ships run on? 

Fossil fuels on planet Earth will not last forever. More people on earth are driving personal cars than ever before. I don't see electric automobiles as having reached the peak of perfection for safety, affordabilty and practicality yet and I have read that they are dangerous fire hazards. 

https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen

I don't see how human occupants and their dogs could easily escape from an EV fire from the batteries. It seems as the electric automobile can burst into flames suddenly and violently. The violent fire seen in the video makes a gasoline vehicle fire look like child's play. A gasoline fire as from engine compartment develops more slowly as is not right underneath the people compartment. It is much easier to control a gasoline fire in an engine compartment. You can also smell fuel leaks in advance as in the engine compartment and have time to stop the car before a fire develops.  Those EV's have all those batteries right below where people are sitting. How are you going to step outside the car without your legs getting burned when flames are shooting out from underneath?  

 

I found this link on the future of hydrogen energy:

https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen

Man is going to have to do something before fossil fuels run out or we will one day go back to horse-drawn buggies. I know Mother Nature is not replenishing earth with fossil fuels as fast as we are using them up. I dream of a planet someday totally free of fossil fuels. 

We need a SAFE, PRACTICAL and SUSTAINABLE energy alternative that is totally independent of any fossil fuels. 

If the problem with planet Earth is not too many people, it's too many people who want the freedom of owning and driving private automobiles. 

I can't see life as enjoyable myself without a private automobile.  I don't want to burn to death in one though. I've seen a number of gas car fires and they seem to burn much more mildly than those EV battery fires in You Tube videos. I feel my 1995 gasoline Toyota Corolla to be much safer than any new Tesla. The gas tank is safely under the back seat forward of the rear axle and there is sheet metal between the gas tank and the back seat. There is also an electric fuel pump inside the gas tank along with a fuel gauge sending unit. Makes me wonder how an electrical spark from this in-tank equipment doesn't blow the car up to kingdom come. 

Edited June 22 by JohnDBarrow

[JohnDBarrow]

Anyway, I will leave it up to the scientific community to solve man's long-term energy problems. If you have any better ideas than green hydrogen, please chime in.

Folks, we have a big energy crisis. 

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Edited June 22 by JohnDBarrow

[JohnDBarrow]

1 minute ago, swansont said:

Not needed, but are often used. If you’re going to use electrolysis to make hydrogen gas, where you get your electrical energy matters if the goal is to be “green.” Oil- or gas-generated electricity isn’t. You need to ensure your electricity is green.

Probably solar and wind energy for the electrolysis electrcity. Then once again there is NUCLEAR POWER!! Biofuels, any motorist here? Yes, farmers can grow fuel for your automobile! But for how many of the entire world's cars? 

The first biofuels were wood used in old steam locomotives and that was in the 1800's. No, it was actually the first time man ever used wood as fuel for fires. 

It's probably going to take a number of things put on the whole energy table. Probably not one single energy form will solve everything.  Again too many modern-day humans on this planet thrive on the automobile, the home dehumidifier, the smartphone and the air conditioner as I do. Those things consume energy.