U.S. Politics

[Brumerican]

Just now, limpid said:

Quite. At the start of the 20th century about 40% of cars were electric.

None of the flying saucers used during the building of the ancient monoliths burned any fossil fuels.

[TheAuthority]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

Quote

An Earthship is a type of passive solar earth shelter that is made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires, pioneered by architect Michael Reynolds.

Earthships are predicated upon the idea that there are six human needs which can be addressed through environmentally sustainable building design:^[1]

1. Energy: Thermal and/or solar heating and cooling, solar and wind electricity
2. Garbage management: Reuse and recycling built into construction and daily living
3. Sewage treatment: Self-contained sewage treatment and water recycling
4. Shelter: Building with natural and recycled materials
5. Clean Water: Water harvesting and long term storage
6. Food: In-home organic food production capability

Earthship structures are intended to be "off-the-grid-ready" homes, with minimal reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels. They are constructed to use available natural resources, especially energy from the sun and rain water. They are designed with thermal mass construction and natural cross-ventilation to regulate indoor temperature, and the designs are intentionally uncomplicated and mainly single-story, so that people with little building knowledge can construct them.

 

[sidcow]

52 minutes ago, villakram said:

and where do the resources for all of this come from? How often do these things have to be replaced? What happens then, because you understand that recycling has a large fraction of bs and most stuff is landfilled to some degree in some other godforsaken place. Complex things are basically impossible to re-cycle. 

Let's build a mine out the back of your place for starters and take it from there.

There is no simple solution here. Profit is how the world works and everything is constrained so.

What a completely bizarre response.   I'm just nonplussed, really trying to have a commonsense dialogue with you is impossible. 

[Brumerican]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

What a completely bizarre response.   I'm just nonplussed, really trying to have a commonsense dialogue with you is impossible. 

I got as far as "and where do the resources for all this come from ? "

How much money does America spend on it's military complex again ? That astronomical figure is even worse when you consider most of it goes into fossil fuel inspired wars.

It's so self defeating it's mind boggling .   If they didn't have a million gas guzzling Ford pick up trucks  per square mile maybe they wouldn't need to spend billions on bombers and war ships.

The resources have always been in place but for some reason the profits of a few seem to outweigh the greater good of humanity and war is always profitable.

(Also complex things might be hard for humans to recycle but black holes do it in their sleep.   We just need to become as smart as black holes )

[HanoiVillan]

3 hours ago, Xela said:

Cars are white goods now. Built to a price, leased for 3 years, then disposed of and stored on airfields and raceways.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-56104281

 

God, I remember going to watch a race there when Indycar (?) came over for a round. It was a fun afternoon out, I guess quite a long time ago now. Didn't know it had come to such a sad end, that's dismal.

EDIT: What am I talking about, Indycar. It must have been this event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Rockingham_500

Crikey, 20 years ago. Time flies.

Edited February 23, 2021 by HanoiVillan

[Brumerican]

Just now, HanoiVillan said:

God, I remember going to watch a race there when Indycar (?) came over for a round. It was a fun afternoon out, I guess quite a long time ago now. Didn't know it had come to such a sad end, that's dismal.

Try not to think about it and just imagine how many pixels the iPhone 55 is going to have . 

Perfect for those underwater photos on your scuba diving trip to the ancient ruins of Norwich town centre.

[Brumerican]

It's also worth bearing in mind that America represents just 5% of the human population but consumes a quarter of the worlds energy.

The question shouldn't be "Where do the resources come from ?" but rather "Where the hell are they going ?"

Just from personal experience I can tell you that the whole of Florida runs  air conditioning at an alarming level all year round ( The vast majority anyway)   I hardly saw a solar panel in my time there and  it's literally named "The Sunshine State"  FFS.           

[HanoiVillan]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that if the US military were a country, it would be the 4th or 5th largest emitter or something.

Another reason to stop pointless foreverwars.

[fruitvilla]

29 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

What am I talking about, Indycar. It must have been this event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Rockingham_500

Crikey, 20 years ago. Time flies.

Birmingham SuperPrix 1986   35 years ago.

[HanoiVillan]

19 minutes ago, fruitvilla said:

Birmingham SuperPrix 1986   35 years ago.

I only learned about those races a few years ago. You sent me down a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole; think this video is my favourite:

Contains the amusing sight of marshalls trying to crane away a car with the driver still in it, and the race just parked behind them! Top stuff.

Anyhoo, back to American politics.

[Brumerican]

We still have the Birmingham Super Prix.

Just called blues fans now.

 

This is a pronunciation joke centred around the word "Prix" for non locals.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Brumerican

[magnkarl]

10 hours ago, villakram said:

and where do the resources for all of this come from? How often do these things have to be replaced? What happens then, because you understand that recycling has a large fraction of bs and most stuff is landfilled to some degree in some other godforsaken place. Complex things are basically impossible to re-cycle. 

Let's build a mine out the back of your place for starters and take it from there.

There is no simple solution here. Profit is how the world works and everything is constrained so.

Having owned an electric car going on my third year now I can confirm that the battery has had zero degradation so far. I also have friends who have early model Teslas who are still at 99% battery health after 7 years. The whole idea that batteries will need replacing after "10 years" has been disproven time and time again. Yes, just like a petrol engine there will be slight degradation (around 2% after 10 years in most models), but that means that you should be able to drive at least for 20 years without noticing a big difference to what you bought.

The whole slagging off of the electric car industry has been funded by big oil coupled with a lot of the bigger car producers. Now the car producers have realised that they can't fight it anymore and so almost everyone is producing electric cars. 

Tesla power walls are recycled car batteries, i.e. my 40 KW/h battery in my Nissan could cover a large part of the electric use of my house every day apart from the coldest days of the year, in which it would cover close to 80%. If everyone had recycled 30-40 KW/h batteries attached to their house which filled with solar and off peak power the grid in Texas would be fine. It'd also save them a lot of money over a longer period.

The big issue as I see it is that smaller producers like Renault (Zoe) and WW (e-golf) have no plans of recycling their batteries. While Tesla uses their old batteries for power walls the smaller brands generally throw away their early technology. While a 30 KW/h battery from an old e-golf is now obsolete for anything but city driving it'd be a great buffer against high electricity prices or as a power bank for an off-grid system. Nissan's old batteries go into powering street lights and Hyundai's old batteries go into power banks, so the industry is steadily finding a use for these very powerful batteries.  

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by magnkarl

[KenjiOgiwara]

Electric cars are fecking great. I really only see 3-4 downside areas.

1) It's an environmental tax on the poor. 

2) They are an absolute silent bastard in inner city areas. The amount of times I've almost been run over in Oslo can't be counted. That along with stupid acceleration is dangerous. 

3) You need a well developed charging grid, and only Tesla got that covered. 

4) If you are a petrol head, you won't get any engine sound satisfaction. 

[LondonLax]

13 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Electric cars are fecking great. I really only see 3-4 downside areas.

1) It's an environmental tax on the poor. 

2) They are an absolute silent bastard in inner city areas. The amount of times I've almost been run over in Oslo can't be counted. That along with stupid acceleration is dangerous. 

3) You need a well developed charging grid, and only Tesla got that covered. 

4) If you are a petrol head, you won't get any engine sound satisfaction. 

Only until the economies of scale make them the cheaper option over ICE cars. 

The main constraint is the battery cost but that is coming down in price dramatically whilst also improving their output (not to dissimilar to computers).

The running costs on the car are orders of magnitude cheaper as well. 

One of the biggest problems for governments is how to make up the shortfall in fuel excise duties. 

Edited February 23, 2021 by LondonLax

[KenjiOgiwara]

That won't change how the batteries are produced. 

[bickster]

7 hours ago, fruitvilla said:

Birmingham SuperPrix 1986   35 years ago.

Last one was 1990. Birmingham spent years making sure the roads were up to scratch. (The manhole covers are super secure for instance), then lost interest in it when the Olympic Bid had failed

[bickster]

50 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

2) They are an absolute silent bastard in inner city areas. The amount of times I've almost been run over in Oslo can't be counted. That along with stupid acceleration is dangerous. 

This should only be an issue for blind people

[KenjiOgiwara]

1 minute ago, bickster said:

This should only be an issue for blind people

I wish. You'd understand if you lived such a place. Drivers accelerate to beat crossings, and if you are quick on your feet they miscalculate and you won't hear them coming. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Electric cars are fecking great. I really only see 3-4 downside areas.

1) It's an environmental tax on the poor. 

2) They are an absolute silent bastard in inner city areas. The amount of times I've almost been run over in Oslo can't be counted. That along with stupid acceleration is dangerous. 

3) You need a well developed charging grid, and only Tesla got that covered. 

4) If you are a petrol head, you won't get any engine sound satisfaction. 

 

1 hour ago, LondonLax said:

Only until the economies of scale make them the cheaper option over ICE cars. 

The main constraint is the battery cost but that is coming down in price dramatically whilst also improving their output (not to dissimilar to computers).

The running costs on the car are orders of magnitude cheaper as well. 

One of the biggest problems for governments is how to make up the shortfall in fuel excise duties. 

We're going way off topic but we're talking about the political claims about fossil fuels v renewables in Texas. 

Apparently once batteries cost less than $100 per kwh they are actually CHEAPER to make than petrol cars.  10 years ago they were $1,000 per kwh, they are currently $150 per. Kwh.  It's predicted 2024 is when that mark will be passed, so 3 years from now electric cars will actually be cheaper. 

As said they may well be now with cheaper running costs and maintenance but people can't get the purchase price out of their heads. 

Agreed the plan is for old car batteries to be recycled for mass electrical storage.  Tesla built a massive battery for Australia last year with hundreds of power walls. 

Texas could have tons of solar panels soaking up all that sun and stored in massive power banks for downtime, it's almost perfect really. 

Edited February 23, 2021 by sidcow

[magnkarl]

25 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

I wish. You'd understand if you lived such a place. Drivers accelerate to beat crossings, and if you are quick on your feet they miscalculate and you won't hear them coming. 

Which is why regulation in many countries is that at low speeds the cars should make "noise". I believe Renault Zoe already does this. My leaf beeps when I go backwards as it's so silent.