On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 11:38:09AM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: > On Wed, 2003-02-05 at 22:50, Pigeon wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 11:41:19AM -0600, DvB wrote: > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > > > > On Mon, 3 Feb 2003 22:36:45 +0000, > > > > Pigeon wrote: > > > > > > > > [...] > [snip] > > I can think of a few off the top of my head: > > - run mobile power plants (vehicles, locomotives) off RME or alcohol > > - design the products of industry to last ten times as long as they do > > at the moment, and reduce industrial output by 90% > > Unfortunately, the world economy would crash.
Yeah, it's broken. Symptoms of the same disease. > > - impose a 1% cashflow tax on the oil industry and put the money into > > fusion research > > The petroleum industry is already highly taxed in the West. But the money isn't put into fusion research. > > - put sails on ships > > Yankee Clippers were covered with sails, but were only a small fraction > of the gross tonnage of modern cargo ships. It would be impractical. I've seen a photo of an experimental Japanese sailing ship, modern cargo ship size with a big bank of aerofoils instead of conventional sails. I'm not suggesting get rid of the engines, simply not to rely on them for everything. > > They all suffer from the problem that people who currently make vast > > amounts of money out of fossil fuels won't be able to any more. I have > > an unpleasant suspicion that we'll be dependent on fossil fuels until > > they actually run out and force us to do something else. Science can > > find lots of solutions, politics/greed are the problems when it comes > > to putting them into practice. > > The "problem" is that gasoline & diesel are very convenient & high- > density fuels. But such fuels don't have to be derived from fossil sources. We could switch to RME and alcohol, and drive less. > I'm pretty confident that a decent minorty of US cars will be using > fuel cells in 15 years. So will my bicycle, I hope! Methanol-fuel-cell-powered laptops and mobile phones, I think, are almost with us. Maybe they are with us. Pigeon -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
