racc’s Recent Comments

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  This is all fine but it is not acceptable to mislead people. The Prius or any other automobile is simply not sustainable in a world of 6 billion and counting people. It is much cheaper and healthier for that matter just to drive much less. Less stressful to. The money wasted on a Prius would be better spent on a house in a neighbourhood that is less car dependent.On Can a lazy environmentalist really change the world? posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago 6 Responses

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  Well, the tragedy was due to fossil fuels. Without them, the plane wouldn't be in the air in first place.

  On Global warming did NOT cause this plane crash posted 5 months ago 7 Responses

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  Actually, resource and energy depletion are perhaps even larger issues for future generations than climate change. Oil and coal are useful resources. We have no right to use all of it up in a little more than 200 years. Climate "solutions" such as carbon sequestering that deplete energy resources even faster are not responsible at all.

  On Can human rights be the climate movement's moral guide? posted 5 months, 1 week ago 7 Responses

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  150 and fifty years ago, the big transportation problem was trying to figure out what to do with all the horse manure. I suspect another problem was growing all the feed to fuel the horses. I'm sure a lot of bright sparks were figuring out all sorts of ways to figure out how to preserve the status quo by finding creative uses for manure. Well, the auto and truck came along transforming the transportation system and the problems with horse-powered transportation went away. Now 150 years latter, we are facing similar problems. Waste from automobiles creating huge environmental problems and dwindling fuel supplies for automobiles. Like the bright sparks 150 years ago, many people are trying to problem solve and preserve the status quo rather that creating better forms of transportation. I'm sure the reactions were the same 150 years ago. People are in love with their horses. We have the opportunity to focus our creativity and resources on transforming our transportation system and our world but we have to be willing to let go of the past. Face it. The age of the automobile is over. The solutions are high speed rail, rapid transit, cycling, bike sharing and probably some others that haven't been dreamed up yet. High speed rail is simply better transportation than driving. It is faster, more environmentally sound, more comfortable and safer. An example of these bad ideas is so called "Better Place"'s battery swapping. People are right that most trips are short so people won't need to swap for everyday trips. They will need to swap for longer distance trips. Only problem, people usually want to make these long trips all at once. Long weekends for example" So, a company is going to maintain a huge inventory of $5000 batteries and build thousands of swapping stations with the storage for these batters that will be only used a few times a year. Even worse, while claiming a range of 100 miles for batteries, this will only be true for low speed trips in an unloaded car with only the driver. Put 5 people and their luggage in a car and travel at highway speeds with air conditioning on, the range will plummet to likely less than 60 miles. Are people going to be willing to stop every hour for batteries and wait in line ups for everyone else who wants to swap batteries? Not likely. And is "Better Place" going to wait until night to charge those batteries? Probably not. They will want to charge them right way so their inventory of costly batteries that will likely be quickly obsolete due to advances in technology can be smaller. The great thing about high speed rail for long trips, is it solves the range problems with electric cars. Instead of trying to design complicated and unworkable non-solutions to make electric cars for long range trips, use rail for the long range trips instead. Then use small neighbourhood electric vehicles for what they are good for. Short trips around the city. Since they won't have to survive high speed collisions, they can be very light weight. Please realize that we need solutions that work practically on a large scale and realize that people want better solutions, not expensive non-solutions that are less convenient and not workable.On California plans no exit from hydrogen highway posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago 39 Responses

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  No pity for the dealers. They sold and continue to sell products that are destroying the planet, the economy and killing tens of thousands of people a year. They have known this for years and still chose to stay in the business. They have been a big part of the problem and deserve no sympathty.

  On Auto industry's litigation strategy may have backfired in showrooms posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago 5 Responses