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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:22 pm
we hear more and more now a days about "green" technologies, about sustainability. In the society we want to create hopefully any technology we use should be sustainable. Industries which aren't should be done away with, as they will just perpetuate the same destructive practices we fight against now. the problem is that any action has some form of footprint. If a paper mill plants a tree for every tree it cuts down, it is still changing the ecosystem of the forest it cuts trees down from. So the question is, what is the measuring stick of environmental footprints. How small of an impact must a technology or industry have for it to be ok?
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 6:40 pm
as small as a diverse group of independent scientists say is possibly without impairing the function of the technology. the problem is, when we have for example the auto industry saying that cars can't get any cleaner, we have a wide sample of experts who say the contrary. it's a matter of looking at every part of the issue, and not just the extremists who are staunchly for / against whatever.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:56 pm
Hmm, right now I would say the thing with the most potential would be the hydrogen car- according to commercials, Hyundai(?) seems to be working on it. If hydrogen could power a car, then I'm guessing it could also have the potential to replace all other fossil fuel industries.
So far, all I've heard on it is that the current dilemma is hydrogen's flammability- basically, light a match and it's blown sky high. But it does seem to have quite a bit of promise, if it isn't all hype like the Hybrid cars (Yeah, half of the fuel is electric... But they still burn fossil fuel for the elecricity. D'oh).
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:12 pm
Arson Hiroha Hmm, right now I would say the thing with the most potential would be the hydrogen car- according to commercials, Hyundai(?) seems to be working on it. If hydrogen could power a car, then I'm guessing it could also have the potential to replace all other fossil fuel industries. So far, all I've heard on it is that the current dilemma is hydrogen's flammability- basically, light a match and it's blown sky high. But it does seem to have quite a bit of promise, if it isn't all hype like the Hybrid cars (Yeah, half of the fuel is electric... But they still burn fossil fuel for the elecricity. D'oh). but what is the environmental impact of getting the hydrogen, what is the environmental impact of mining the metals for the car, what is the environmental impact of extracting the materials for the tires, what is the environmental impact of creating the roads to drive the damn thing on. and are all of these worth the little bit of convenience that a car would give you? and how do we as a horizontally organized society measure and agree on these things.
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Ignorance is Your Disease
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:07 pm
Next Dollar After Arson Hiroha Hmm, right now I would say the thing with the most potential would be the hydrogen car- according to commercials, Hyundai(?) seems to be working on it. If hydrogen could power a car, then I'm guessing it could also have the potential to replace all other fossil fuel industries. So far, all I've heard on it is that the current dilemma is hydrogen's flammability- basically, light a match and it's blown sky high. But it does seem to have quite a bit of promise, if it isn't all hype like the Hybrid cars (Yeah, half of the fuel is electric... But they still burn fossil fuel for the elecricity. D'oh). but what is the environmental impact of getting the hydrogen, what is the environmental impact of mining the metals for the car, what is the environmental impact of extracting the materials for the tires, what is the environmental impact of creating the roads to drive the damn thing on. and are all of these worth the little bit of convenience that a car would give you? and how do we as a horizontally organized society measure and agree on these things. why do we have to get to work on time in the first place and why can't we ride a bicycle to get to where we want to be, or ride an electric bus charged with solar or hydrogen power? hydrogen that was electrolysed from seawater using solar power, for example... the silicon and other base elements needed to create solar panels could be manufactured using solar power. we could breed and multiply solar power right now. silicon isn't hard to come by, it's all over the beach. but of course, our economic infrastructure has means of preventing or objecting to such things... i'm going to be studying renewable energy engineering, so i'd love to answer these kinds of questions.
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:56 pm
Ignorance is Your Disease Next Dollar After Arson Hiroha Hmm, right now I would say the thing with the most potential would be the hydrogen car- according to commercials, Hyundai(?) seems to be working on it. If hydrogen could power a car, then I'm guessing it could also have the potential to replace all other fossil fuel industries. So far, all I've heard on it is that the current dilemma is hydrogen's flammability- basically, light a match and it's blown sky high. But it does seem to have quite a bit of promise, if it isn't all hype like the Hybrid cars (Yeah, half of the fuel is electric... But they still burn fossil fuel for the elecricity. D'oh). but what is the environmental impact of getting the hydrogen, what is the environmental impact of mining the metals for the car, what is the environmental impact of extracting the materials for the tires, what is the environmental impact of creating the roads to drive the damn thing on. and are all of these worth the little bit of convenience that a car would give you? and how do we as a horizontally organized society measure and agree on these things. why do we have to get to work on time in the first place and why can't we ride a bicycle to get to where we want to be, or ride an electric bus charged with solar or hydrogen power? hydrogen that was electrolysed from seawater using solar power, for example... the silicon and other base elements needed to create solar panels could be manufactured using solar power. we could breed and multiply solar power right now. silicon isn't hard to come by, it's all over the beach. but of course, our economic infrastructure has means of preventing or objecting to such things... i'm going to be studying renewable energy engineering, so i'd love to answer these kinds of questions. Of course it doesn't solve the problem, but it is a giant step forward, from what I'm getting. Hydrogen, being the most abundant element in the universe, would simply be in the air from what I'm getting, and the car would just have water coming out of it's tailpipe (literally). Although, the metals would be much more complicated, although I'm sure we could easily recycle the same metal, which we only hear about on "Earth Day" nowadays. But anyways, seeing as engines and other forms of the same are what drives our societies today, it could far outmatch the output from wind, solar, or even hydro- electric power. It all depends on what is required for the process; of course, the companies are keeping this under wraps, so there is no way to know about the specifics of it, so the presence of this technology isn't certain either. Point being, we could move whatever the hell we want, without having to cough up our black lungs or go and buy a "hybrid". Fact is, being an industrial society, our infrastructure depends on the use of engines and machines. With this, we could possibly still have this state, but cause relatively less harm to the environment. As for metals and such, I'm sure there are many ways to create automobile frames with renewable materials that come from plants, like rubber or plastic for example. To organize our societies to be less harmful to the earth and self sustaining, we need to examine and jump at the opportunity of newer and more efficient technologies, while also limiting the use of those that poison ourselves and our planet for a daily commute to do more of the same. The future of modern society is in newer technology, as well as will to bring themto the point that machine is no longer at war with life.
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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:48 pm
I'm not entirely sure that there is a way to mass-produce anything without destroying ecosystems and sensitive habitats; displacing indigenous people; polluting our air, drinking water and bodies; coercing the desperately poor into mining for raw materials in dangerous locales, etc. Is it sustainable to mass-produce six or 7 billion bicycles (and enough spare parts to last the life of the bikes)? Billions of hydrogen cars? Where do we put all the waste, pollution and runoff that these factories spew out (it all currently ends up in rivers, garbage heaps, tucked away on sacred indigenous land, or stored in storage facilities that are more or less ticking time bombs for ecological/social catastrophe)? Quote: As for metals and such, I'm sure there are many ways to create automobile frames with renewable materials that come from plants, like rubber or plastic for example. I'm generally skeptical of claims that plant-based materials are necessarily "renewable" or "sustainable". Once you clearcut a forest, jungle or swamp in order to pilfer its resources you have forever altered that natural environment. Some of those trees are hundreds of years old. Nature operates in a very particular balance; trees, bugs, mammals, and birds all have their own individual histories and proclivities and relationships to one another and to their surroundings. No amount of replanting will ever bring that back.
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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:49 pm
joykiller1985 I'm not entirely sure that there is a way to mass-produce anything without destroying ecosystems and sensitive habitats; displacing indigenous people; polluting our air, drinking water and bodies; coercing the desperately poor into mining for raw materials in dangerous locales, etc. Is it sustainable to mass-produce six or 7 billion bicycles (and enough spare parts to last the life of the bikes)? Billions of hydrogen cars? Where do we put all the waste, pollution and runoff that these factories spew out (it all currently ends up in rivers, garbage heaps, tucked away on sacred indigenous land, or stored in storage facilities that are more or less ticking time bombs for ecological/social catastrophe)? Quote: As for metals and such, I'm sure there are many ways to create automobile frames with renewable materials that come from plants, like rubber or plastic for example. I'm generally skeptical of claims that plant-based materials are necessarily "renewable" or "sustainable". Once you clearcut a forest, jungle or swamp in order to pilfer its resources you have forever altered that natural environment. Some of those trees are hundreds of years old. Nature operates in a very particular balance; trees, bugs, mammals, and birds all have their own individual histories and proclivities and relationships to one another and to their surroundings. No amount of replanting will ever bring that back. Ah, you raise an interesting point, and one I didn't think of. Yes, in a sense, anything you use out of moderation could threaten sustainability. So also with new technologies, it would also be a good idea to try to create a lifestyle where few things would need to be produced to begin with. For example, instead of millions of hydrogen cars, just a public transportation system that runs on the same technology. This applies especially to plants, and things like ground water. Both are "renewable", but if overused in a certain amount of time, the resource is exhausted. So as the saying goes, all things in moderation.
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