I often get lambasted for saying that we ought to funnel our oil consumption to durable and recyclable goods like polymers, plastics, wax, etc. instead of turning it into carbon dioxide and, worse, carbon monoxide. Most people want the "freedom" they get with a car (haha, that joke is funny but it's getting tiresome).
But everytime i suggest we should dismantle most of our private car-centered transportation system and roll back the truck-dependent goods transportation system, the first thing that pops in their mind is "Sure! You want us to go back to the horse and chariot!" which shows how big is the lack of imagination of car freaks and freeper truckers of this land. The second is usually "Well, oil is much cleaner than the other fossil fuels! Would you rather use coal like the Chinese?".
Unfortunately for those ignorants who jump on coal to "ridicule" me, I have to say that Chinese nowadays is using less and less coal, more and more oil (guess who tried to buy a big American oil company lately and got a taste of good old American chauvinist patriotism instead of "free trade glee" and guess why Alberta, Iran and Venezuela are stinking rich and despotic with their neighbours) and that the US electrical grid is powered at 50 % by coal power plants... And China is moving super fast on solar power. It's one of the leaders actually. But you know what is even weirder for me (and for the ignorants)? It's that many American companies are thinking of using coal to fly planes and whatnot. I am not making this up. Oh sure, it's the coal-to-liquid (CTL) scheme and not the steam-powered airship that you have to picture but, still... Imagine how much energy we have to waste to wash and clean the coal, then convert the coal to liquid, and then how much liquefied coal we would have to use just to make a mare usque ad mare one way trip?
So, no i'm not a big advocate of coal, I don't wanna go "back" to coal, i really think we should have electric-centered power grid (since it's already there and we already spent billions to install and tend to it) with as much variety as possible for energy sources, and, yes, eventually we will have to find a way to use coal as energy source but, I am DEFINITELY not a horse and chariot guy.
Well maybe for those romantic strolls.
Posted by phonono at décembre 23, 2006 01:03 AM