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docrhw Weil's avatar

This was nicely said as usual, Thom. I'm teaching a class on climate change and this accurate information fits right in. Remember of course that Trump is a scientific illiterate who never let a fact change his mind. After all he also said wind turbine noise may cause cancer. But one point I would add is that the electricity to charge cars has to come from somewhere--as I'm sure you know, one of the fundamental laws of the universe is that nothing comes from nothing. Matter and energy may change form (nuclear fission and fusion) but the sum total of both is a constant.

So if cars are being charged then somewhere somebody has to be burning coal, natural gas, running a nuclear power plant, or using wind or solar power to turn that energy into electricity. This gets into questions about whether we need a national grid versus neighborhood systems, if renewables can provide enough power and so on. So we do get into bigger issues than just using batteries in road vehicles, such as how our national energy system will be altered. (You can be sure that the big power companies will fight any substantial loss of control and profits.) But none of this changes the obvious conclusion that the days of the internal combustion engine are numbered. And that’s a good thing, too.

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alis's avatar

We have our share of Republicans where I live. But guess what? Four out of the last five years they spent weeks coughing and staying indoors just like the Democrats and Independents did because of the smoke from the forest fires.

The denial is almost gone here; it's refreshing even if the air isn't.

Just read an article about electric big-rig trucks to replace the diesel ones. They are well into that in California. Can you see from Thom's brilliant explanation how much cheaper and better that will be?

The oceans cannot take it anymore and neither can humans. It's tragic to think about all the people, plants and animals that died and will die from the heat, droughts, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.

President Carter is a national treasure, a brilliant man, and an honest person. You know, just the opposite of what most Republicans have picked for leaders.

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