Green-ness

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07-09-2007, 05:54 PM
TheOriginalFlashDavo

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallGuyLittleCar

most of the people i know that gave up smoking gave it up because it is hard to find a placed to smoke and a pack is about 5 bucks.

Most of my friends never smoked in the first place due to health reasons. I think there is some areas of health related things where Oz are a little ahead o the UK and US.

(Not fatty food though, we're right up there with the US for fatty boom booms!)

Quote:

electric cars are largely a marketing ploy.

How so? I thought it was more a matter of improving the amount of power that could be held so as not to need to much recharging, and then working out how to recharge without fossil fuels?

(and I just confused myself... it's late here... bleh!)
07-09-2007, 06:00 PM
Eleniatari

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo

How so? I thought it was more a matter of improving the amount of power that could be held so as not to need to much recharging, and then working out how to recharge without fossil fuels?

(and I just confused myself... it's late here... bleh!)

No, it's a matter of the price of the car would be much more than car/gas of current cars. NATO knows this, once they find the price we break at and start the fad again, prices of oil will drop and no one will complain again.

They DO have hydrogen powered cars, but as above they are extremely expensive and are not as cost efficient as gas powered car.

That is why, the demand for electric cars only increases with the price of gas, when gas goes down then electric car demand doses too. It's just like TallGuyLittleCar said, it's just a ploy.
07-09-2007, 06:05 PM
TallGuyLittleCar

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo

Most of my friends never smoked in the first place due to health reasons. I think there is some areas of health related things where Oz are a little ahead o the UK and US.

Of the people I know, everybody sees smoking as long term suicide.. however those that do smoke or have quit quit for 1 of two reasons. 1 they were diagnosed with cancer. 2. the got tired of the rising cost of cigarettes.

Quote:

How so? I thought it was more a matter of improving the amount of power that could be held so as not to need to much recharging, and then working out how to recharge without fossil fuels?

the technology is largely crap. Perhaps I should have said battery powered cars are crap.. electric motors driven by fuel cells or turbines or what have you might be worth while.
07-09-2007, 06:15 PM
TheOriginalFlashDavo

yes, but current crap doesn't mean future crap. solar power is still fairly "crap" when it comes to widescale usage, but I don't think there's much doubt it will be harnessed better in the future.
07-09-2007, 06:25 PM
FlashLackey

i dont know why everyone doesn't just go 100% forest green. i would be if it wasn't for this computer that i spliced into a power-line running over to Al Gore's compound. i would say that my foot-print is -230%.

we survived many more years as cavemen than we have as metrosexuals. why not just go back to that and give the planet a break? then, the only thing the environment would need to worry about is whether or not we all poop in some orderly manner. i guess the people that would starve would be a problem. but, we could all afford to get some exercise hunting.

no?
07-09-2007, 06:26 PM
TallGuyLittleCar

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo

yes, but current crap doesn't mean future crap. solar power is still fairly "crap" when it comes to widescale usage, but I don't think there's much doubt it will be harnessed better in the future.

only with room temperature superconductors will battery powered cars become viable... that being said once we have room temperature superconductors everything changes.

solar panels arn't really crap.. you can get a 7kw system to get you pretty much "off the grid". With battery cars you still have a greatly reduced range, reduced power.. and batteries with their own environmental concerns. A bio diesel jetta or passat is carbon neutral ( or slightly carbon positive ), has a range of at least 7 times that of most electric cars.

As far as hybrids.. at highway speeds they get less mileage than jetta or passat and handle kind of squirrely.
07-09-2007, 06:29 PM
TallGuyLittleCar

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlashLackey

i dont know why everyone doesn't just go 100% forest green.
no?

I prefer more hunter green than forrest green.. or british racing green in old british convertibles
07-09-2007, 06:30 PM
TheOriginalFlashDavo

Sounds like you've done your homework mate. ;) Info noted for future reference, cheers!
07-09-2007, 06:31 PM
FlashLackey

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallGuyLittleCar

I prefer more hunter green than forrest green.. or british racing green in old british convertibles

here here. forest green was just the darkest i could think of that has a label. im just so green that you cant distinguish the shade from black on an SVGA moniter.
07-09-2007, 06:40 PM
TheOriginalFlashDavo

Actually, these guys - http://www.sbpractices.com - are someone I'm keen to do something with if/when I get back to Australia. I know a guy who works with them, and they implement some smart ideas, which in many cases have both a positive environmental impact AND save organisations money. Can't really beat that combo now can you?
07-09-2007, 07:25 PM
Frets

The farmers market thing is a farce. Everyone thinks they are getting Billy Bob Junoir's food straight from the farm in the next county. The truth of the matter is big name grower hands off to big name shipper. Big name shipper tries to unload at big name chain super-market. If it gets rejected the shipper has to find another buyer quick. So he unloads the product at a farmers market. I used to deal only with local produce guys when I was managing restaraunts. The low life produce guys had the same suppliers as the higher price crowd...after the high price stores rejected it.
07-09-2007, 07:36 PM
hanratty21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frets

The farmers market thing is a farce.

Again, isn't this too much of a blanket statement? Each market should have it's own by bylaws and regulations which the vendors/farmers must follow. I know that my local farmers market has all this info posted on their site. I can't speak for other areas of the country, but I'd imagine that there has to be some fairly legit markets out there in every community.
07-09-2007, 07:56 PM
blazes816

We have farmers markets around here that are obviously home grown crop. Plus this lady makes home made jalapeno-strawberry jelly. mmmm.
07-09-2007, 08:17 PM
TallGuyLittleCar

at farmers markets I have encountered both resellers and true local growers.. usually you can tell just by looking at the veggies.
07-09-2007, 08:28 PM
WannaBe_80z

Wait- so all this plastic I have been burning to keep my house warm all winter was bad? Even styrofoam?
07-10-2007, 02:06 PM
TheOriginalFlashDavo

I think I've just been convinced of having no TV once I have kids: http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/...aining-is.html

One of the most beautiful blog posts/articles I've read in a long time.
07-10-2007, 02:13 PM
Eleniatari

I didn't have cable tv till I was 15 when I was growing up. Very nice post too. Wish more people could do that too.
07-10-2007, 02:19 PM
jAQUAN

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallGuyLittleCar

only with room temperature superconductors will battery powered cars become viable... that being said once we have room temperature superconductors everything changes.

I'm not sure what you meant by that. Are you talking about solar charged cars? Rechargeable electric is a proven technology.
07-10-2007, 02:24 PM
lefteyewilly

thanks for sharing that davo. i have no kids myself, but ath would definitely make me sell my TV
07-10-2007, 02:28 PM
flashpipe1

Nice...glad to have sparked some thought...

Just to add my 2 cents...electric cars already have their place, local commuting...and, if you've got the cash...
http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php

Of course, now there's a car that runs on pressurized air!!
http://www.theaircar.com/

I think the biggest thing is to move away from the environmentally unfriendly path we've been on...whether it's gradual or quick seems to depend on the person, but it's got to become part of all of our lives if we have any concern for future generations.

As far as farmers markets being a farce, it completely depends on the market...our local market is open ONLY to local farmers (within 15 miles) to sell THEIR OWN local products...

We looked into solar power too...yikes!! Part of the problem is that it's expensive (about $15K even with all available grants), and the system we would get for that price would cover about 80% of our electrical usage...our electric bill is only about $60/month because most of our appliances are propane or oil...so, if we saved $50/month, it would take years to regain our investment...so, we're looking into a combination of solar and wind power which would actually give us a surplus of energy which the power company would buy from us...we would have to switch out some of our appliances to newer, high efficiency electric appliances and then we could recover our investment within a decade or so. Even so, we've still got to wait until we can afford an investment like this...Until then, we'll go on sucking off the grid and buying oil and propane...uggg...what was that about going back to caveman days?? There just seems to be a perpetual cycle with work, transportation, money and expenses...

There's no quick fix, but it's nice to see that lots of people are becoming aware of the importance of this...

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